Paddy Allen

Head of operational capital markets, Colliers and chair of Pathways to Property

Allen has more than 17 years of real estate experience, having spent his early career in European fund management before joining Global Student Accommodation and leading acquisitions of £1bn of student accommodation across the UK and Europe. Since joining Colliers in 2021 as the head of operational capital markets, Allen has grown his team rapidly and now advises a range of investors and developers on transactions, joint ventures and operations predominantly across student accommodation, build-to-rent and co-living. Allen is a champion of diversity & inclusion, playing a key role in the Colliers Balance in Business steering group, and he is also the chair of Pathways to Property.

George Armitage

Managing director, global real estate, Oxford Economics

Armitage has been with Oxford Economics for more than 10 years, joining in 2012 to set up its real estate division. Oxford Economics works with investors, managers, advisory firms, lenders and developers, and is the leading provider of economic solutions to the real estate sector worldwide. Prior to joining Oxford Economics, he held roles with MSCI Real Capital Analytics and Savills

Christine Auclair

Co-ordinator, World Urban Campaign

Auclair leads advocacy and campaigns at UN-Habitat, external relations, strategy, knowledge and innovations division. She co-ordinates the World Urban Campaign, a global coalition and advocacy platform to raise the urban agenda and promote sustainable urbanisation worldwide. Auclair holds a PhD in urban studies (Institut Francais d’Urbanisme, Paris), is a housing policy specialist and practiced architecture and planning in France up to 1993. She joined UN-Habitat to develop city data for the Habitat II Conference (Istanbul, 1996) and the global urban observatory. She also dedicated six years to global partnerships and developed private sector engagement for the agency (2007-2011). Auclair has also worked at the UN lead agency on urban issues, exploring how business and industry can accelerate the achievement of development goals in cities.

Steven Boyd

Chief executive, Government Property Agency

As chief executive, Boyd leads the Government Property Agency in transforming the way the government’s office and logistics property portfolios are managed. The GPA is growing rapidly with currently 7m sq ft of property under its management. The GPA is transforming the future of work in the civil service, improving the workplace experience for civil servants across the UK, leading the largest commercial office programme in the United Kingdom, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and saving billions for the taxpayer. A Yorkshireman who originally qualified as an engineer, Boyd is a collaborator, innovator and leader of change. Prior to the GPA, he was HMRC’s estates director delivering 13 major office buildings, planning the successful drawdown of a nationwide PFI, and shrinking the size of the estate by two-thirds. He also served in the British Army including leading the Army’s in-house engineering design and project management consultancy, and as its director of infrastructure.

Eamonn Boylan

Chief executive, Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Boylan was appointed chief executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in January 2017. Prior to that he was chief executive of Stockport MBC from 2010. While at Stockport, Boylan led the council’s £1bn programme of investment in infrastructure and town centre regeneration. Previous roles include deputy chief executive of both the Homes and Communities Agency and Manchester City Council, where he led the regeneration division and helped shape strategic regeneration programmes across the city. As chief executive of the GMCA, Boylan chairs the Greater Manchester Wider Leadership Team and has responsibility for policy and strategy and a wide range of Greater Manchester-wide services including fire & rescue, waste, transport economic development and planning. He also is jointly accountable for the Greater Manchester strategic plan for the transformation of health and social care. Since November 2018, he has also undertaken the role of chief executive and director general at Transport for Greater Manchester.

Sue Bridge

President, Royal Town Planning Institute

Bridge is president of the Royal Town Planning Institute 2023. As the previous chair of the board of trustees, she has overseen a major review of governance and has driven forward significant investment in the RTPI’s London office, as well as growing membership to 27,000. Bridge is a chartered town planner with more than 40 years’ experience in local government and the development industry. She is passionate about the role of planners in delivering on climate change and is committed to raising the profile of planning and planners in society.

Abi Brown

Councillor, Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Brown was first elected to Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 2010 and has been leader of the council since May 2019, holding the corporate resources, strategy & partnerships portfolio.  Prior to 2019 she was deputy leader and cabinet member for finance & partnerships from May 2015. Alongside her portfolio responsibilities, she has built her reputation on leading successful strategically important programmes, both within Stoke-on-Trent and also the wider sub-region. This includes the ceramic valley enterprise zone project board, one of the most successful enterprise zones in the country and a project she has led since inception. In recent months, she has also signed the first informal Homes England partnership in the country and is excited about working through the detail on this ambitious agenda.  Other past notable programmes include leading the city’s bid to be City of Culture 2021, refocusing the city council’s arms-length housing company, Fortior, during her tenure as chair, shortlisted for a Channel 4 creative hub, and developing the creative city partnership to bring together national partners around the creative agenda in the city. At a regional level, Brown is a member of the Midlands engine board, representing West Midlands councils, in addition to representing Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire on the West Midlands employers board, and being a local authority representative on the Arts Council England Midlands council.  An enthusiastic advocate of local government, Brown is an LGA peer mentor and has previously served as vice-chairman of the LGA city regions board between 2018 to 2022.  In September 2022, she became chair of the LGA improvement & innovation board. Keen to utilise her wide cross-sector expertise locally, she leads on a number of important agendas including chairing the homelessness reduction board, community safety partnership, and health & wellbeing board.

