Team

Carl Daruvalla
CEO

Carl has been with BECG Group since 2017 where he has served as CFO and CEO. During this period the Group has tripled in size and completed four acquisitions that have broadened the market offer of the business.

He has over 15 years’ experience leading teams and driving financial growth in SME and global corporates in the UK and Silicon Valley.

A Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and MBA qualified executive leader with a specialism in the Professional Services and Technology sectors, his career has spanned consultancy roles advising global brands such as Smirnoff, Virgin and Dominos before transitioning to corporate positions with responsibility for Finance, Marketing, HR, and Operations.

A leader with a passion for cultural transformations he has won several employee engagement and Best Place to Work awards.

Sam Clough
Executive Director

For over 20 years Sam has advised many high-profile clients on how to deliver integrated communications strategies that attract attention, spark conversation and drive behavioural change.

Passionate about the power of storytelling and brand, Sam works with her clients to advise on the most effective ways to communicate meaningful narratives that connect audiences and brands.

Across her career she led numerous projects and teams to deliver award-winning commercially focused communications and marketing programmes, to engage customers, consumers and stakeholders across a diverse portfolio of clients and sectors; including energy and utilities, property, local government, and not-for-profit.

Max Camplin
Executive Director

Max has overall responsibility for BECG’s service delivery to clients across a range of sectors in London and the South East. With over 15 years’ experience in delivering effective planning communications and community engagement across public and private sector, Max has led the communications for some of London’s most complex development projects. He provided planning and political counsel for clients such as the Berkeley Group, British Land, and Frasers Property. In his previous work, Max provided political and communications expertise to the leadership of a London local authority and excels in his understanding and knowledge of the political process in local and regional government.

Jamie Gordon
Executive Director

Jamie leads BECG’s work in the energy and infrastructure sectors. He has over 25 years’ experience of delivering strategic and operational communications programmes and currently advises on some of the UK’s largest projects, from offshore wind farms to rail, interconnectors to highways schemes.
In addition to his role at BECG, Jamie is a Director at Community Energy South, an umbrella organisation which supports local community energy groups, and he is also on the Editorial Advisory Board for Infrastructure Intelligence.

Steven Park
Executive Director

Steven has over 20 years experience working in public affairs and communications and is one of Scotland’s leading specialists in the politics of planning in the built environment sector. Having represented a diverse mix of clients and sectors across Scotland, Steven’s vast experience coupled with his knowledge and understanding of the political landscape in Scotland, provides clients with unrivalled strategic guidance and support, ensuring that their investments and commercial aspirations are robustly looked after.

Gareth Morgan
Executive Director

Gareth has over a decade’s experience in advising leading brands on relations with policy-makers in Westminster and Whitehall. Prior to working in public affairs, he was a think tank researcher and as such he is the agency lead on developing thought leadership content for clients to underpin profile raising and network building.

As a Labour activist he has advised on Labour London Mayoral selection, Parliamentary and London Assembly campaigns and stood as a local election candidate.

He has broad sectoral experience having advised a range of brands including Starbucks, Google, Infosys, East Midlands Airport, the Business Travel Association, London School of Economics and Keolis UK.

Stephen Pomeroy
Founder and Chair of Advisory Board

Stephen is the Founder and Chair of the Advisory Board. As a high-level strategist with 30 years’ experience in corporate, political and media communications, he has advised many FTSE companies, CEOs, and company boards. Stephen has worked across all the built environment sectors, delivered award-winning campaigns and is passionate in supporting clients to achieve their objectives by communicating and working with government and public policy stakeholders. He is recognised as a UK expert on political, media and community relations in the built environment.

A devoted supporter of corporate social responsibility, Stephen has advised many organisations on cause-related marketing and advocacy. He was previously a trustee of the UK charities Fixers and the Global White Lion Trust, and currently is a member of the City of London Skills for Sustainable Skyline Taskforce.

Richard George
Non-Executive Director

Richard qualified as a chartered accountant and corporate treasurer with PwC and has fifteen years’ experience as a non-executive director of professional services and technology companies, including almost ten years at BECG. He is a Board level advisor and ‘sounding board’ on commercial matters, advises on strategy and performance and works with the executive team to support all aspects of BECG’s development including its organic growth and acquisition strategy.

