Our Team
Roli Martin
Managing Director and Head of Finance & Partnerships
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Elaine Anning
Operations Director
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Sophie Winterbotham
Commercial Development Director
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Glenn is the founder and CEO of Global City Futures. Glenn Woodcock has more than 25 years of experience as a banker, venture capitalist, and entrepreneur. Since 2008 he has been a Director of Oxygen House, which invests in projects that foster social, environmental and economic prosperity.
Glenn is a founder of Sparx, the UK’s most significant Education Technology Company for enhancing maths outcomes for young people.
He is a founding director of Low Carbon Group – a renewable energy investment bank, and City Science, a city analytical product company, as well as an investor in many social and technical enterprises.
He is also a trustee of the University of Exeter and a governor of Exeter College.
Roli is Managing Director at Global City Futures and leads on Finance and Professional Services. His work focuses on building investable business models that deliver on sustainable housing, decarbonised energy independence, NHS infrastructure and community.
Roli Martin’s speciality areas combine both Public and Private sector accounting and budgeting, corporate finance and Green Book Business cases. Roli and the GCF team deliver projects in financial structuring, change management, data analytics, innovation and professional services. They work with the challenges of growing cities to deliver public and privately funded business models for sustainable infrastructure.
Roli has more than 20 years’ experience in professional practice, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 2005. He led corporate finance infrastructure advisory practice for one of the Big 4, where he advised on high profile Government infrastructure partnerships with the private sector. He then led its renewable energy advisory practice, and was the lead facilitator of the Treasury Green Book Standard training course, firm-wide across the UK.
As MD and Head of Finance at Global City Futures, Roli leads the consultancy that partners with public sector anchor organisations and institutional leaders to co-create lasting solutions to urbanisation and establish sustainable cities.
Roli manages professional services contracts in this space to deliver thoughtful, people-centred solutions and reshaping business models to deliver commercially viable ways forward. Roli is adept at securing and navigating both corporate and public finance.
Elaine is Operations Director for Global City Futures. Her role is to oversee all project management and appraisal activity within the Global City Futures team. She also provides oversight and support on business case production, has extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and is highly adept at effective project workshop delivery.
Elaine has particular experience in service transformation and economic appraisals, especially delivering change and the calculation of benefits in business cases, and has been pivotal in the successful completion of a number of high-profile schemes.
She has recently worked with Bath & North East Somerset Council to support their Community Services Transformation programme and North Bristol NHS Trust, where her work was praised by DHSC Economists and assisted in gaining approval for the new Elective Treatment Centre. Her interest lies in stakeholder engagement and knowledge transfer, as well as the assessment of social value and supporting GCF’s mission for to achieve positive outcomes for communities and the environment.
Elaine is a CIMA Associate, coming from a procurement background prior to completing her accountancy training. She has extensive experience of programme management, project implementation, business case production, finance and accounting and procurement.
Elaine enjoys anything that involves food, but also running, cycling and going to the gym as well as walking the beautiful Devon hills and beaches with her family and dogs.
Sophie is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) and Commercial Development Director at Global City Futures. From her time at a privately owned international property business, she brings a variety of experience from across a range of finance functions. These include Treasury, Corporate Finance and Supplier Management, as well as extensive project management experience involving complex stakeholder management.
Her role is to provide project management for multiple cross-organisation, multi-stakeholder commercial projects within the Global City Futures project management team. She also provides oversight and support on business case production, stakeholder engagement and financial model preparation and manipulation.
By drawing on her wide range of experience, she is highly effective at working with different groups of stakeholders in order to drive progress, especially on complex and time constrained projects.
Sophie brings to the project highly-competent varied project management experience, including debt-raising, process improvement, system design and implementation. Her varied experience underpins her approach to public sector contracting and governance arrangements. Any projects under her stewardship are certain to meet rigorous standards of transparency and scrutiny, ensuring that any potential risk is mitigated.
Rachael is one of the Senior Consultants at Global City Futures, with a background in accountancy and over 15 years of experience in the sector. She has a strong focus on compliance and upskilling stakeholders and has led and supported a wide variety of projects.
Rachael’s expertise spans financial analysis through to streamlining systems and processes and her work style is highly proactive with a keen eye for detail.