Sue Brown

Managing director, Real Estate Balance

Brown is managing director for Real Estate Balance, a campaigning organisation working to improve diversity and inclusion in the real estate industry. She has three decades of business, property and economic development experience. Brown joined Real Estate Balance in April 2020 from London First, where she was executive director with responsibility for property, planning, the environment and development since 2016. She started her career in government, serving as a senior adviser in a variety of high-profile roles, before going on to establish her own real estate consultancy. Brown was a driving force behind the launch of MIPIM, the world’s largest real estate investment conference that takes place each year in Cannes. She was the co-founder and co-chair of REWIRE, the network for women in property, and is also an active member of the Women’s Network Forum based at Buckingham Palace.

Vincent Bryant

Chief executive and co-founder, Deepki

Vincent Bryant is chief executive and co-founder of Deepki. His passion for energy goes all the way back to his early professional days. Vincent began his career with an energy consulting firm, before spending eight years at ENGIE as energy efficiency director. In 2014 he created Deepki with Emmanuel Blanchet, driven by their shared vision: using data to make real estate more sustainable.

Tim Burke

Deputy editor, EG

Burke joined EG as deputy editor in July 2019, before which he was property editor at Financial News, a Dow Jones publication. Earlier in his career, he wrote for and edited magazines covering capital markets and businesses across developed and emerging economies, including titles at The Economist Group and Thomson Reuters.

Elizabeth Campbell

Executive member for London’s future: business, economy and culture, London Councils

Councillor Elizabeth Campbell was elected Leader of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in July 2017, in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tragedy. She has been a Councillor since 2006 and previously served as Cabinet Member for Family & Children’s Services (2012 – 2017) and Education & Libraries (2010 – 2012). 

Elizabeth has taken a leading role in a number of local government networks, identifying strategic actions to support the capital’s economic recovery and future growth. She was Chair of Central London Forward until 2022 and was recently appointed by the Mayor of London as a Board Member of the London Economic Action Partnership.

In parallel, Elizabeth was the portfolio holder on London Councils for Schools & Children’s Services (2020 – 2021) and now serves as the Lead for Business, Economy & Culture. These roles involve advocating for member authorities to receive the support they need to do the best possible job for their residents.

Outside politics, Elizabeth has served as Chair of Chelsea Academy, an outstanding Church of England School, from 2013 to 2017 and was Vice-Chair and Director of the Tri- Borough Alternative Provision Multi Academy Trust from 2013 to 2015.

Born and based in Hong Kong for 25 years, Elizabeth graduated from Oxford University with a Master’s degree in Modern History.

Daniel Chang

European head of ESG, Hines

Daniel Chang is European head of ESG at Hines. In this role, he focuses on the transition to decarbonisation, enhancing meaningful social engagement in the built environment and bolstering governance frameworks.

Daniel joined Hines in 1999 as development manager and from 2009 to 2021 was a portfolio asset manager in investment management. He continues to play a key part in the success of Hines’ European Funds with all four funds achieving five green stars in 2022 by GRESB and several being awarded as Global Sector Leaders, including the Hines European Core Fund (HECF), a title it has achieved for the last six consecutive years. In addition, HECF won the PREA open-end fund ESG award in 2021 and 2022, with Daniel playing an instrumental part in getting this accolade.

Daniel sits on the Advisory Board for the ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate, which is dedicated to creating healthy, resilient, and high-performance communities around the world. Daniel is also part of the C-Change steering committee and is a member of ULI’s Sustainability Council in Europe.

Prior to Hines, Daniel worked as an architect at Architecture Studio in Paris. He holds a BSc in Architecture from the University of Maryland and an MBA and MS in Urban Planning from Columbia University.

Nathalie Charles

Deputy chief executive, BNP Paribas Real Estate

Charles is deputy chief executive of BNP Paribas Real Estate in charge of investment management. She joined the company in July 2019 to reinforce the position of BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management as a leading player in Europe with circa €30b of AUM. Previously, she held various executive positions in the industry, namely with AXA IM Real Assets as head of development and European country teams; with EDF as managing director of corporate real estate and at Unibail-Rodamco Group, where she held various senior positions overseeing office, retail and large development projects in the Paris region. Charles has more than 30 years’ experience in the real estate industry. Between 2017 and 2020, she was a board member of ULI Europe and from 2018 to 2020, Chair of ULI France. She is a trustee of ULI.

Simon Chinn

Vice-president, research & advisory services, Urban Land Institute

Chinn recently joined the Urban Land Institute as vice-president, research & advisory services, where he is responsible for managing its innovative research agenda covering the key issues shaping the future of the real estate industry including climate change and sustainability, investment and development trends and shifts in demography and technological change. Prior to joining ULI, he specialised in research on global cities and real estate for Grosvenor, one of the world’s largest privately owned international property businesses. Chinn’s role involved undertaking analysis on global city developments to inform the company’s long-term strategy and thinking on cities. He has undertaken major research projects on megatrends for real estate, examining topics such as urbanisation, demographic change, digital disruption and climate change. He also has previous experience working in urban planning, economic development and strategic consulting for the retail sector. He holds an MSc in urban economic development from The Bartlett development planning unit, University College London.

Roger Clarke

Chief executive officer, IPSX

Roger has spent 30 years working in European capital markets including investment banking roles at NM Rothschild, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, JP Morgan Cazenove and Stifel Nicolaus, as well as undertaking a secondment to the UK Takeover Panel. He has also been Head of UK Capital Markets for ING Real Estate, and more recently he was Head of Corporate Finance at M7 Real Estate where he set up and ran the alternative lending platform, Tunstall Real Estate. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen.