Andrew Howard
Senior Strategic Advisor

Andrew Howard is one of the UK’s leading specialists in the politics of planning and development. He advises a wide range of UK and international clients and has extensive experience of working on high-profile, complex development projects. As one of the founders of the company, Andrew provides strategic and tactical advice for our private and public sector clients across the property, infrastructure, energy, transport, health, leisure and local government sectors.

Jennifer Riddell-Carpenter
Director

Jenny has more than 15 years’ experience in corporate relations, both in-house and in an agency setting. She works with some of the UK’s largest housebuilders and highest profile housing associations, as well as national infrastructure clients. She specializes in crisis communications, campaigns and advocacy, and reputation turnaround projects, and delivers award-winning campaigns across multiple issues and sectors.

Verity Barr
Board Director, Cavendish Advocacy

Verity leads our PR team and has 20 years’ experience developing and delivering integrated strategic and creative communications campaigns that directly meet business objectives and deliver measurable results.

A built environment specialist, Verity has worked across both the private and public sectors with organisations in the property, energy, infrastructure and construction industries, providing strategic counsel as well as devising and managing the delivery of creative marcomms and media-based campaigns.

James Bird
Managing Director – SoCrowd and Board Director – Cavendish Advocacy

With a background as a freelance broadcast journalist, local Councillor and parliamentary candidate, James is a seasoned public affairs professional who is as adept at negotiating the politics of Westminster and Whitehall, as he is in planning and executing local community campaigns.

With a client base as diverse as housebuilders, local authorities and transport bodies, James offers strategic and tactical advice which is politically insightful and commercially focused.

Alex Challoner
Board Director – Cavendish Advocacy

A political strategist with more than thirty years’ experience in public affairs and communications advocacy. Alex develops growth of government relations across BECG, as well as sitting on the Board of our government relations practice, Cavendish Advocacy. He provides clients with senior counsel to ensure policy supports their corporate aims, be that policy change or raising their profile on key issues.

As a former adviser to the Conservative Party during the 1997 General Election, Conservative Campaign Director of the London Mayoral Campaign in 2000 and current Board Member of the Tory Reform Group, Alex has a comprehensive knowledge of the key figures and the trends and power bases within the Party.

He has advised clients such as the Met Office, John Lewis Partnership, Canal & River Trust, Crest Nicholson, Aster Group and Arvato.

Laura Wyatt
Director – Head of South

With over 15 years’ experience in planning communications and public affairs, Laura leads our South of England team. She is adept at developing tailored communications strategies that support BECG’s built environment clients to meet their objectives, whether that be achieving planning consent, reputational management, political advocacy or support building. Laura coordinates the national planning consultation programme of one of the UK’s leading residential developers and has significant experience in delivering consultation and public affairs strategies across numerous sectors, including aviation, retirement, retail, landed estates and infrastructure.

Kevin Whitmore
Director – Head of North & Midlands

Kevin is an experienced local government communications consultant who specialises in planning communications, political advocacy and community campaigning for clients across the built environment. He has experience across the property, energy, infrastructure, minerals and waste sectors.

He has over 13 years’ experience working with both public and private sector clients and leads BECG’s North & Midlands team. He works with local communities and their elected representatives to understand the need for and build acceptance of changes to the local built environment.

Amy McNeill
Head of Group HR & Operations

With over 17 years of operational, commercial and HR experience, Amy oversees our HR and Operations departments, and is responsible for designing and driving the transformative people agenda across the group.

She brings a commercial and people-centric approach to enabling organisational growth and development with a particular focus on retention and reward, diversity and inclusivity and CSR.

Prior to her career in HR, Amy spent a decade in commercial, growth-focussed roles across finance, broadcast, technology and not for profit industries, progressing to Services Director.

Charli Edwards
Creative Director

A published creative, Charli has been featured in and written for various design magazines including Advanced Photoshop & Photoshop Creative and Getty photographer. With over 18 years’ experience working both ‘in house’ and in an ‘agency’ environment, Charli is a passionate creative leader with a proven track record of delivering successful campaigns from conception to completion whilst leading, expanding and mentoring teams of creatives. Charli oversees the strategic direction of LoveThat, BECG’s award-winning one-stop shop for design, digital and video solutions. Previous experience working within various industries across an international client base (including automotive, financial, television and sport) allows Charli to deliver insightful strategy and exciting, innovative solutions.

Marcio Juarez
Head of Technology and Production

Responsible for overseeing all technology and digital developments at BECG, Marcio combines a great mix of commercial and technical experience to ensure we utilise the most effective technology platforms and solutions for all client projects, to ensure their success. He is focused on providing memorable user experiences, always keeping the end user front of mind through the design and development phases.

