Michael O’Shea is a partner and Head of the Gowling WLG's contentious construction team. He is recognised by clients and his peers as a leader in his field and is one of the few lawyers to have taken a construction case to the House of Lords (now the Supreme Court).

Michael is a CEDR Accredited Mediator, member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Past Chairman of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors North West Dispute Faculty, a member of TeCSA, a Regional Coordinator of the Society of Construction Law and has been a visiting lecturer at the University of Manchester. He is also qualified as a solicitor in Ireland.

He is known for his role as trusted advisor to a number of significant UK contractors and is a specialist in complex legal, factual and technical disputes.

Andrea is head of retail and leisure at Bruntwood. She leads a dynamic team of creative thinkers, curating places to help shape original and interesting communities and cultivating long-term relationships with customers. Future-facing, she is passionate about food and drink, retail innovation and placemaking.

With over 22 years in the industry, Andrea leads on retail and leisure development, asset management and leasing, working with pop-ups, independents and national brands.

Ben Sanderson is Executive Director in the real estate group at Hermes Investment Management. Hermes are a London headquartered institutional fund manager with real estate AUM of £8.5 billion. He oversees a £5 billion global real estate portfolio for one of Hermes key clients and is responsible for all real estate investments made on behalf of Hermes client funds outside the UK as well as overseeing the Hermes real estate debt investment programme. Ben also established the Hermes UK PRS/residential investment platform in 2015.

Ben has extensive experience of global real estate investing across public and private markets. Before joining Hermes in September 2008, Ben was Fund Manager of the M&G Global Real Estate Securities Fund and managed the UK Prudential’s global real estate securities exposure. Prior to that, he led Prudential Property Investment Management’s (PRUPIM – now M&G Real Estate) global view formation and strategy team for PRUPIM’s £17 billion of private real estate assets under management. From 1998 to 2003 Ben worked in London and Tokyo for Jones Lang LaSalle as part of the European and Asia Pacific real estate research teams.

Ben holds a Bachelor of Arts and Masters degrees in Economics, is an FCA authorised person, a member of the UK Investment Property Forum (IPF) and chairs the IPF’s International Investment Group and is a member of the UK Society of Business Economists and the CFA Institute. Ben was also previously a member of the UK AREF Investor Committee and the IPF's Research Steering Group.

Simon is a highly experienced and respected restaurateur with over 35 years of experience, most notably as Chef Patron and Creative Director of El Gato Negro and formerly Executive Head Chef at Harvey Nichols.

Originally from Yorkshire, Simon rapidly worked his way through the ranks at some of the county’s finest establishments before becoming the first Head Chef at Harvey Nichols’ restaurant in Leeds. After a stellar stint there he was seconded to their London operations; first heading up the kitchens at Prism, the company's prestigious City of London restaurant, before moving to the flagship Knightsbridge store as Executive Head Chef. During this time Simon visited Catalonia and the Basque Country, falling in love with the diversity and excitement of modern Spanish cuisine.

Over the last decade Simon has been recognised in countless industry awards, with El Gato Negro one of the country’s most celebrated modern Spanish restaurants. In September 2018 Simon opened his second restaurant, Canto, bringing modern Portuguese cuisine to Manchester city centre. Simon plans to open his third restaurant in the city later this year (2019).

Jeremy is National Head fo Retail Planning in Savills, and also heads the team in Manchester. He works closely with colleagues in agency and development in Manchester, London and Leeds, and sits on the National Planning Board. He is well known in the retail and commercial sectors, having worked with investors, developers and retailers throughout the UK. He lives in Manchester and has lived its transformation into a modern European commercial centre that it is today.

Richard is a creative entrepreneur

and patron of the arts, who is

passionate about quality of place,

architecture, heritage and

provenance.

A keen proponent of sensitive

regeneration, he recently fought

and co-funded the campaign to

save Smithfield Market in London

from demolition.

An Honours Graduate of Reading

University’s Land Management

(Development and Planning

Specialism), Richard has

established, built and sold four

property investment and

professional companies in the past

two decades. He has initiated and

developed more than 6 million

square feet of mixed-use

development in his career, to date.

Pioneering Mount Anvil in 1991 –

one of London’s leading house

builders – he delivered 5,000

student bedrooms and regenerated

award-wining social housing

projects throughout London and

the south east.

In 1998 Richard co-founded

Cathedral Healthcare, a specialist

development and investment

company, growing the business into

a leading developer of primary

healthcare facilities. He sold this

company to Primary Healthcare

Properties in 2005.

Richard co-founded Cathedral

Group PLC in 1998 and nurtured the

company to become a market-

leader in public-private partnership

developments, building a pipeline of

over £2bn. In May 2014, Cathedral

merged with Development

Securities, which ultimately became

U+I in November 2015. U+I is a

FTSE listed public company with a

development pipeline of £6bn.

Together with U+I’s Chief Executive

Matthew Weiner, Richard is a driving

force behind the strategic direction

of the company, whose vision is to

create huge, long-lasting social and

economic change for communities

and sustainable value for

shareholders.

On 1st January 2018 the Secretary

of State for Digital, Culture, Media

and Sport appointed Richard as a

Commissioner for Historic England.

Catherine has worked in the heritage sector for 23 years. She worked for Portsmouth and Birmingham City Councils encouraging a pragmatic approach to conservation and making good design mainstream. She then moved back home to Newcastle to work for English Heritage, mainly on regeneration schemes and the design of new development in historic areas. Having studied Town Planning with Urban Design she has a strong interest in urbanism and the value that heritage has for places and communities. At Historic England, Catherine is Director for the North West, leading the teams in providing advice, grants and support for those engaged in constructively managing heritage.

Laurence is Trilogy’s Head of Asset Management & Leasing. His principal responsibilities include the identification and implementation of all property related business plans and value-add initiatives, as well as the management of agents and outsourced advisors.

Laurence has an MA in Property Valuation and Law, holds the IMC qualification and is a member of the RICS.

Sue Ryan is a partner at international law firm Gowling WLG. Sue supports her construction and infrastructure-sector clients on the avoidance, management and ultimately resolution of their disputes. She has two decades experience of acting for contractors, employers, developers and consultants, and is often instructed in relation to professional negligence claims for and against construction and engineering-related professionals. Sue provides structured training on dispute avoidance and management to her clients and also provides contractual and risk management advice during the course of major projects in order to assist in their management and delivery.

James Heather was appointed by U+I in March 2017 to deliver the £850 million regeneration of Manchester city centre’s Mayfield.

Previously a partner with Argent, where he spent 17 years, he was responsible for the delivery of several transformational projects including No1 St Peter’s Square in Manchester and elements of Brindleyplace in Birmingham.

He left Argent in 2014 to start his own venture, Rotherwood Property Development.