Barbara Cominelli

Chief executive, JLL Italy

Cominelli has more than 25 years of managerial experience in multiple roles – chief executive, chief data officer, chief marketing officer, chief operating officer, leading large teams with more than 3,000 people in Italy and abroad in various industries. She is currently the chief executive of JLL in Italy. She joined JLL in December 2020, with the objective of accelerating the growth of the company in Italy and supporting the reimagination of the entire industry, enabling the green and digital revolution. She is a tireless ambassador of diversity and inclusion inside the organisations she is involved with and is also involved in several non-profit initiatives to promote D&I, with a focus on women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and empowerment.

Craig Cullimore

Chair, ADP Architecture

As ADP’s chair, Cullimore focuses on the strategic direction and management of the practice. Alongside this, he continues his involvement in projects through leading design reviews and his role as an accredited RIBA client adviser. He is particularly interested in the positive impact a project can achieve. By measuring key sustainability, belonging and engagement factors, he makes sure ADP delivers aspirational projects which provide clients and communities with real value.

Jo Davis

Principal and UK executive chair, Avison Young

Davis is Avison Young’s national head of planning and has more than 25 years’ experience on complex urban change projects and devising land and property estate strategies for public and private sector clients. Splitting her time between Bristol and London, she also oversees Avison Young’s Bristol office and a number of complex regeneration projects in the South West, including the public/private sector regeneration proposals at Temple Island on behalf of Legal & General and Bristol City Council. As principal and UK executive chair, she is responsible for governance of UK strategy and growth, alignment with global priorities, and ensuring accountability to Avison Young’s UK principals. She is also part of the task force that oversees the transformation and growth initiative currently under way in the UK.

Peter Denton

Chief executive, Homes England

Denton joined Homes England as chief executive in August 2021. Prior to this, he was group finance director and subsequently chief executive of the Hyde Group. He has worked in a broad range of strategic leadership roles, amassing almost 30 years of pan-European real estate experience. Peter spent his early career in investment banking before moving to global real estate investment management firm Starwood Capital. During his investment career, Denton deployed more than €25bn of capital and had significant exposure to investors and fundraising on a global scale, working as a ‘bridge’ between the public, private and third sector. He has also held senior EMEA real estate investment banking roles at BNP Paribas, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Eurohypo and WestImmo. He is also a non-executive real estate investment committee member at global investment company Eurazeo.

Louisa Dickins

Co-founder, LMRE

Dickens is the co-founder of LMRE, which has rapidly become the market-leading global platform and search consultancy specialising in proptech and the built environment with operations across North America, United Kingdom, Europe and Asia-Pacific. To promote the industry she is so passionate about, she set up the Global podcast The Propcast, which has more than 100,000 downloads, where she hosts and invites guests from the built environment space to join her in conversation about innovation. Apart from hosting the podcast, Dickins mentors for REACH, which is a global scale-up program created by Second Century Ventures, an early stage technology fund and BRICKS Innovation, the leading Israeli innovation hub focused on real estate technologies. She has also been commissioned to co-author the first global proptech textbook, PropTech and Property Innovations: A Guide to Real Estate Innovations and Digital Technologies.

Tzvete Doncheva

Investor relations lead, PropTech 1

Doncheva is the international investor relations lead at PropTech1, an ESG-compliant venture capital platform investing in transformative real estate technologies. She is a former journalist and was a TV correspondent at Bulgaria’s largest private media, BTV. She has had sox years of experience in tech and VC. Doncheva is a regular keynote speaker at international real estate and venture conferences on topics ranging from built world innovation to proptech investments. She’s a recognised advocate for an increased representation of women in tech and venture.

Lisette van Doorn

Chief executive, Europe, Urban Land Institute

As chief executive of Urban Land Institute Europe, van Doorn is responsible for the development of the institute’s activities across the region, including its pan-European conferences and more than 250 local meetings and events across 14 countries. She joined ULI from LIRE, her own consultancy business, which advises international institutional real estate investors and fund managers on strategy, organisational optimisation and portfolio structuring. Prior to this, van Doorn was country manager for CBRE Global Investors, where she managed a €1.6bn portfolio of assets in Italy and was fund manager of two shopping centre funds (€1.3bn) with assets in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Before joining CBRE Global Investors, van Doorn was founding chief executive for INREV, the European association for investors in non-listed real estate vehicles, for four and a half years. She started her career at ING Investment Management, where she held account manager and assistant controller positions before being made managing director of research and strategy for ING Real Estate Investment Management Europe.

Olivia Drew

Director, portfolio manager, UK Life Sciences, UBS

Drew is the portfolio manager for the UK life sciences strategy and is the lead investment manager across the vehicle. She was previously a transactions manager for Real Estate UK (RE-UK), a business which forms part of Real Estate & Private Markets (REPM) business within UBS Asset Management (UBS-AM). Drew also had responsibilities across the REPM business on ESG strategies, supporting the growth of the sustainable product shelf and integrating ESG policies across the platform. She joined UBS-AM in December 2017 as a member of the RE-UK team, providing support to several funds and segregated mandates within the UK platform. Prior to joining UBS-AM, she worked a t M&G Investments (2014-2017), first as a graduate trainee, and then as an analyst specialising in long lease property funds. She is a CFA charterholder, and also holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Patrick Duffy

Partner, Shoosmiths

Patrick is a partner in Shoosmiths’ real estate law team, with over 30 years’ experience in advising on large-scale high profile town and city centre regeneration schemes, including residential and commercial development matters, as well as real estate funding and investment. He has a particular expertise in offshore tax driven investment acquisitions. Patrick’s experience includes advising on many portfolio investment acquisitions especially of shopping centre and leisure schemes and more recently the real estate aspects of a refinancing deal for the development of No. 1 Old Trafford, the St Michael’s development in Manchester City Centre, the multimillion-pound forward sale and development of a student accommodation scheme for UCFB at Wembley Stadium. He has also recently supported Bruntwood with its public/private joint venture with Bury Council and the subsequent acquisition of a shopping centre in Bury town centre and in addition the acquisition funding and development agreements for the Birmingham Innovation Centre at Birmingham University.