Mark Darlington
Head of Video

Mark leads the video offer here at BECG. He oversees the award-winning video team and is hands on with all aspects of production including the development of new, fresh and exciting concepts.

Mark uses his previous 12 years of worldwide experience, having worked in blue chip companies such as IBM and Kingfisher, to bring a fresh strategic approach to our clients.

He feels communication is an integral part of any project, and video is at the forefront of the digital revolution.

Will Balme
Group Head of Digital Experience

Will has 15 years’ experience in managing digital programmes, working with a range of clients and agencies.

His role is working with clients to understand their objectives and looking at digital channels holistically to understand how we can best use digital communications technologies via websites, social media and digital advertising.

He has extensive experience in campaign planning, having worked with national and international organisations from inception of campaign strategies through to delivery of campaigns across digital channels.

Krystian Groom
Director – Head of Business Development

With substantial experience in the industry, Krystian has delivered projects for major housebuilders, strategic land promoters, energy providers, commercial developers, logistics operators, Housing Associations, local authorities and government departments.

He has led on a number of our high-profile, complex consultation and stakeholder engagement programmes and his expert understanding of the development process at all tiers has helped secure allocations and planning consents across the UK.

Krystian plays a key role in thought leadership within BECG, working with colleagues to spearhead initiatives such as the Neurodiversity in Planning Engagement Toolkit, various research reports from the polling of councillors and MPs and our programme of varied events.

Sarah Wardle
Director

Sarah has a wealth of experience in developing stakeholder engagement and public affairs strategies across London and the South East.

Sarah has worked for major housebuilders such as Redrow and Taylor Wimpey, housing associations ranging from One Housing to Home Group, hotel operators and large build to rent developers, Greystar and Essential Living.

Notably, Sarah led the engagement on the UK’s first ever purpose-built family PRS development and has increasingly focused on setting early engagement strategies for estate regeneration projects.

Outside London, Sarah has worked with both the Local and Neighbourhood planning process to secure strategic allocations.

Prior to this, Sarah worked in the House of Commons for two Conservative Members of Parliament and holds a comprehensive knowledge of the legislative process.

Beyond BECG, Sarah remains politically active and is a Councillor in the London Borough of Barnet.

Adam Farrell
Director

Adam heads up our Birmingham office. He has worked in political communications and stakeholder engagement for over 10 years. Prior to working for BECG, Adam was a local councillor and led the office of a West Midlands Member of Parliament.

Adam has a well-established network of contacts across the region, from MPs to council leaders. He understands the political landscape facing developers and how best to engage with local stakeholders and community.

Adam has worked for many of the region’s largest developers including Aldi, Cala Homes, St Modwen and McDonald’s.

Nick Sutcliffe
Director

Nick has a 20-year track record successfully advising high-profile clients across the development sector, drawing on a background at both the Westminster parliamentary and local government levels. Nick was formerly a local councillor in Guildford, serving 12 years on the planning committee and three years as a Cabinet Member in roles covering the environment and planning. Nick has a wealth of experience in most aspects of development including central London residential, major corporate headquarters, large strategic land allocations and energy-related infrastructure. Nick also provides government relations advice, specialising in energy and environmental issues, drawing on his years working in parliament.

Matthew Crisp
Director

Matthew leads our North team in Manchester. Having held in-house and agency communications and stakeholder engagement roles, he has over a decade of public, private and third-sector experience.

He has devised and overseen delivery of strategies to secure planning consents across the energy, transport, residential, retail and regeneration sectors, including NSIPs requiring DCOs.

Former Communications Manager at Transport for the North, his experience spanned corporate communications functions from inception to its establishment as England’s first Sub-National Transport Body.

Matthew is also a trustee for UK-based charity Health Care South Sudan.

Michael Tait
Director – Media Relations

Michael has more than 25 years’ experience working in the media and public relations. As a former print journalist, he has worked in national Daily and Sunday Newsrooms, headed up the media operations for a political leader and led the corporate communications for a leading public sector organisation within the justice sector.

With a keen news sense and trusted relationships with print and broadcast journalists he is adept at working with the media to generate positive coverage. Michael has particular expertise in taking control of complex and challenging media crisis situations and providing counsel on how best to protect reputations, by offering calm and rational advice to clients on how best to position themselves both internally and externally.

