Chris is the Founder and CEO of Spacehive, the world’s first crowdfunding platform for civic projects. He is a former Sunday Times staff journalist who covered architecture and planning, as well as leading the paper’s London coverage.

He founded Spacehive in 2012 with a mission to help people create local places they love. The platform helps to bring project ideas to life by connecting them to a world of funding and support that they would not otherwise be able to easily reach. The aim is to enable local people, businesses and public bodies to improve the civic environment collaboratively.

To date over 500 projects worth £11m have been delivered via Spacehive - from a new community centre in south Wales, to a sculpture park along the banks along the Lea river in East London and a giant waterslide in the middle of a Bristol high street. More than 20% of the UK's councils have backed a project via the platform.

Spacehive works in partnership with major companies and councils to help them run funding programmes through the platform, including the award-winning Crowdfund London, delivered with the Mayor of London.

He has won awards for Spacehive from the Big Venture Challenge, Nesta, UnLtd, Deloitte and Downing Street.