Shoosmiths was recently named law firm of the year at the EG Awards 2022.

Charlie Foster

Managing director, European real estate, RBC

Foster is the managing director of RBC’s European real estate investment banking. He has more than 23 years of real estate experience with sponsor and corporate M&A, ECM and financing across UK and Europe. He was previously the head of real estate at Canaccord Genuity, head of real estate strategy & research at RBS, and real estate research at Oriel Securities.

Cristina Gamboa

Chief executive, World Green Building Council

As the chief executive of the World Green Building Council, Cristina Gamboa leads the world’s largest and most influential local-regional-global action network, spearheading the transformation to sustainable and decarbonised built environments for everyone, everywhere.

As a leading voice within the #BuildingToCOP Coalition, Cristina continues to play a pivotal role in championing globally the built environment as not only a priority climate change solution, but key to driving resilient, regenerative and equitable spaces to thrive.

As an economist with a leadership record in sustainability, policy and multi-stakeholder partnerships, Cristina has been a trusted convener and advocate for sustainable development at international platforms such as the UN Climate Change summits, WEF and IEA.

Cristina is from Colombia and resides in London, UK.

Gavin Hall

Head of office and head of department, central south planning, Savills

Gavin Hall was elected a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute in 2002 and joined Savills in 2003. He holds a first-class BSc (Hons) in geography and an MSc in city & regional planning. He is currently head of Savills Southampton office. He specialises in complex urban regeneration, waterfront and infrastructure projects for public and private sector clients. He is results-driven, providing a dynamic, client-focused commercial approach to delivering viable consents that add value to the built environment. He is chairman of the Hampshire chamber planning and transport committee, is a member of Business South and is a representative for Savills on the Solent LEP. Gavin has become an advocate for the recognition of the Central South in order to enable levelling up of the region with other parts of the UK.

Michael Hawkins

Director – head of National Office Agency and development UK regions, Colliers

Mike has over 30 years’ experience in commercial real estate, focused on the North West of England but with particular emphasis on Manchester City Centre. Ten of those years was as lead director of Lambert Smith Hampton’s Office Agency Department and after those ten years as the principal development, investment, office agency director at his own firm WHR.

Based in Colliers Manchester office Mike advises on complex mixed-use scheme with a focus on procurement of planning, development, letting and disposal of City Centre office schemes, and has been one of the principal protagonists for the evolution of Manchester’s City Centre office market

Mike provides developers / investors a unique insight into occupational requirements and how they should and will influence the design criteria of complex refurbished projects as well as ground up new build schemes.

Craig Hughes

Chief executive of partnerships, the Instant Group 

Hughes is chief executive of partnerships at the Instant Group and is leading the initiative to drive greater volume and variety of flexible workspace supply across Instant’s global platforms for flexible workspace demand. He joined the business is 2022 after more than 10 years at PwC, where he was the global real estate leader. There he was responsible for its real estate practice group which included 5,000 professionals globally.

Lord Dominic Johnson

Minister for investment, Department for Business and Trade

Johnson was appointed minister for investment at the Department for Business and Trade (previously Department for International Trade) on 24 November 2022.  He was previously minister of state jointly in the Department for International Trade and the Cabinet Office between 2 October 2022 and 28 October 2022. He has spent more than 25 years in financial services, beginning his career at Robert Fleming in 1995, before moving to Hong Kong to work for Jardine Fleming and then, in 2002, after a series of dot com start-ups, heading the marketing for Lloyd George Asset Management – an emerging markets specialist firm. In 2007, he co-founded Somerset Capital Management as an employee-owned democratic partnership, focusing on pension fund management in developing countries. Between 9 November 2022 and 2 October 2022, Johnson was a non-executive board member of the Department for International Trade. He was chair of the department’s audit and risk assurance committee. Between 2017 and 2019 he was vice-chairman of the Conservative Party. 

Julian Josephs

World president 2007-2008 (UK chapter), FIABCI

Julian Josephs, FRICS, has been in international real estate, since 1973 in London with Jones Lang Wootton. In 1974 he moved to their Brussels and Antwerp offices in Belgium before joining Hampton & Sons, Paris in 1974. He then went to INSEAD, France, graduating from their trilingual 1977 MBA class and moved to New York before joining Romanek Golub in Chicago, as international investment coordinator. In November 1980, he started his own company, in Washington DC, initially acting for overseas investors in developing 5 downtown office properties. For the last 28 years he has developed his own real estate portfolio of urban properties as well as advising international clients. He was elected world president of FIABCI, the international real estate federation, 2007-8. He is adjunct professor of international real estate at both Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities. He is an academic member of AFIRE an ICSC member and on the Americas board and governing council of RICS.

