our team
Adam Murray
Owner and CEO
BA(Hons) DipTP MRTPI
As the founder and CEO of Urbana, it’s Adam’s love of cities and passion for great urbanism which has created a culture of thoughtful guidance and enthusiasm for every project Urbana takes on. Heading this extraordinary, culture-driven team is a fulfilment of Adam’s passions. He is driven by inclusive capitalism, placing people and communities at the core of urban development.
More than simply negotiating a proposal through the planning and development process, it’s a commitment to creating the best possible places on every proposal and producing results to be proud of which makes Urbana’s services invaluable – a principle that Adam reinforces daily through his leadership on projects and close communication with everyone within the team.
Working with some of the largest investors and developers in the sector, Adam brings a career of experience in strategic and major development proposals. With an ethos driven by making planning more exciting and relevant to the 21st century, Adam leads Urbana’s distinctly urbanist heart through a passion for making cities better for all.
Charles Dunn
Director
MPlan MRTPI
As a Director Charles leads the day-to-day at Urbana, as well as major and strategic projects for clients from mixed-use city centre regeneration schemes to public sector proposals in education and healthcare.
Charles’ experience and skillset is extremely wide-ranging, with a critical understanding of the commercial aspects of development sitting alongside technical planning knowledge. In his role he contributes this knowledge and experience to the benefit of clients and Urbana’s wider team in their day-to-day activities. He has a passion for helping to create intimate, finely grained spaces in cities and is a big believer in the beauty of strong, simple building materials.
Charles is also a Director of the Sheffield Property Association, taking a lead in advocating for the property and development sector in Sheffield to help support the city’s growth and future prosperity.
John Parkinson
Non-Executive Director
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In his non-executive capacity, John enriches Urbana with a vast reservoir of experience and expertise cultivated over a distinguished career trajectory. From his tenure at Savills, London in the 1980s to ventures in the United States and back to the UK, John has navigated diverse landscapes with aplomb. Notably, he steered the Newcastle Falcons to remarkable heights alongside spearheading the delivery of a substantial number of purpose-built student accommodation beds in a joint venture with the BAM organisation.
John’s extensive network within the industry’s elite circles, coupled with his astute comprehension of the commercial intricacies inherent in development projects nationwide, endows Urbana with a formidable edge over its competitors. His invaluable insights empower clients to realize their ambitions through the successful execution of projects, positioning Urbana as a paragon of excellence in the realm of scheme delivery.
Chloe Parmenter
Director
BSc (Hons) MSc
Chloe is a Director in our Sheffield Office and has boundless enthusiasm for leadership, project management, place-shaping and delivery. She has a passion for how people use spaces, which is instilled in the work that she delivers at Urbana.
She is a highly capable project manager with experience working within sensitive settings and with extensive consultant teams, to bring projects to fruition and balance the potential impacts of development.
Chloe typically leads on major regeneration schemes as well as residential, education and sporting facilities, and excels in leading clients and consultant teams through the planning process with her extensive experience of successfully delivering major projects on behalf of a range of clients. She has also worked to expand these skills during her time in Sydney, Australia, where she worked to deliver significant projects in the public and private sector.
Tom Brieslin
Associate
MPlan
Tom is an Associate at Urbana with 3 years experience in successfully leading on and managing planning applications. Tom has developed a diverse range of experience from large scale residential, both urban infill and land promotion, Local Authority led social housing, as well as key project work on commercial and education schemes.
Tom has a strong background in leading projects, building and managing consultant teams, and being the key point of liaison with Planning Officers. Tom also has developed a specialism in leading and organising community stakeholder management processes and events where they have formed highly relevant parts of application processes.
Passionate about great placemaking, Tom uses his commitment as an urbanist to enhance the schemes that he works on.
Duncan Armstrong-Payne
Director
Duncan spent 15 years at Harworth Group plc where he is best known for leading the delivery of the Waverley development and Advanced Manufacturing Park, Yorkshire’s largest ever brownfield redevelopment. At Waverley, he led the development team in delivering over 2,000 homes working with a range of housebuilders to create a new community of modern homes, schools and greenspaces. He also worked closely with the University of Sheffield AMRC to bring a number of world-leading companies to the Advanced Manufacturing Park including McLaren Automotive, the UK Atomic Energy Authority and SBD Apparel, whilst also being closely involved in the creation and development of the UK’s first
Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District.
Duncan has also most recently worked for Peel Land where he was Director of Major Projects, working on major mixed-use schemes across the UK.
Duncan has set up a new division of Urbana that complements the company’s existing planning expertise by fully understanding the development potential of
projects and creating delivery strategies to accelerate and realise value through development management, planning promotion and a range of placemaking
strategies.
Alicia Murray
Accounts Manager
BSc(Hons)
Alicia heads up our accounts team and is the main point of contact for all matters relating to invoicing and payments.