Rachael has gained considerable relevant experience in NHS specific business case writing and the Treasury recommended Green Book approach to business case writing. Rachael also supports on technical accounting appraisals and accounting standard interpretation.
Her interest lies in sustainability and supporting GCF’s mission for sustainable development and carbon-neutral societies.
She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), qualifying in 2016, and she has a background in accountancy having worked in practice, industry and charitable roles. She has collected a wide range of skills from her previous roles which she can practically adapt to her work at GCF. Rachael is also accredited to AMPG’s Better Business Case – Practitioner level.
Rachael loves the great outdoors and has been walking the South West Coast Path for more than 6 years. She also has a great interest in longevity and wellbeing.
James is a Senior Consultant with a background working extensively with local government. He scopes, deliver and reviews change and transformation programmes.
James has held a number of different roles at several local authorities and a regional body. Here he worked closely with service-users, front-line and operational teams as well as Executive Management Teams across a number of different settings and contexts: Environmental Services; Adult Social Care; Disaster Recovery; the Built Environment and Corporate Functions.
James is currently working with our NHS clients to bring forward affordable and sustainable key worker accommodation schemes, aligning with Global City Futures’ current development of the NHS Homes Alliance White Paper.
Chris comes from a regeneration, construction and manufacturing background with experience in the public and private sector. He is a certified chartered accountant.
He is focused on the delivery of local government regeneration, commercialisation and housing projects and creating a sustainable energy environment for future generations. He brings his experience to local government housing projects, capital assets builds, renewable energy, and is experienced in managing projects with multiple components and deadlines.
Current project – Global City Futures has been appointed by East Devon District Council to act as financial advisor on developing a new heating infrastructure project
Lucy is a Senior Project Manager at Global City Futures and provides PMO expertise and support across a variety of projects. She is responsible for providing overall day-to-day support to Public Sector Partners to maintain momentum and progress projects in a timely manner, ensuring milestones are achieved.
With more than 20 years of experience as a Project Manager, and with a Prince 2 qualification, she has specialised in complexity reduction, and making processes leaner. She enjoys facilitating workshops to provide timely information to stakeholders, enabling effective decision making and project progression. Her interest lies in battling the effects of climate change – supporting GCF’s mission for completing sustainable projects and their positive impact on the community and the environment.
Lucy is currently working with clients from NHS trusts, UK universities and councils.
She received her BA (Hons) in Business and Finance from Southampton University. After a few roles in Finance, Lucy moved into Project Management. From here she completed Prince 2, Project Engineering Standards and several Leadership and Management courses at Sandringham Military academy. Lucy is a Chair of Trustees for a children’s mental health support Charity in North Devon and supports fundraising initiatives that support growth.
Lucy enjoys living in North Devon close to the sea, where she visits the beach all year round.
Ruby is a Junior Consultant working on the B&NES Community Services Transformation and Royal Devon Key Worker Accommodation projects.
She is responsible for Business Case and project management support, in addition to leading research and engagement projects, most recently with the Royal Devon Trust. Her interest lies in researching evidence bases for sustainable, people-centred solutions, and supporting Global City Futures’ mission to provide Key Worker Accommodation across the UK. Currently Ruby is working with South West institutional leaders in both Exeter and Bath & North East Somerset.
Receiving her MA (Hons) in Arabic and French from the University of St Andrews, she applied for her first job post-graduation as a Research Assistant with GCF’s sibling company, Exeter City Futures CIC, before moving onto a permanent contract with Global City Futures. This initial position provided an excellent opportunity to contribute to Exeter’s 2030 Net Zero Plan with a focus on engaging local community groups and small businesses.
Ruby’s background is in research, in 2023 she achieved Practitioner level in CIPFA’s Better Business Cases qualification. With a range of skills in languages, effective communication and high-quality research, and experience in roles such as Research Assistant, Project Management Support and Project Lead, she notably won delivering on a Key Worker Accommodation Demand Assessment for multiple hospital and university sites.
Ruby grew up in the remote Highlands. Doing a move from ‘John-o-Groat’s to Land’s End’ 3 years ago, Devon quickly became her new home. Grateful to Exeter for the opportunities it has provided her, Ruby is keen to give back to the region through her work with GCF.