Roland Karthaus

Programme lead, Design Council

Karthaus leads on projects within the place team. An architect, educator and researcher with a wide breadth of experience, he has passionate belief in design as a collaborative endeavour capable of solving the biggest societal challenges. He brings experience and expertise in urban design, architecture and research from being a director of matter architecture and associate professor at the University of East London. He has delivered a wide range of types and scales of building and public realm projects and is a High Streets Task Force expert. In 2018, Karthaus led a team that won an RIBA president’s medal for research on prison design. He has worked both for and within local government on major regeneration projects and has published innovative research on how housing can improve health and wellbeing through intergenerational design. Working with Ealing Council, he led a strategy for the borough’s older adults accommodation that applied this research through an innovative health and care-led commissioning approach. He has also led and participated in urban design workshops around the world including Russia, China, India and Europe. As well as being a qualified architect, Karthaus also holds a master’s in cities, design and regeneration. 

Jess Kennedy

Associate director, ESG advisory leader in the UK, Arup

Jess is Arup’s ESG advisory lead in the UK. Assisting clients globally over the long term, she works with them to understand their ESG and sustainability aspirations, developing a tailored strategy and setting objectives, targets, programs, and reporting for improving performance and demonstrating progress. Jess is passionate about the ever-evolving world of ESG and how companies can bring these strategies to reality. Some of her recent work includes ESG advisory for Stanhope, Tishman Speyer and TfL property development.

Richard Lawrence

Director of regeneration, City of Wolverhampton Council

Lawrence is the director of regeneration at the City of Wolverhampton Council. He is an experienced director with more than 20 years’ experience in regeneration in the private and public sectors. He has held senior roles in borough/district, unitary and county councils and has extensive delivery-based experience ranging from master planning and funding assembly, to land and property management and development. He has expertise in delivering housing, property, economic development and skills, transport, conservation and tourism schemes. Lawrrence has also led on large-scale regeneration projects in Kent and Medway and the East and West Midlands, including throughout the Combined Authority area. He chairs the i54 development steering group and sits on a number of external forums across the region supporting the West Midlands Combined Authority, Association of Black Country Authorities and Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership. He oversees the enterprise, city development, planning and local economy functions and leads the city’s key regeneration priority projects.

Melanie Leech CBE

Chief executive, British Property Federation

Leech joined the British Property Federation as chief executive in January 2015, having previously spent nine years as director general of the Food & Drink Federation. She began her working life as a police constable in the Metropolitan Police Service and subsequently held a number of senior roles in the civil service. Her role is to champion a diverse, successful and sustainable UK real estate sector that is recognised for the positive economic and social benefits it delivers to communities across the country. Leech is a trustee of the property industry charity LandAid and a member of the Council of the University of Essex. She was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to the food and drink industry.

Pui-Guan Man

News editor, EG

As EG’s news editor, Pui-Guan Man oversees the news output for the website and magazine, working closely with its talented and dynamic team of writers to deliver the latest insights on trends affecting a wide range of commercial real estate sectors in the UK. An award-winning journalist, she was recognised as one of PPA’s 30 Under 30 for her work in 2020 and was shortlisted for a BSME Talent award in 2021.

Claire Mantle

Executive director and education lead, ADP Architecture

Mantle is ADP’s executive director and education lead. She has led a number of award-winning schemes and is passionate about sharing lessons learned and best practice. As part of her role within the executive leadership team, she oversees the practice’s sector specialisms. She also developed a bespoke SBE (Sustainability, Belonging and Engagement) assessment tool for ADP, which helps teams to plan and measure the social and environmental impact of projects.

Samantha McClary

Editor, EG

McClary has almost 20 years’ experience in real estate and business journalism, covering a wide range of topics. Alongside making sure EG delivers the best, most helpful, most accurate and, of course, most interesting content to EG’s readership across all platforms – print, online and audio – she also plays a leading role in enabling and delivering a more diverse environment for the real estate community through EG’s REWIRE and tech initiatives. A keen chair and regular wearer of too bright trousers, she seeks to help keep panel discussions and events lively with audience participation and insightful questioning

Barry McKeown

Partner & head of Glasgow office,  Shoosmiths

Barry heads up Shoosmiths’ Glasgow office and is an experienced real estate lawyer with a broad spectrum of expertise, with a particular focus on the commercial development and investment markets, residential development and housebuilding (including market-leading BTR) and also renewable energy. He has acted for developers, landowners (both in the private and public sector), funders and investors with a key emphasis on complex development arrangements, including conditional contracts, option arrangements, joint ventures, leasing, property finance arrangements and lending, as well as tax efficient property structures and vehicles.

Shoosmiths was named Law Firm Of The Year at the EG Awards 2022.

Tom Mellows

Head of Savills Science, UK, Savills

Mellows has 25 years’ experience in commercial real estate and heads up Savills UK science group. He specialises in advising science-related occupiers needing R&D, lab and manufacturing space, as well as landlords and developers looking to deliver specialist science related space across the UK. Mellows has advised on the acquisition of more than 600,000 sq ft of space over the past three years for the likes of Autolus, Quell Therapeutics, DNAe, Achilles Therapeutics, Avacta, Freeline Therapeutics, OchreBio and Omass. Key development and leasing instructions include St John’s College Oxford, Stanhope & Cadillac Fairview’s 1m sq ft Oxford North development, ARC Group’s Manbre Wharf in Hammersmith, a 250,000 sq ft life sciences-focused scheme, Birmingham University, and Bruntwood SciTech’s 600,000 sq ft Birmingham Health and Innovation Campus. He also advised UBS/REEF on the prelet to Autolus at the Forge, Stevenage, for an 85,000 sq ft GMP facility, where there is scope for another 500,000 sq ft of manufacturing space. Mellows is at the forefront of emerging science sector trends, providing advice around lab premiums, differing levels of lab space and service provision, to help the growing number of investors, landlords and developers looking to access this unique market.

