Mike Foster
Managing Director
I became Managing Director of LDA Design in June 2019, having helped steer our recent growth including the launch of a new office in Manchester.
I am very much involved in developing our business culture in preparation for LDA Design’s transition to employee ownership. A shared sense of purpose is fundamental to our ongoing success, and I want to make sure that by the time the transition happens everyone at LDA Design feels equipped to shape the future of the company.
A landscape architect by profession, I have over 30 years’ experience in consultancy and a strong record in securing outline and detailed planning consents. I joined the LDA Design team back in 2001. I have particular expertise in masterplanning and landscape design for complex, large-scale mixed-use and residential developments, and for nationally significant infrastructure projects at all stages of planning, design and construction. I take a client-focused and collaborative approach, underpinned by technical rigour.
My current projects include advising on landscape masterplanning, EIA and design implementation for a mixed-use development in Gloucestershire providing 2,500 homes. I am leading the landscape and green infrastructure design for a major brownfield redevelopment project in Yorkshire.
Outside of work, I nourish the dream that if only I got more training in, I could still run a 3.30 marathon. But mostly days off are spent getting back to nature down at my allotment, or just relaxing.
Q&A
The top of the Yorkshire Three Peaks – wild open spaces and a sense of coming home to my Yorkshire roots.
Taking the decision in 2018 to move to employee ownership. This is such a fundamental change to the structure of the company, and it was a move made in recognition of the brilliance of our collective team. Watch this space….
Christo and Jeanne Claude - sculptor, photographer, and conceptual artists. Fantastic public art revealing the wonder and beauty of landscapes and structures. If only I could think like that!
