nima appoints six new vice chairs

nima has appointed six new vice chairs, providing the information management organisation with additional volunteer resource to manage a growing workload.

Following increasing demands upon the existing chair and vice chairs of nima, and after a careful shortlisting and interview process, four vice chairs have been appointed to manage key areas of nima activity. The existing vice chairs also invited two particularly active volunteers (both previously recognised with nima Outstanding Contribution Awards) to take on ‘flexible portfolio’ responsibilities to support key areas needing additional support.

New nima vice chairs

Mostafa Elashmawy
Mostafa Elashmawy
Dave Peacock
Dave Peacock
Varun Soni
Paul Woddy
Paul Woddy
John Hall
John Hall
Stephen Holmes

The newly recruited vice chairs are:

  • Mostafa Elashmawy – nima vice chair for members. Previously a nima ambassador, Mostafa Elashmawy is a BIM and digital delivery leader at Autodesk. He will be looking to expand nima’s membership scheme, launched in May 2025, and to build and maintain the organisation’s connections with its members.
  • Dave Peacock – nima vice chair for volunteers. Dave Peacock, who has volunteered for nima for several years and is a director of IIMBE, has been appointed to coordinate the inputs of nima’s volunteers to the organisation’s activities and events.
  • Varun Soni – nima vice chair for stakeholder engagement and change management (networks/communities). Now running his own property development company, Varun Soni has been heavily involved with nima inputs on building safety. He will be building out nima’s stakeholder engagement and developing a change management strategy in collaboration with nima’s existing connections with affiliated organisations and industry networks..
  • Paul Woddy – nima vice chair for upskilling and education. An educational strategist and consultant at training provider White Frog, Paul Woddy will strengthen nima’s education and training connections, and support industry upskilling activities, particularly in relation to the Information Management Initiative (IMI).
  • John Hall – nima vice chair with flexible portfolio, starting with operations and IT supporting Sam Hardy. A key member of nima’s GIIG consultancy group, John Hall is an information management technology specialist and has been instrumental in strengthening nima’s ‘back office’ systems. He will work closely with Sam Hardy to further improve and streamline nima operations.
  • Stephen Holmes – nima vice chair with flexible portfolio, starting with patrons supporting Rachel Heaton. Drawing on deep experience and strong connections in the architectural world, and more recently in whole life management in the sustainable energy sector, Stephen Holmes will be working with Rachel Heaton to form strong relationships with new and existing nima patrons.

Existing nima chair and vice chairs

Anne Kemp will remain in position as nima chair. Having expanded the pool of vice chairs, Fiona Moore, Paul Wilkinson and Simon Lewis have additionally been designated as senior vice chairs, recognising the executive support they provide to chair Anne Kemp in their respective key leadership areas. The other vice chairs will continue in their current positions:

  • Anne Kemp – nima chair.
  • Fiona Moore – nima senior vice chair: key focus on programme and finance.
  • Paul Wilkinson – nima senior vice chair: key focus on communications and events.
  • Simon Lewis – nima senior vice chair: key focus on governance.
  • Emma Hooper – nima vice chair for projects (and vice chair of bSUKI).
  • Sam Hardy – nima vice chair for operations.
  • Rachel Heaton – nima vice chair for patrons.

Team expansion

Nima chair Anne Kemp says:

“From late 2024 onwards, it became clear that nima’s existing central team of volunteers was becoming stretched. The Information Management Initiative (IMI) had created new responsibilties, and we also needed extra resources to cover periods when existing personnel are absent or busy with their day jobs.

“We have been seeing a sustained surge of interest in improving data and information management in the built and managed environment, and it is important that we have adequate capacity to meet the growing demands on our time. Therefore, I am delighted to welcome our six new vice chairs to the team, and I look forward to working with our expanded team over the coming months.

“Now that we are a membership organisation, we need a strong, resilient and accountable management team that can work effectively with our members, as well as our many valued volunteers and other stakeholders. These appointments will help us deliver on our aspirations to better support and represent information management practitioners, and to foster wider digital transformation across the built and managed environment sector.”

Nima plans to publish a series of in-depth articles on its website about each of the vice chairs over the coming weeks so that nima members, volunteers and others can learn more about them, their roles, responsibilties, plans and activities.

Update (26 September 2025) – Profiles published to date:


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