Tim Newns

Managing director of levelling up, Office for Investment

Newns is the managing director for levelling up at the Office for Investment, a joint unit that sits between Downing Street and the Department for Business & Trade. He is overseeing the office’s regional expansion, as well as seeking to increase transformational investment across the whole of the UK, contributing to government’s levelling up agenda. Previous to the Office for Investment, Newns was chief executive of MIDAS, Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency, for 11 years, where he oversaw the attraction of more than £6bn of investment and 50,000 jobs, making Manchester the leading destination for foreign direct investment in the UK outside London and top 10 globally.

Duncan Owen

Chief executive, Immobel Capital Partners 

Duncan has a long history of successfully building and expanding real estate investment management businesses and delivering investment performance for multiple stakeholders through a number of economic cycles. With a career spanning more than 30 years, he has an in-depth knowledge of European real estate markets and a strong track record in core-plus and value-add investment, development, asset management, refurbishment, and portfolio restructuring. 

He served as global head of real estate at Schroders for over nine years.  During this period, Real Estate AUM grew from £8bn in 2011 to over £20 billion in 2020 with 15 offices located across Europe, Asia and in the US. Duncan remained the investment manager of Schroders REIT plc for 16 years.  Prior to Schroders, he was the chief executive of Invista Real Estate Investment Management (“REIM”) PLC, which he founded and listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Prior to Invista, Duncan was a partner at JLL where he was in the LaSalle Investment Management business where he was a director and responsible for several pan-European investment portfolios.

Relevant to the Green Strategies, Duncan was an early adopter of integrating ESG requirements into real estate investment and financing strategies. He is now a non-executive director at Workspace Group PLC, a London flexible office REIT, and he chairs the ESG committee for the board. He also sat on the Social Impact Investment committee and chaired the Real Estate Investment Committee at the Church Commissioners Pension, which is the UK’s largest endowment fund and a renowned green investor. Finally, he is a senior advisor to the Sellar Property Group, a developer of office schemes such as the Shard of Glass and Paddington Central.

Michelle Percy

Director of place, Newcastle City Council

Michelle Percy joined Newcastle City Council as lead assistant director of commercial development in October 2016. Michelle’s role is to deliver a major change programme and shape Newcastle City Council’s approach to becoming an enterprising Council.

Prior to joining Newcastle City Council, Michelle played a leading role in a Newcastle-based property company and the delivery of a 4-star Crowne Plaza Hotel, the initial phases of Stephenson Quarter – a ten-acre regeneration site adjacent to Newcastle Central Station, containing several listed buildings and within a conservation area.

Given Michelle’s background and experience in the property sector, she took over the strategic property team in 2017 and then in 2018 all the property services function to support the Council’s ongoing transformation of its assets.

In September 2019, Michelle took the role of director of place, overseeing Newcastle City Council’s functions of planning, highways, property, housing and commercial in the city.

Jules Pipe

Deputy mayor for planning, regeneration and skills, Greater London Authority

Pipe is working on key priorities for the mayor, including implementation of the London plan, major and community-led regeneration projects across the capital, building a skills system that properly addresses the needs of Londoners and the economy, and ensuring London’s infrastructure supports good growth, meets the needs of its communities and makes London a cleaner, greener and smarter city. Pipe has unrivalled knowledge of London government, becoming the first directly elected mayor of Hackney in 2002 and serving as chair of London councils from 2010 until he joined the mayor’s team in 2016.

Jack Pringle

Chair of trustees, RIBA and past-RIBA president

Pringle was made chair of the RIBA board in January 2021. He founded his first architecture practice in 1981 and has developed a significant portfolio of work with major international clients. He has been involved extensively with the RIBA for decades, primarily in the areas of education and practice. He was RIBA president from 2005-2007 and chair of the Construction Industry Council from 2012-2014.

James Rankin

Head of research and insights, the Instant Group

Rankin brings a wealth of research and insight experience to the Instant Group with a wide-ranging background spanning both B2B and B2C businesses. He specialises in developing data and insight-based solutions that aim to bring clarity to opaque markets, supporting industry expansion and allowing businesses to maximise their revenue potential using actionable insight. Rankin is well known across the flexible workspace industry for supporting, flexible workspace operators, landlords and investors, as well as regularly presenting insight at industry events such as CoreNet Global, Coworking Europe, GCUC, and the Global Workspace Association.

Pat Ritchie CBE

Chair, Government Property Agency

Ritchie is an experienced senior leader in economic development, housing, and property, and is chair of the Government Property Agency. She was chief executive of Newcastle City Council for more than eight years, where she notably secured the multi-million-pound investment deal to bring Legal & General to Newcastle’s flagship Helix development and led on negotiations to secure a devolution deal for the North of Tyne Mayoral Combined Authority, where she was the first head of paid service. Ritchie led the city’s response to the pandemic and oversaw the Newcastle Covid Recovery Plan including an ambitious £50m plan to transform the city centre. She was appointed to chair of the GPA in January 2020. She is a member of the advisory board of the National Leadership Centre and a member of Newcastle University Council. She is a former chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England) and former deputy chief executive of the One North East Regional Development Agency. Ritchie was awarded her CBE in January 2021 for services to local government and public service reform.

