Alison Nimmo CBE

Alison Nimmo CBE (BA Town and Country Planning 1985) – Chief Executive of the Crown Estate

Alison Nimmo CBE has devoted her professional life to regeneration. As chief executive of the Crown Estate, she controls assets worth £11.5 billion, including much of London’s prime real estate. But her career began in Manchester, where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in Town and Country Planning in 1985.

After graduation, she spent time in Australia’s Department for Planning and Transportation, before returning to the UK in 1986 to become a planner at Westminster City Council. A move to the private sector followed, first working as a chartered surveyor and then as a consultant for KPMG.

Eleven years after graduating, Alison found herself back in Manchester as project director of Manchester Millennium, leading the hugely successful regeneration of the city centre after the IRA bomb in 1996. She then moved to Sheffield, delivering another award-winning transformation of a major northern city centre.

From 2003 to 2012, Alison’s focus was the London 2012 Olympic Games. She was an integral part of the original bid team that succeeded in bringing the games to London, and then from 2006 she was director of design and regeneration for the Olympic Delivery Authority. She was appointed as CEO of The Crown Estate in January 2012, the first woman ever to hold the post.

Alison was made a CBE for services to urban regeneration in 2004, and in 2014 she was awarded the prestigious Royal Town Planning Institute Gold Medal for services to planning. She has also been recognised by Radio Four, the Evening Standard, and ranked number one in Property Week’s list of the 100 Most Influential Women in Property. Alison is a trustee of the UK Green Building Council and a board member of FTSE 100 housebuilder The Berkeley Group.