Ali Abbas

UK managing partner, Art-Invest Real Estate Management

Abbas leads Art-Invest Real Estate’s UK business and is responsible for investment strategy and deal origination, along with structuring, execution and oversight of all investments. ​
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Abbas has more than 25 years of diverse investment, capital management and business operations experience, having held executive level roles in both public and private corporations and has undertaken £7bn of investment transactions across the risk spectrum. Prior to AIRE UK, Abbas was senior managing director, Europe for AECOM Capital Real Estate, a US private equity “manage to core” investor-developer. Prior to this he was the European fund manager for Lendlease Investment Management, having strategic responsibility for a £1bn GDV flagship retail fund. Abbas has a proven performance delivery track record with both German institutional and property company investors during his time as head of UK investment for Oppenheim Fund Management. ​​
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Abbas is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as well as the Investment Property Forum. He has an honours degree in estate management.​

Chris Cummings

Director, Savills Earth

Cummings is director in the Savills Earth division and head of strategic advisory and sustainable design services. Prior to joining Savills at the start of 2021, he spent 25 years leading on all aspects of environmental and sustainability delivery in the UK and internationally at leading building services consultancies. A specialist in building physics and early concept design, he is passionate about sustainability and wellbeing in the built environment and believes in promoting design that places people first, whilst minimising the impact on the natural world. Cummings is also a trained professional coach and an experienced leader, mentor and manager of people and projects.

Derek Griffin

Head of acquisitions, Whitbread

Griffin leads the property acquisitions team for Whitbread in the UK and Ireland and is responsible for bringing more sites into the Premier Inn property portfolio and expanding the brand across the UK.

Prior to taking up the head of acquisitions role, Griffin led Premier Inn’s growth in London, adding more than 6,000 Premier Inn bedrooms in the capital over the past ten years.

Now working in London and across the UK, Griffin has responsibility for driving growth for the established Premier Inn brand, as well as Whitbread’s smaller-style room hotel brand, hub by Premier Inn towards a target of 110,000 UK and Ireland bedrooms.

William Seymour

Partner – real estate, Shoosmiths

Seymour is a real estate partner in Shoosmiths’ London office with wide experience of all transactional real estate matters, including advising on investment sales and acquisitions, developments, and landlord and tenant matters for institutional investors, overseas investors and property companies. Seymour also has particular experience of advising corporate occupiers leasing commercial property and portfolio management. In addition, he advises on the real estate aspects of corporate and finance transactions. Shoosmiths was recently named law firm of the year at the Property Awards 2022 and is shortlisted for the EG Awards 2022.

Katharine Woods

Associate, DP9

Woods is an associate at DP9, one of London’s leading planning consultancies. She predominantly advises on developments across the capital, including estate regeneration projects and strategic masterplans alongside a variety of commercial and residential schemes.

Woods has worked in several roles in both planning and communications across the built environment industry over the past 10 years, having previously worked in parliament during the coalition government. She is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and serves on its regional management board.