Jane Robinson

Pro-vice-chancellor, engagement and place, Newcastle University

Robinson joined Newcastle University in 2019. As pro-vice chancellor, she leads the university’s engagement & place strategy, focusing on building partnerships to enhance its social, economic and cultural contributions. Previously, Robinson was Durham University’s chief operating officer with strategic oversight of operations and external engagement. Before taking up her position at Durham, she was chief executive of Gateshead Council. She also played a leading role in the establishment of the North East Combined Authority and the commission on health and social care integration. Robinson holds an MBA and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English Literature. She is also a fellow of the RSA; chair of culture, creativity and education – an international charity which supports creative learning, co-chair of the North East cultural partnership and holds non-executive positions with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, Centre for Life and the Tyne Community Learning Trust.

Boudewijn Ruitenburg

Chief operating officer, EDGE Technologies

Ruitenburg is chief operating officer and a board member of EDGE, owned by OVG Real Estate. Boudewijn began his professional career at Amvest and Unibail-Rodamco, where he honed his asset and development management skills on high street shops and shopping centres. In 2008, he joined EDGE as commercial manager. His knack for recognising upcoming talent and building high-performance teams saw Boudewijn to rise to the role of head of investment in 2015. He was then swiftly promoted to executive commercial director for Western Europe in 2016. In his current role as chief operating officer, Boudewijn is passionate about working alongside the teams he mentors, unlocking new projects and creating stand-out buildings in cities around the world.

Caroline Simpson

Chief executive, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Simpson is a proud public servant and has passionately delivered place-based regeneration for more than 25 years through having clear vision, developing strong partnerships and a relentless focus on delivery. As chief executive at Stockport MBC she is focused on a growth and neighbourhood agenda, which delivers a place-based approach to connecting deeper into communities and addressing decades of inequalities. In her previous role as the deputy chief executive at Stockport, she led the £1bn transformation programme which is radically transforming a proud northern town centre. As well as being leader of development, regeneration, planning and transport, she has also led the delivery and reform of frontline place management and property services. Previous roles span local government, housing and regional development agencies in the West Midlands and North West. Her career started in the Liverpool, delivering community-based regeneration projects with a particular focus on work and skills.

Paul Simpson

Chief executive, Derby City Council

Paul joined Derby City Council in August 2019 as Strategic Director of Corporate Resources and Deputy Chief Executive.  Prior to that he was at Milton Keynes Council, as their Deputy CEO, having previously been their Corporate Director for Resources. In January 2020, on the retirement of Derby’s former Chief Executive, he took on the role of Acting Chief Executive and then in March 2020, three days before the first national COVID lockdown, he was appointed to his current role of Chief Executive.

Paul is a qualified accountant and has worked in a wide variety of organisations including PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Ministry of Defence, Department for Education, the NHS and four other councils.  He lives in Derbyshire and actually started his career at Derby City Council, back in 1991, as a Trainee Accounting Technician.

Paul Singh

Founder, EEDN Ltd and policy lead for small and medium size enterprises, City of London Corporation

I spent the first 15 years in the real estate and construction industry as a commercial and claims lead on technically complex projects ranging from Heathrow Terminal 2 to the construction of Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium in 2019. I then launched a number of property and construction companies and am currently co-founder and commercial director of EEDN, a consultancy start-up in the technical real estate sector. Having just finished our second year of business, we have already partnered with niche industry experts to help clients plan and deliver quality control laboratories, centres for innovation, campuses and more.

I have a number of qualifications including a master’s in construction law and dispute resolution from King’s College London and have won industry awards and published articles/journals. I was recently appointed policy lead for small and medium-sized businesses for the City of London corporation and sit on this authority’s property investment board as well as many other boards including within the chartered institute of building.

I can therefore provide a unique high-level perspective and understanding of the UK’s life science real estate sector and where it may develop in the future.

Pam Smith

Chief executive, Newcastle City Council

Pam Smith joined Newcastle City Council as chief executive in January 2022 having been chief executive at Stockport Council since 2017 where she was also Greater Manchester’s lead chief executive for ‘Age Friendly Greater Manchester’, and she continues to be the Solace lead spokesperson for housing.

Pam was previously chief executive at Burnley Council and has also worked for the Audit Commission.

Pam is passionate about people, communities and neighbourhoods and is eager to work with residents and colleagues from across the region to achieve the best outcomes for the people of Newcastle; leveraging the opportunities that levelling up and devolution offer to secure outstanding schools, excellent jobs and high-quality homes to make Newcastle one of the best places in the world to grow up, work and live.

Andy Street

Mayor of West Midlands

Before becoming Mayor, Andy combined a career at John Lewis, Britain’s most successful workers’ co-operative, with a host of high-profile economic development roles, working with local and national government.  

Starting on the John Lewis graduate scheme, Andy rose through the ranks to become managing director, overseeing one of the most successful periods in the company’s history.  

He was also chair of the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) between 2011 and 2016, helping to build the relationships that have underpinned the economic growth of the region.  

Additionally, he has been lead non-executive director for the Department for Communities and Local Government as well as a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group.  

Outside of work, Andy is passionate about the arts, particularly in the West Midlands, having previously served as vice chairman of Performances Birmingham Limited, which is responsible for running the city’s Symphony and Town Halls.  

