Primera is a regeneration consultancy providing a wide range of services to the public, private, voluntary, community and partnership sectors. Our senior leadership team are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds and have experience, in the UK and internationally, in providing a high-level, solutions-based approach.
Ruth Duston is a leading authority on urban regeneration and place-based partnerships, with over 35 years’ experience working across the public and private sectors. Ruth started her career working on the London Docklands development, which then led to her being involved in other major urban regeneration schemes, including Paddington Basin and Kings Cross.
Through her work, Ruth has played a pivotal role in establishing and leading some of London’s most influential business districts, helping to unlock significant private-sector investment and drive long-term economic growth, world-leading place management initiatives and innovative regeneration models.
She is the Founder and Chief Executive of Primera Corporation, a specialist consultancy that supports business communities and delivers transformational Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and partnerships across Central London. With a portfolio of 16 business-led partnerships, Primera is uniquely placed as a company covering most of Central London’s prime real estate and most of the top FTSE 100 companies, representing over 1 million employees.
Ruth also serves as the Chief Executive of London Heritage Quarter, a portfolio of 4 Business Improvement Districts in Westminster, which includes a UNESCO World Heritage site.
In addition, Ruth holds several senior governance and advisory roles and is widely respected for her leadership in placemaking, stakeholder engagement and strategic partnership working. Ruth is often asked to speak at conferences and seminars globally on topics such as the future of the urban environment, trends in placemaking and the development of innovative public-private partnerships.
In recognition of her services to business and urban regeneration, Ruth was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by HM Queen Elizabeth II. She was also awarded the Order of the Crown (OC) by the King of Belgium for her fundraising and charitable work connected to the Flanders Field Memorial Garden.
Austin has a strong track record in the regeneration field having worked in the sector for over 20 years and co-founding Primera Corporation.
His key specialism is stakeholder engagement, developing deep and lasting relationships with public and private sector organisations in metropolitan areas across the UK and internationally, in particular helping to pioneer and develop the Business Improvement District (BID) model in the UK.
Over two decades Austin has built the portfolio of business partnerships that Primera oversees across Central London. His expertise lies in creating sustainable, agile business vehicles that can deliver an effective programme of activity addressing both business and community priorities.
More recently Austin has led the successful BID ballot campaigns in the City of London including the Eastern City BID, Fleet Street BID and the Culture Mile BID, where he currently serves as CEO.
Austin places great importance on working in a collegiate way to deliver effective partnerships. He has a proven ability to manage multi-disciplinary teams to deliver required outputs within tight budgets and timeframes.
Debbie Akehurst is the Chief Executive of Central District Alliance BID, working across the public, private and third sectors. Debbie has years of experience of working in property, regeneration and economic development, developing partnerships and bringing people and sectors together to deliver better outcomes.
Creating social value and enhancing the communities she serves sits at the heart of Debbie’s approach and she specialises in working with businesses to help them develop strategies to support the communities in which they operate. Debbie previously sat on the Mayor of London’s Skills Board and MOPAC Board, and was awarded an Outstanding Achievement of the Year Award by the UK Social Mobility Commission Awards for her work on Social Value and Justice.
Debbie is the Chair of the London Local Skills Advisory Board working in collaboration with Business London and Greater London Authority. The London Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) sets out a blueprint for getting more Londoners into better, higher-paying jobs by better matching training provision to employer demand. For more information see www.london.gov.uk.
Debbie also Chairs the Dress for Success Advisory Board a charity that exists to empower women from positions of disadvantage into the workplace. They provide workplace clothing and styling, interview coaching and ongoing support to help women achieve economic independence and build the life they deserve. For more information visit www.dressforsuccess.org.
Urbanism has always played a key part in Lucy’s career, as she has sought to shape the urban environment, in terms of placemaking and culture. Lucy works both on a hyper local level with community voices central to master planning, whilst also looking for national and international input for design and innovation.
Opening the first newly built theatre complex in Central London for 3 decades, Lucy worked with key stakeholders to bring the ambitious scheme to fruition, successfully setting it within the wider transformation of Victoria. She sat on the Victoria BID Board during this time, witnessing the innovation and change created by the BID team.
She founded the charity Never Such Innocence (NSI) in March 2014, and is currently its Chair. NSI is an educational charity that gives young people across the UK and internationally the opportunity to reflect on conflict and how conflict impacts their lives and the world around them through poetry, art, speechwriting and song. The charity nurtures the next generation of thinkers, leaders and peace keepers through the arts, cultural exchange, dialogue and debate, working with 9-18 year olds in 121 countries.
