John is Managing Director for M7 Real Estate Ireland and is responsible for acquisitions, asset management and business development.

With over 20 years’ experience, John was previously Head of UK Asset Management at M7 until 2021. Prior to joining M7 in 2014, John was a Director with UBS Global Asset Management where he was responsible for the Triton Property Fund, a UK balanced property unit trust which invested in all main commercial property sectors. In addition, John also held responsibility for the investment management of private UBS Wealth Management clients.

Prior to UBS, John worked at Land Securities Trillium as a Senior Asset Manager where he undertook strategic asset management of a large regional portfolio.

John is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and holds an Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and has a BSc Hons in Real Estate Management from Oxford Brookes University.

I am an Assistant Professor of Economics at Trinity College Dublin, where my primary research areas are housing markets, urban economics, and economic history. I am particularly interested in long-run housing markets, in order to better understand current housing experiences such as rapidly increasing housing costs in many high-income cities. You can find out more about my research either here or at my profiles on RePEc or Google Scholar. In addition, I am a Research Associate at the Spatial Economics Research Centre in LSE and author of the Daft.ie Reports on Ireland’s sale and rental housing markets. I am also a Board member of the HEA, Honorary Secretary of SSISI, and on the organising committee of DEW.

I am an active contributor to the policy debate, especially on the topic housing in Ireland. Most of the articles I publish either in my weekly column for the Sunday Independent or as commentaries for the Daft.ie Report are subsequently archived here. I am also engaged by a number of organisations each year, private and public, for public speaking or for bespoke consultancy. If that is of interest, please contact me. Students looking for materials relating to modules I teach should look for the relevant module on mymodule.tcd.ie.

With the Trinity Online Education team, I also run an online course in the Economics of the Property Market. The course is aimed both at professionals, including policymakers, who work day-to-day with housing but who may not have the economics background, and at the general public.

Lorcain Egan is Co-Head of Europe for Starwood. Mr. Egan is responsible for Starwood’s lending platform in Europe and Asia. Between 2013 and 2017 Mr. Egan structured and executed financings whilst working in Capital Markets, supporting Starwood’s equity acquisitions across Europe. Since 2018 Mr. Egan has led Starwood’s lending business in Europe and Asia.

Prior to joining Starwood Capital, Mr. Egan was a Vice President at Barclays Bank where he worked in their Structured Property, Debt Finance team. In this team, Mr. Egan focused on originating real estate debt opportunities for Barclays.

Mr. Egan holds a degree in Law & Economics from the University of Ulster.

John is a Partner and Head of Debt and Capital Advisory and Head of Turnaround and Restructuring Services.

John is also the Irish firm's Real Estate lead Partner.

John has over 25 years financial services experience including 10 years spent in corporate banking and mezzanine

finance. Since joining Deloitte in 2010 John has led the firms Debt & Capital Advisory team, raising over €1.5bn

p.a. for Irish real estate investors and developers, corporates and private equity investors.

Nick has over 20 years of banking & real estate experience and joined Bank of Ireland Group in 2012 from IBRC having previously worked in senior risk & corporate banking roles with Anglo Irish Bank & AIB Capital Markets. Nick heads the relationship management team within Bank of Ireland’s Real Estate Finance Group. He has responsibility for the Bank’s large ticket property relationships in the commercial and residential property sectors. Nick is a member of the Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking Senior Management team and holds B.Comm & Masters degrees in economics from University College Cork.

Conor leads the commercial strategy for Daft.ie, identifying, forecasting, planning & driving key projects to position the business for long term growth.

Sean Towmey is a Partner and Head of the Real Estate team at Addleshaw Goddard in Ireland. His expertise ranges from traditional acquisitions, development, finance, leasing, and re-structuring through to student accommodation, data centres, primary care centres and the private rented sector. Sean has a strong track record of representing both foreign and domestic investors on the sale and acquisition of all diverse property types and has acted on several large office lettings both on the landlord and tenant side. He works closely with our corporate team in relation to property elements of mergers and acquisitions. He has also worked extensively with lawyers in other jurisdictions on the real estate elements arising in international M&A deals and on international property syndication transactions. In addition, Sean works alongside our banking team, providing advice in financing both for banks and borrowers. He also advises on lending restructurings and the enforcement of securities in conjunction with our corporate recovery team. Sean is also an acknowledged market leader in the acquisition, development, and management of social housing.

Michael Purcell is Director, Asset Management at Eagle Street.

Michael joined Eagle Street from JLL, where he spent over 12 years managing a wide range of assets for a multitude of local and international clients including Blackstone, Spear Street Capital, Laing O’Rourke, Mapletree, Hewlett Packard, Lloyds Banking Group and Ronan Real Estate Group.

Michael was instrumental at JLL in identifying suitable technology for assets under management, a key part of which was integrating new technology and sustainability measures and evaluating how properties are run and monitored.

Prior to this Michael was a general practice surveyor at DTZ Sherry FitzGerald (now Cushman & Wakefield) in Munster where he was responsible for industrial sales & lettings, rent reviews, and valuations.

