Keith Purdie is Senior Director of Development & Operations at Cambridge Science Park, where he leads key aspects of the Park’s operational strategy and supports delivery of its long-term masterplan.

Cambridge Science Park is the UK’s longest-established science park and home to more than 130 organisations spanning life sciences, technology, and related sectors. Keith’s role brings together estate operations, occupier experience, infrastructure, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement, with a particular focus on creating the conditions in which innovative businesses can establish themselves, grow and remain within the Park.

Before joining Cambridge Science Park, Keith was Site Director at Colworth Science Park, where he worked closely with occupiers, operators, and regional partners to develop the campus ecosystem and support businesses across the food, biotechnology, and life sciences sectors. His wider experience includes economic development, skills, and employer engagement, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Sarah is responsible for Imperial’s capital development programme as well as the management of Imperial’s non-academic innovation and residential properties. This includes leading plans for a new mixed-use 22-acre campus in White City which blends academic, commercial, and residential activity around a new community park. Sarah has a PhD in town planning and was previously Executive Director Place at Enfield Council after holding various roles in British Land.

Barry brings over 25 years of expertise in complex urban development, having contributed to prominent projects throughout London and the South of the UK.

His real estate journey began at Lendlease, where he worked on significant developments like Bluewater, Chapelfield, and Greenwich Peninsula. Barry subsequently played a foundational role at First Base, elevating it to a top-tier mixed-use developer and ascending to CEO in 2020.  First Base was involved in some of the highest profile and most innovative developments in London including Adelaide Wharf, the setting for a BBC film, KX Nido an early Kings Cross project, and East Village the transformation of the Athlete’s Village at the Olympic Park.

In 2021, Barry founded Socius, an urban development company dedicated to genuinely impactful mixed-use regeneration. Established as an early ‘B Corp’, Socius has since built up a £2.5bn pipeline of projects in growth cities across the South including Botanic Place and Mill Yard in Cambridge, the London Cancer Hub in Sutton and Edward Street Quarter in Brighton.

Barry's commitment to creating great places and experiences ramped up further in 2023 when he founded Populate, a dedicated place management operating company. Populate is now adding people to places and creating new and better user experiences, ranging from street markets in Brighton to research ecosystems in Sutton.

His strategic vision and leadership have not only set new standards in the industry but have also demonstrated that it is possible to create meaningful social and environmental impact whilst also delivering strong investor returns, which means that the approach and model is replicable.

Mark Swetman is the Chief Executive Office at LS Estates, a developer focused on retrofit and sustainable redevelopment for offices and life sciences in Central London. Established in 2014, Mark saw an opportunity to establish a boutique central London operator to work with both local and international capital sources. He has over 25 years of direct real estate experience, the majority of which acting as a principal with significant new business and development roles at Hammerson plc and at Hines both in central London and in Paris. Mark has a degree in Real Estate from Oxford Brookes University and a Masters in Finance from City University and is a member of the RICS.

Priya is a Chartered Chemical Engineer, who has over 15 years’ experience working on high profile projects within a number of highly regulated sectors including pharmaceutical, industrial gases and nuclear. Over the last 9 years, she has managed large-scale projects within the life sciences sector for a number of pharmaceutical clients, and over this time has amassed extensive knowledge and expertise in the successful delivery of complex pharmaceutical manufacturing and life sciences real estate projects. In her current role at Merrick, Priya is leading growth in the UK and European life sciences, pharmaceutical and laboratory markets by increasing local presence and capability while also ensuring clients are receiving the highest quality of architecture and engineering design services and technical quality and operational performance consulting services.

Manisha Kulkarni is Director of Science & Technology at Bulb, with over 25 years of experience in scientific research and laboratory design across the pharmaceutical, chemical, and construction sectors. She holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry and brings deep expertise in translating complex scientific requirements into high-performing, future-ready laboratory environments. At Bulb, she advises on lab design, workflow optimisation, and regulatory frameworks, helping bridge the gap between science and the built environment.

Tim leads the science business area, across the UKIMEA region for Arup. He leads on strategy and

business development, maintains relationships with clients and manages a portfolio of projects.

Tim is a chartered engineer and experienced team leader, having led multi-discipline teams in

delivering engineering solutions on complex highly serviced buildings from concept design phases

through to fully coordinated detail design and construction.

He has been involved in science buildings from his first project over 28 years ago, working on the

design and construction of a facility to produce injectable vaccines. As well as other manufacturing

projects experience, Tim has been involved in the design of many research and development

laboratories for a range of science users and scales of project. These have been for private clients,

government institutes and higher education establishments.

Tim thrives in solving client’s challenges bringing a wealth of experience to provide robust, energy

efficient and sustainable design solutions, applying his knowledge of construction, commissioning

and maintenance.

Amy Hockley is a Head of Innovation Leasing at British Land with responsibility for workspace leasing across our 7.5m Central London portfolio; including the 53 acre Canada Water masterplan and more recently Innovation Campuses.

Amy has been in this role since 2016, having previously worked as a Director in the Tenant Advisory Team at CBRE, advising occupiers on leasing strategies and transaction in Central London. The experience gained in working with occupiers has motivated Amy to focus on a collaborative approach between occupier and landlord; delivering building design with the end user at the core of decisions and flexible solutions to real estate needs that respond to business drivers. Amy has a strong interest in workplace design and customer experience.