Over the years Lucy has campaigned and fundraised for theatre, the arts and the voices of children. She sits on the Advisory Board for ‘Getting on with it: the micro-dynamics of post-accord intergroup social relations’ at Bristol University, is a committee member for the 2024 Lord Mayors Big Curry Lunch and an Honorary Vice-President of The Western Front Association. She was awarded an OBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List for Services to Young People and the Arts.
Kate cut her teeth in the dynamic world of Government communications, working on everything from the Elected Regional Assemblies campaign with John Prescott to working in the press office ‘bunker’ in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, before working on some of the UK’s most iconic Destination Marketing and placemaking schemes. Now a communications and placemaking specialist with more than 20 years’ experience, Kate has been part of Primera since 2019.
Prior to joining Primera, Kate ran her own communications consultancy working on housing, regeneration and placemaking projects and worked for some of the UK’s leading PR agencies including London Communications Agency and Fishburn Hedges. She had a lead role in the marketing and communications for the transformed St Pancras International, an account which she lead for a number of years following the re-opening in 2007. The objective was to create the UK first Destination Station, supporting the luxury retail and hospitality offer in the station, attract new customers and change peoples’ perceptions of what a station experience can offer. During her years working on this account the team won many accolades including Station of the Year, PR team of the year, numerous Guinness World Records and the station’s LEGO Christmas Tree was voted the best Christmas Tree in the world!
Her career started at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), advising the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Nick Raynsford and latterly, the former Housing Minister Yvette Cooper on communication issues. She also did several secondments in Number 10 Downing Street’s press office.
Kate graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2001 with an MA in Political Communication and before that studied for my BA at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. She is currently the CEO of the EC BID and is a member of Primera’s Senior Leadership team, leading on a range of communication issues and external affairs.
Paul is a dynamic executive and non-executive director with a multi-faceted background spanning more than two decades working with a range of businesses crossing both public and private sectors. A property generalist with extensive experience across property asset management, investment and development having managed large mixed-use portfolios, complex joint ventures, major project transitions and high value sales and acquisitions. Paul has a unique skill for business set-up and operations, governance and risk management.
Paul, who originally trained as an engineer, has worked for leading organisations, including 12 years with Land Securities Group plc where he held various senior positions.
Before joining Primera in 2023, Paul was an Executive Director for Qualis, a group of local authority trading companies that focused on property investment, development, asset management and FM. Prior to Qualis, Paul was Director of Asset and Property Management and Head of UK for Chinese conglomerate LKKHPG. Paul has a Masters in real estate from Kingston University, is a part-time property adviser and management consultant, an Independent Non-executive Director for Elstree Film Studios, a non-statutory member of Safer City Partnership Board and Board Adviser to Our Safer City. Paul is Primera’s Group Chief Operating Officer.
James leads Primera’s corporate marketing and communications team, providing public affairs support across the portfolio of Business Improvement Districts and developing Primera’s new Insights Team.
Immediately prior to this role, James spent 14 months as Interim Chief Executive of a leading London private members’ club. Before that he worked as Group Director of Marketing and Development for CT Group, reporting directly to the founder and CEO, Sir Lynton Crosby.
James joined CT from Santander UK where he was International Engagement Director. From 2007 – 2017 James worked in the City of London as Swordbearer and Senior Programme Manager to the Rt. Hon The Lord Mayor. In this capacity he was responsible for protocol and the Lord Mayor’s ceremonial activity in the City, and also their extensive overseas business visits, working with the Foreign Office to plan and deliver visits to over 25 countries each year. James graduated with an MA in International Relations and Modern History from the University of St Andrews.
Nicki has worked in BIDs since 2009, joining the Victoria BID as it embarked on its first ballot. She has worked on numerous ballots with Primera across a variety of BID areas including establishing the Victoria Westminster BID, gaining knowledge and experience across all aspects of BIDs. She took over the Harley Street Area Partnership in April 2020 and led the BID to a successful ballot outcome in December 2021.
Nicki’s experience has helped her understand the importance of building strong relationships with levy payers and key stakeholders, understanding the commitment required to establish those partnerships. She brings a varied skillset which supports her in managing the team and BID. She is highly organised, efficient and attention to detail is paramount to her. Managing a budget of £1m, Nicki understands the importance of accountability as she ensures that the BID at Harley Street delivers tangible outputs and is successful in its first term and many beyond.
In addition to the senior leadership team, our staff are deployed across Primera’s portfolio of BIDs, working in a range of disciplines to deliver for our levy payers.
Through our work, we help make the districts we are the custodians of more become more successful, more inclusive and more appealing to local visitors and employees, and to businesses and investors from all over the world.