Will is financial consultant at Global City Futures and as a chartered accountant, has in-depth technical knowledge and a wide breadth of practical experience, across a range of business sectors.
He is responsible for mostly decarbonisation activities, focusing on retrofit, heat network and gap funding for decarbonisation projects. Will also has experience in specialist accounting, most recently working on building Key Worker Accommodation project, ensuring C-Del compliance. He supports the commercial development team, recently completing work on finding funding solutions for a large UK combined authority to decarbonise 45 of their publicly owned buildings. His interest lies in specialist gap and innovative financing solutions, supporting GCF’s mission for sustainable development and providing value for money to the public sector.
Currently Will is working with NHS clients and local authority leaders to build Key Worker accommodation, using a ratified, C-Del compliant model, greatly limiting the risk posed to the Trust and transferring to the private sector.
Receiving his BA (Hons) in Business, Accountancy and Economics, he went on to study to become a chartered accountant. While studying, Will worked for one of the largest accountancy firms in the southwest. Based in Corporate Services, he gained a wealth of experience working across many different business sectors with a variety of different sized businesses, charities and organisations. Predominantly auditing financial statements, Will has a good understanding of how businesses operate and can identify areas for growth and improvement, ensuring compliance while being considerate of accounting and financial implications.
Will became a member of he ICAEW in 2022, passing all exams making him an Associate Chartered Accountant. Despite vowing to never do another exam, he has since sat his foundation Better Business Case examination enabling him to write Green Book (government standard) compliant business cases.
Georgie, in her role as the Business Development Coordinator at GCF, helps steer us toward new horizons. Her primary focus is on identifying new projects, a responsibility that involves scoping tenders and leveraging her expertise in crafting proposals.
Georgie’s passion for development aligns seamlessly with Global City Futures’ mission of fostering sustainable community growth.
Building on her academic and professional foundation, Georgie earned her BSC (Hons) in Sociology, providing her with a nuanced understanding of societal dynamics that proves invaluable in her current role. To further refine her skills, she completed the Better Business Case Foundation and Practitioner training. These qualifications elevate her bid writing proficiency, reinforcing her ability to secure impactful projects for Global City Futures.
Georgie’s commitment to community well-being extends beyond her professional pursuits. In her spare time, she volunteers as a Counsellor for deprived communities in the South West, showing dedication to making a positive impact at both the individual and community levels. This hands-on experience not only underscores Georgie’s commitment to Global City Future’s mission but also equips her with a unique perspective that enriches her approach to business development.
Kate has a wealth of experience in management and client focused roles, including a background in real estate. Kate is tasked with keeping the consultancy team organised and informed, managing our busy business office, and providing executive-level communication and solutions.
Kate’s role within the company includes complex analysis, introducing new clients and concentrating on specialist aspects of the company including overseeing internal projects, external SR, and PR, alongside communicating the operation, management and organisation of the company within the team.
Kate is a conscientious, professional, approachable, and highly motivated person with a passion for sustainability and the environment, fitness and fundraising.
She facilitates smooth operation for successful projects; you might talk to her to organise a meeting, an introduction to the team or for further information about Global City Futures.
Amy manages Communications and Marketing for Global City Futures and promoting client project outcomes. She manages and delivers the communications plan, including online presence, CRM and updates to audiences.
Amy leads on GCF’s values that come through to their social media and online presence, as well as sponsorships, events, speakers and awards. She supports on maintaining GCF’s B Corp status bringing the ‘people and planet before profit’ ethos throughout company communications.
She has more than 20 years experience in marketing, managing and leading campaigns for varied audiences in not-for-profit, B2B and B2C products and commercial services. Graduating in Visual Art from Plymouth University, Amy manages the brand, graphics and design for print. She undertook postgraduate modules in Not-For-Profit management, and a certificate from the Institute of Fundraising.
Amy grew up in Exeter and lives on a farm with her family in Devon.
If you are passionate about creating sustainable, carbon-neutral societies, with a real interest and skills in data analytics, finance or bid writing, then we’d love to receive a speculative application from you.
We work with brilliant clients and together we’re committed to a sustainable future.
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