Under Henry’s leadership, King’s Cross is bringing forward a range of office spaces to lease. These include space at Western Transit Shed, Two Pancras Square and The Jellicoe, where the neighbourhood is delivering new purpose-built flexible workspace in partnership with Fora (formerly The Office Group) as it continues to evolve its product offer to office occupiers.

Henry brings almost two decades of experience and leadership across commercial real estate investment, development, leasing and asset management, including roles as Head of UK and Vice President for Offices, Retail and Life Sciences at Oxford Properties Group. During his almost 10-year tenure, he played a pivotal role in growing the company’s office and retail platform in the UK.

Artem founded Mission Street in 2017. Building on extensive track record across investment, development and finance, he has overall strategic responsibility for the growth of the company, project delivery and management.

Prior to Mission Street, Artem was Head of UK Acquisitions and a member of the founding team of GreenOak Real Estate (now BGO), a major international real estate investment and asset management firm (at the time c. £10 Bn under management). He also previously worked for Morgan Stanley in their UK Real Estate team.

Artem’s track record spans development, asset management, real estate private equity and finance. This has included property acquisitions and corporate M&A, leading end-to-end delivery of complex development and asset management projects across the UK, and structuring debt and equity financing (both as the operating partner and capital partner).

Artem graduated with an MA (First Class Honours) in Land Economy at the University of Cambridge and sits on the Investment and Development Committee for the Institute of Cancer Research.

Candice leads our Healthcare and Life Science Real Estate team advising on Hospitals (NHS and Private), Care Homes, GP polyclinics, and lab facilities throughout the UK. She specialises in large scale investment and development transactions acting for the private and public sectors. She has acted regularly on repeat investment from US REITS, international Private Equity investors and UK pension funds, on complex UK cross border real estate acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, institutional investments, and urban regeneration mixed use developments.

Brad is the Project Director for Sister, Manchester’s ambitious new £1.7bn innovation district, where he leads the delivery team across innovation, property development, and commercial strategy.

In his role as Chief Commercial Officer at Bruntwood SciTech - the UK’s leading developer of innovation ecosystems - Brad has spent over a decade championing the growth of the science and technology sector. He’s played a pivotal role in nurturing some of Manchester’s most exciting home-grown businesses, while also attracting major global names to the UK, including Uber, Disney, Octopus Energy, Roku, and Puma.

A passionate advocate for inclusive innovation, Brad is committed to ensuring that the economic growth of the city directly benefits local communities and creates opportunities for all. 

Kerry Walker is Managing Director of Business Durham, where she leads Durham’s inward investment, business support, economic development and commercial property programmes. With more than two decades of experience delivering economic growth across the North East, she has successfully led major regeneration schemes, investment projects and business growth initiatives that have generated lasting economic impact.

Kerry is responsible for driving Business Durham’s ambitious growth agenda, including the ongoing development of NETPark, the county’s nationally significant science and technology park, and a portfolio of strategic employment sites and commercial property assets. She is passionate about using investment, innovation and placemaking to create the conditions for sustainable growth, helping businesses to thrive while attracting new investment and opportunities to Durham.

Having trained in both Architecture and Planning, Seb has spent a career at some of the property industry’s most innovative developers, starting out at Urban Splash, Skanska and Studio Hive before joining YTL Developments in 2017. 

He now leads the team responsible for one of the most exciting regeneration projects in the country. He is also a Trustee of Design West, which champions quality design and placemaking across the South West.  

Lisa Hannon leads Scottish Enterprise’s work on strategic property and innovation infrastructure projects, supporting the development of Scotland’s next generation of science, technology and innovation districts. Working at the intersection of public policy, investment and real estate, she helps shape projects that create the conditions for private sector investment, company growth and long-term economic impact.

Her portfolio includes major life sciences and innovation assets such as Edinburgh BioQuarter and Dundee Lifesciences Innovation Hub. Lisa works closely with investors, developers, universities, health institutions and government partners to deliver investment-ready sites and infrastructure that support Scotland’s ambitions in life sciences, advanced manufacturing and innovation-led growth.

Alan is a Bid Director for McLaughlin & Harvey’s preconstruction department and has 40 years’ construction experience spanning commercial, higher education and healthcare sectors.

Drawing on this experience, Alan drives McLaughlin & Harvey’s Life Science presence, working collaboratively with key stakeholders to develop strategic offerings to clients, which blends the company’s historical office and laboratory experience with current specialisms and expertise.

Jake is a Cities Specialist at strategic communications consultancy ING, where he leads the firm’s flagship Most Talked About Cities research and helps cities and city-shaping organisations deliver thought leadership and implement long-term strategies.

With nine years’ experience supporting local governments, regional investment organisations and infrastructure leaders across 30+ cities internationally, he specialises in market analysis, sector mapping, and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to joining ING, Jake led the research team at bespoke urban consultancy The Business of Cities, where he oversaw and managed the world’s largest database of city performance benchmarks and delivered reports on the geography of innovation for the World Economic Forum, JLL and the Connected Places Catapult. Jake has also delivered guest lectures for UCL’s MPA in Urban Innovation and Policy on how business and business techniques help the built world to succeed.