Davena Wilson

Davena Wilson is a Senior Director of Regeneration at Local Partnerships.

As a Chartered Development Surveyor, she began her career in the private sector, qualifying while working in consultancy. She spent 15 years advising public sector clients at Drivers Jonas and Deloitte on the implementation and delivery of complex, long-running regeneration projects.

Over the last decade, Davena has worked in local government, including at the Greater London Authority and the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC). Her work has focused on land acquisition and assembly, developer procurement, development structuring and joint venture agreements.

At OPDC, Davena was Project Director for the Old Oak and Park Royal Energy Network (OPEN), an innovative heat network project designed to use waste heat from data centres to provide low-carbon heating for more than 8,000 new and existing homes, a major hospital, and new and existing businesses. OPDC is the first organisation in the UK to take this type of project to market. She led project de-risking, secured major grant funding, developed robust business cases, oversaw public procurement, negotiated complex contracts and navigated internal governance. Her experience has centred on bringing multidisciplinary teams together, building strong relationships and creating the confidence needed to deliver ambitious, long-term infrastructure projects.

Her work on OPEN has strengthened her interest in the energy sector. She brings to Local Partnerships a combination of regeneration, commercial, procurement and delivery expertise, alongside a strong commitment to helping the public sector unlock complex projects that deliver long-term social, environmental and economic value.