CLLR LIAM ROBINSON is Leader of Liverpool City Council and has been a Councillor since 2008, representing the Kensington & Fairfield ward. He became Leader in May 2023, having previously held the position of Cabinet Member for Finance, responsible for setting the Council’s budget. Prior to that, Cllr Robinson was Chair of Merseytravel, and subsequently Portfolio Holder for Transport for the Liverpool City Region. During his time at Merseytravel and the Combined Authority, making public transport more affordable, particularly for young people, was a key focus. He championed the introduction of reduced-price bus fares for young people up to their 19th birthday, which led to a 168% growth in journeys by young people. He also led the procurement of a new fleet of publicly owned trains for the Merseyrail network, including pioneering disability access features. He previously worked in public transport, holding management positions in the rail, bus and coach industries, including responsibility for three of Britain’s largest railway stations: Liverpool Lime Street, London Liverpool Street and Sheffield. His priority is to lead an administration that puts Liverpool first, and is committed to making the city greener, using sustainable growth to create jobs, supporting citizens through the cost-of-living crisis and embracing innovation to improve Council services. Cllr Robinson is married with two young children and enjoys cycling and football in his free time.

Nathalie Röbbel is the Lead for WHO’s work on Urban Health at the WHO, in the Department on Social Determinants of Health. Prior to this she was leading WHOs work on air pollution and housing in the Department for Environment, Climate Change and Health. One of her main areas of work was the development of WHO Housing and Health Guidelines and WHO’s efforts to address slum upgrading through housing policies and other social policies and interventions. Before joining WHO HQ, she worked as a technical officer at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, in Bonn and Copenhagen, where she was responsible for environmental health performance reviews and involved in several urban health related projects. Ms Röbbel holds a Ph.D. from the Rheinische-Friedrich-Wilhelms University in Bonn, Germany.

Lord Nigel Crisp is an independent crossbench member of the House of Lords where he co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Health. He also co-chairs Nursing Now, the global campaign on nursing. He was previously Chief Executive of the English NHS and Permanent Secretary of the UK Department of Health – the largest health organisation in the world with 1.3 million employees – where he led major reforms between 2000 and 2006. Lord Crisp is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Medicine. He was formerly a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health and Regent’s Lecturer at Berkeley. His publications on global health include Turning the world upside down – the search for global health in the 21st Century; Global Health Partnerships; One World Health – an overview of global health after Global Health Partnerships; and, edited with Francis Omaswa, African Health Leaders – making change and claiming the future. He described his time as Chief Executive of the NHS in 24 Hours to Save the NHS – the Chief Executive’s account of reform 2000 – 2006. A Cambridge philosophy graduate, he worked in community development and industry before joining the NHS in 1986. He has worked in mental health as well as acute services and from 1993 to 1997 was Chief Executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust, one of the UK’s leading academic medical centres.

After an erstwhile life as a Youth Worker, Pete joined Legal & General in 2007, launching a new generation of property funds focussed on liability matching and Defined Contributions pension schemes, and Legal & General’s joint venture with PGGM, which total over £5bn. In 2015, Pete moved to lead Legal & General’s investments with the Public Sector - including the Cabinet Office, Combined & Local Authorities, NHS, Housing Associations and Universities - which now total over £5bn. ​ In his new role, Pete continues to lead on public sector investments, as part of a broader remit to identify and drive strategic initiatives through which Legal & General can use its resources to benefit society. This includes Legal & General’s partnership with Sir Michael Marmot to address health inequality.​ Pete holds an MA from Brasenose College, Oxford in Computation, the IMC, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and Honorary Professor at UCL.​ Pete is heavily involved in local community projects in Harlesden, west London and a Trustee of the Institute of Community Studies and the Young Foundation, which works to create a more equal and just society through social innovation.

Ricky Burdett (co-chair) is a professor of urban studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and director of LSE Cities. Burdett was formerly the director of the Venice International Architecture Biennale and chief advisor on Architecture and Urbanism for the 2012 London Olympics. He is the author and coeditor of several publications, including ‘Shaping Cities in an Urban Age’ (2018) and ‘The Endless City’ (2007).

Dr. Yonette Felicity Thomas is the founder and president of UrbanHealth360, an organization of multidisciplinary thinkers centered on a people-oriented, community-focused approach to urban health. Dr. Thomas is a globally acknowledged thought leader, urban health champion, and an advocate for valuing the health of women and girls as an economic imperative. A social epidemiologist/medical sociologist by training, she has served as the chief of Epidemiology at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the National Institutes of Health, held academic positions at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Howard University, and as a vice president for research. She founded Borjoner International and Strategic Transitions to influence the progress, health, and wellbeing of individuals and communities across the world. As a founding board member of Women’s Economic Imperative (WEI), she leads the organization’s focus on the health of women and girls as an economic value. Her work as global advisor for Evidence for Sustainable Human Development Systems in Africa (EVIHDAF) and the Centre for Urban Health and Development within the Asian Institute of Poverty Alleviation (CUHD-AIPA) extends her focus on the global south and the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals in this last decade. She is the Associate Editor for Women and Girls for Cities & Health. She is a founding board member of the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) and recently led the organization into sustainability by serving as the inaugural executive director (as a board member) and has served as a science advisor for urban health to the New York Academy of Medicine. She is a founding board member and former vice president of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS) and served on the Steering Committee of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse for more than a decade. She served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Her primary research and publications have focused on the social determinants of health, health disparities, the health of women and girls as an economic value, the social epidemiology of drug abuse and HIV/AIDS and the link with geography, including edited volumes: Geography and Drug Addiction, Crime, HIV, and Health: intersections of Criminal Justice and Public Health Concerns.