Mark Hammill

Team Leader, London Borough of Islington's King's Cross

Playing a leading role in this transformation is Mark Hammill, the London Borough of Islington's King's Cross team leader since 2003. His job description covers everything from rebranding the area and reducing crime to devising environmental improvements and managing all major development projects.

Hammill graduated from the University of Manchester's undergraduate planning course, completing his studies at Amsterdam University. "I knew I'd made the right decision in the first week," he says. "I'd planned to read architecture, then realised that few architects do truly exciting work. In planning you can take proposals and make them better."

After graduating in 1994, he worked as an area planning officer at Manchester City Council and as a

case officer at the Heritage Lottery Fund, where he assessed funding bids for regeneration and heritage restoration projects.

At Islington, Hammill has helped

to plan a new base for The Guardian newspaper, a canalside concert hall for the London Sinfonietta, the mixed-use Regent Quarter and an 800-bed student village. "It is satisfying to see projects on the ground and know you are helping to make a difference."