Euan Glen
Director – Liberty One

Euan is an experienced communications professional, who for over 10 years has devised and delivered local and national public affairs, PR and engagement programmes for clients across the built environment in Scotland.

From billion-pound city centre developments, to major housing projects and energy schemes, Euan always ensures an open and transparent approach to consultations with all stakeholders, a key element that sits at the heart of every L1 campaign.

Daniel Fryd
Director

Dan has significant experience of political and planning communications, with a career spanning agency, central government and local government roles.

Dan advises a client portfolio that includes bluechip energy and infrastructure providers, national house builders, Government Departments, major property contractors, ports, logistics firms and strategic land promoters. Through his work with BECG he has helped deliver multiple complex projects of national significance across the country, particularly in the South of England.

Dan previously worked at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where he provided communications handling advice to the Housing and Planning Minister Alok Sharma MP and his predecessor Gavin Barwell MP.

Beyond BECG Dan remains politically active in East London.

Ali Craft
Associate Director

Ali is a political and communications professional with over 14 years’ experience working in Labour politics including two years as Deputy Director of London Labour Party. This has given Ali an unrivalled understanding of the operation of the Labour Party across all 32 London boroughs.

Ali has developed close relationships with senior politicians and decision makers across the capital including the Mayor of London and his senior team, MPs, local government leaders and the trade unions.

Since joining BECG, Ali has been advising clients on navigating the political planning system in London.

Rebecca Langton
Associate Director

Rebecca joins BECG following a career in local government and now heads up our work in the East Midlands, helping to support clients navigate the changing political environment of the three major cities and surrounding counties.

After serving as a political advisor at Nottingham City Council and working within politics for the Labour Party, Rebecca was elected as a City Councillor in Nottingham and served in the Cabinet. Rebecca was most recently the Portfolio Holder for Skills, Growth and Economic Development covering a wide range of council services, including employment and growth. Rebecca has a Masters of Public Administration from the University of Nottingham.

She is an experienced communicator, having previously led the communications for a national charity.

George Burr
Associate Director

George Burr has worked in planning communications for over a decade, giving him vast experience across a range of sectors with public and private sector clients of all sizes across the south of England.

Recent clients have included volume housebuilders, national retailers, pension funds, renewable energy developers and government departments.  

George has also been involved in campaigning for the Conservative Party for almost 20 years, giving him an in-depth understanding of the key issues of concern for local politicians. He remains politically active in rural Kent and London, serving as a member of his local association’s executive committee and regularly campaigning alongside councillors and Members of Parliament. 

Sean Fielding
Associate Director

Sean held Strategic Leadership roles in Local Government, serving three years as Leader of Oldham Council and a Member of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Alongside his Local Government roles Sean worked as a Communications Officer for Angela Rayner MP and as a political advisor to the Labour Group at Tameside Council.

At Oldham Council Sean was architect of the “Creating a Better Place” investment programme, which levers in public and private sector investment to regenerate Oldham Town Centre. He led on communications and stakeholder engagement for the plans, which today form the basis of Oldham Council’s financial strategy.

Tom Bradley
Associate Director – Cavendish Advocacy

Tom is an Associate Director and heads up Cavendish Advocacy’s Energy & Green Growth team. He has over a decade’s experience in working with U.K. and international businesses, trade associations and charities, helping them to achieve real cut-through with Governments and regulators.

Prior to joining Cavendish Advocacy, Tom worked for the UK’s largest gas distribution network, leading on their decarbonisation of heat and transport work. He also worked in consultancy and advised clients such as Shell, U.K. Power Networks and Autogas. He previously worked for Conservative MPs and MEPs in Westminster and Brussels.

Tom is a former parliamentary candidate for the Conservative Party, currently serves as a local councillor and is a member of The Cotswolds Conservative Association’s Executive Council. He serves as a trustee and Non-Executive Chairman of a rural charity.

Steven Livingston
Associate Director – Liberty One

Steven has worked in public affairs for over seven years in both the private and charity sectors.

During his time in public affairs, he has developed analytical skills and is well placed to advise clients on how best to navigate the regulatory and policy landscape in Scotland. Steven previously worked for a large Scottish charity
and has experience of all levels of government in Scotland to promote the organisations interests.

Steven has worked extensively on projects throughout Scotland across many sectors including energy, renewables, house building, retail, commercial property, logistics, domestic manufacturing, waste wood recycling, health and science & technology.