In June 2015, Andy was awarded the CBE for services to the national economy. He was named ‘Most Admired Leader’ by business magazine, Management Today in 2014 and received the ‘President’s award’ from the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce for his work in the region. He holds three honorary degrees from Birmingham City University, Aston University and the University of Birmingham.  

Huw Thomas

Leader, Cardiff Council

Councillor Huw Thomas is the leader of Cardiff Council and is the youngest council leader in Wales.

Huw has served as a local councillor for the Splott ward in Cardiff since 2012 and has previously held the positions of cabinet member for sport, leisure & culture and cabinet member for adult social services.

He was elected as leader of the council in May 2017 and his administration has prioritised tackling inequality and growing the city’s economy for the benefit of all communities, whilst ensuring that Cardiff’s growth is clean and sustainable.

He chairs the Cardiff public services board and is a director of Millennium Stadium Plc.  He is also the Welsh local government association spokesperson for culture, tourism & major events.

Huw has previously held positions with sustainable travel group Sustrans and as a project manager for Airbus.  More recently, he was employed as the Head of Christian Aid Wales.

Originally from Aberystwyth, Huw graduated in music from Oxford University before completing a Masters in International Relations at Aberystwyth University.

Away from politics, Huw supports Aberystwyth Town and is a devoted Wales football fan.  A supporter of culture and the arts, Huw has played with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He is also an outdoor enthusiast, keen cyclist and fluent Welsh speaker

Petri Valkama

Partner, NREP

Valkama is a partner and deputy CIO at NREP and leads the firm’s strategic transactions and expansion to new markets. He has been with NREP more than nine years. During this time he has invested across segments, built the firm’s investment strategies in co-living and multi-family residential, and most recently led the firm’s living business across countries. Valkama has been closely involved with crafting the firm’s solution toolbox for reaching its ambitious sustainability goals, including the net zero goal by 2028.

Ricardo Valente

City councillor and board member, Porto Vivo (the city’s urban regeneration agency)

Valente is city councillor for economy, employment and entrepreneurship and city councillor for finance, economic activities and inspectorate. He is board member of Porto Vivo – Porto urban rehabilitation society. Valente is also a professor at the School of Economics and management of the University of Porto and at PBS – Porto Business School. Valente was city councillor for economy, tourism and commerce and city councillor for European funds (2017-2021), city councillor for economic and social development (2016 – 2017), and non-executive city councillor (2013 – 2016). He was also the president of porto convention & visitors bureau (2018 – 2020), president of the board of GO Porto – municipal management and works company (2016-2017), and member of the national bidding commission for the relocation of the European medicines agency (2017). From 1992 to 2016, Valente worked in risk management consulting, capital markets (as director and board member of brokerage firms), asset management (as CEO of one of the largest independent asset management firms in Portugal), investment banking (as member of the board of a bank), and was also an investment consultant. Valente has a master’s degree in finance and a MBA in finance from the Catholic University of Lisbon, and a degree in economics from the University of Porto. Valente is the author of several books on risk management.

Chris Valentine

Head of central London office agency, JLL

Valentine leads the central London agency team. He has spent more than 15 years working across central London’s leading markets for both landlords and occupiers to provide strategic development, letting and acquisition advice. His in-depth knowledge in the central London market means he understands the nuances and complexities of the market, but also recognises the fundamental changes that are happening that will dictate how office space is delivered and occupied in the future.

Dr Valerie Vaughan-Dick MBE

Chief executive, Royal Institute of British Architects

Vaughan-Dick has worked at a senior level in the public, private and voluntary sectors. She is currently the chief executive of the Royal Institute of British Architects, the global professional membership body driving excellence in architecture. RIBA serves more than 50,000 members and society to deliver better buildings and places, stronger communities and a sustainable environment. Being inclusive, ethical, environmentally aware and collaborative underpins all RIBA does. Vaughan-Dick started her career with the UK National Audit Office, where she qualified as an accountant. She has extensive experience in the built environment. She has been a managing director of a housing association, advised on public finance initiative building projects and has considerable international experience. She has been a chair of a heritage properties regeneration organisation, chair of an NHS trust and is currently the chair of a housing association which manages 8,000 homes in London.

Catherine Webster

Chief executive, Thriving Investments

Webster started at Thriving Investments, formerly known as PfP Capital, in January 2023 to focus on increasing funds under management alongside the delivery of social value, augmenting the existing fund management platform across high-quality affordable housing, private-rented residential and urban regeneration strategies. She joined from Quintain, where she was executive director for strategy and investment and chair of the sustainability steering group. Webster has 30 years of real estate experience and has held several leadership roles as an investor or a lender in a wide array of companies including private equity, fund management and investment banking at Hudson Advisors (Lone Star Funds), TIAA & Lehman Brothers Global Real Estate. She holds a BSc in land management from Reading University, an MBA from INSEAD and is a member of the BPF’s affordable housing committee, an RICS member and co-chair for the Creative Land Trust.

Melanie Williams

Partner, DWF

Williams is the head of DWF’s global real estate sector group and has more than 20 years’ experience of advising on the investment and funding of real estate development projects.

With a reputation as the go-to adviser for property work in the hospitality sector, she also leads the firm’s hospitality sector group and has a wealth of expertise in the acquisition of hotels, development and refurbishment projects, and real estate finance. She has vast experience of handling asset management work for investors, developers and banks, as well as dealing with landlord and tenant matters.

Williams sits on the board of directors of the Colmore Business District BID, working with key business and community leaders to encourage investment in projects and services which improve the Birmingham business environment. She also sits on the board of directors for Citysave Credit Union.