Michael has a degree in Property Economics from Trinity College, is a Chartered Surveyor and a member of SCSI.

Emma is an director in Sigma Retail Partner. With 17 years’ experience in the commercial property market, she specialises in the asset management of shopping centres & retail parks throughout Ireland. Emma has worked on the incorporation of sustainability measures in both the day to day management of assets and at development stage to ensure that future assets incorporate best in class technologies. She understands the challenges of how to incorporate sustainability measures post development and the benefits that are available to owners if they can be included.

Damien is Real Estate Director at Fine Grain Property, which owns and manages more than 1 million

square feet of property across Ireland, providing a sustainable workplace community for more than 60

high profile international occupiers in Dublin, Maynooth, Athlone, Galway, Shannon, Limerick and Cork.

Damien is responsible for the implementation of Real Estate Strategy from acquisition through

development/redevelopment, leasing and disposal. His focus is on delivering quality, sustainable &

innovative property solutions helping clients attract and retain talented employees in thriving

Workplace Communities, boosting engagement and driving productivity and business success.

As a trusted property partner to its clients, Fine Grain Property offers a range of client solutions, from

development partner through shell and core space right up to providing bespoke fully fitted space

including furniture and fittings. Fine Grain Property has just completed its largest sale and lease back

transaction with global insurance company AXA Partners.

Damien is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and Project Manager with seventeen years’ experience in a

wide variety of construction and real estate projects. Damien holds a masters in Real Estate, a degree in

Construction Economics & Management together with Post Graduate Diploma’s in Project Management

and Arbitration. Damien is passionate about facilitating business growth and has a track record of

partnership with clients. Prior to joining Fine Grain Property, Damien was Head of Property at IDA

Ireland.

Donal is a Director in COADY Architects with over 20 years’ experience. COADY’s portfolio includes the delivery of a wide range of commercial, healthcare, residential and education buildings, including student accommodation developments. Donal understands the drivers of sustainability and focuses on delivering quality, sustainable and innovative design. Recent initiatives include leading COADYs contribution to the EU-funded ‘Drive 0’ project, a concept based on developing circular deep renovation solutions and supporting consumer centred business models for 7 case studies across Europe, one of which is an Irish case with COADY as Architect and consortium partner, with TU Dublin, Westmeath County Council and Vision Built with SISK. The Irish case study provided deep retrofit to existing houses using circular principles and modular construction techniques. Donal is also leading the Practice team specialising in modern methods of construction including overseeing the delivery of modular volumetric housing for the OPW, and school accommodation under the Department’s Prefabricated Modular Volumetric Accommodation Programme which involve regulation compliance checks, review of production drawings and design team coordination.

Mark Faithfull is the Dublin correspondent for Bisnow and a real estate and retail specialist, editing and contributing to international publications including Forbes, The Economist, MIPIM News, MAPIC News, World Retail Congress and the Forbes 30 under 30 Europe. He covers trends in retail and property and regularly speaks and moderates at events around Europe.

NTM Capital LLP (2015-): manager of fund investing in PBSA in Ireland (return to date of >3x money)

OBA Capital Partners (2019-): development manager

Force Foundations (2007-17): partner and co-owner in construction company in London

Shrubhill & Murano (2013-16): designated member of Edinburgh PBSA development

Praxient Capital (2010-13): fund manager

Levine Capital Management (2009): fund manager

Pendragon Capital (2004-08): fund manager

Morgan Stanley (2000-04): advising PE funds on LBOs

Bain & Company (1996-2000): strategic consultant

Oriel College, Oxford University (1993-96): MA, Maths

Jane joined Fresh Property Group as Chief Operating Officer in 2010 and has overall responsibility for the operational delivery of the business, overseeing the day-to-day running of the Fresh Student Living and Five Nine Brands. Jane has played an intrinsic part in the growth of Fresh Property Group and has overall responsibility for the management and

marketing of over 18,000 student beds across the UK and a team of over 300 staff.

Jane is an experienced student accommodation operator, having worked in the sector for over 15 years, working as Operations Manager at iQ from its inception. Before that, Jane worked in the Social Housing sector for over 15 years, leading teams providing supported housing, reactive and planned maintenance, leasehold management and general social housing.

Rob is the CEO and former MD of Reddy Architecture and Urbanism, a practice that works extensively with the private and public sector on Student Living. Rob is working with the committee reporting to the minister on cost-effective delivery of Student residences and is active in a review of the student residences guidelines for the Irish Market. In the last 5 years, Rob has been involved in the delivery of over 5,000 bedspaces in the Irish Market and recently completed UCD Village, a new concept in on-campus living.

Clair Cassidy is Head of Real Estate at LK Shields. She has extensive experience in advising on all aspects of commercial real estate including acquisition and disposal of development land, development of PBSA and social housing sites, forward funding transactions, sale and acquisition of multi-property investments and commercial landlord and tenant. Clair’s clients include Irish and international clients, developers, real estate funds, family investment houses and private investors.