Ian is an assurance partner specialising in providing audit, assurance and financial reporting services with particular expertise advising organisations in the real estate sector. Ian works with a wide range of clients from owner-managed SMEs to global businesses including private equity backed companies. An FCA with over 10 years audit experience alongside extensive commercial experience working for Land Securities Group PLC, a FTSE 100 listed Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) and DEXUS Property Group, one of Australia’s leading real estate groups with exposure to commercial, industrial and retail assets along with capital management. Ian is a member of Investment Property Forum and a member of Forum for the Built Environment.

Ciara joined Bruntwood in 2005 commencing her career as an Asset Manager. Ciara provided strategic services while adding value to Bruntwoods Manchester City Centre portfolio. She worked on rent reviews, lease renewals and surrenders while also helping with the company’s 5 year business plan including any acquisitions.

In 2007 Ciara became a chartered surveyor and started a new team for Bruntwood where she became Head of Customer Retention across all the regional cities. In 2013 Ciara became Head of Asset Management for Manchester leading on a portfolio with a value of £450m which involved Acquisition and Disposal work including the prestigious sale of City Tower for £132m and acquisition of a number of key city centre assets including Bruntwood’s new HQ Union.

Most recently Ciara was appointed as the Director of Asset Management looking across the Bruntwood Group. She is working on upskilling the asset management team and supporting them in their development while also driving value across the portfolio and overseeing strategic plans.

Ailish Christian-West is responsible for managing Get Living’s £2B build-to-rent neighbourhood portfolio and current development pipeline of circa 6,000 homes, working with investors and development partners to drive investment performance and grow the Get Living UK portfolio, targeting 15,000 homes. She leads Get Living’s ESG agenda and supports industry collaboration on a broad range of issues, advocating for a sustainable real estate sector and recognition of social contribution.

In 2020, Christian-West chaired Revo, a national body representing the retail property industry during a particularly challenging time for the 30-year-old organisation due to the pandemic. She took up her current role leading Get Living’s portfolio during 2020, immediately getting to work on building a talented portfolio management team to deliver an ambitious portfolio growth strategy.

She initiated the creation of the Lab E20 at East Village, an exemplar of the future of retail in residential neighbourhoods, where residents and visitors can see and buy sustainable products being designed and created in the store. She has led on investment and operational strategies to enhance portfolio performance, which are already delivering results.

Christian-West has more than 20 years’ experience in UK real estate. Prior to Get Living, she spent 12 years at Landsec as an executive committee member responsible for portfolio management and operations. At Landsec, she led key strategic initiatives including the London suburban residential asset strategy, exiting secondary shopping centres and creating significant value through building a retail outlet portfolio. She spent 10 years in fund management running core-plus and opportunistic funds, including at LaSalle Investment Management, and she has served on the board of a technology startup fund.

Christian-West enjoys spending time with her husband and two young children at home in London and looks forward to travelling again in the future.

Nick Chadwick has more than ten years of pan-European real estate and hospitality experience. Currently Nick is based in Starwood Capital’s London office where he asset manages a number of the firm’s major hotel investments. In this role, he has led the operational turn-around, redevelopment, rebranding, refinancing and disposition of a wide range of hotel real estate from independent single assets through to a large 4,000 key multi-branded portfolio.

Previously he worked in Starwood’s European acquisition team where he worked on over $1bn of hotel acquisitions. Prior to joining Starwood, Nick worked at Ernst & Young in the real estate audit department where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant

Nick holds a Bsc in Economics from the University of York and he is a member of the Hospitality Asset Managers Association European Chapter and currently serves as its Treasurer.

Chris Oglesby was appointed CEO of Bruntwood in 1999 and has overseen the growth of the business to one that owns over £1bn of commercial property across the city regions of Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds with a further £1bn development pipeline across all four cities. Bruntwood was founded on a belief that its success comes from the success of its colleagues, customers and the communities in which it operates.

Melanie joined the British Property Federation in 2015, following nine years as Director General of

the Food and Drink Federation.

Melanie began her working life as a Police Constable in the Metropolitan Police Service.  She joined

HM Customs in 1988 and subsequently held a number of senior roles in the civil service. Her role is

to champion a diverse, successful and sustainable real estate UK real estate sector recognised for

the positive benefits it delivers to communities across the country.

Melanie is also 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.

As Investment Director, Keith is responsible for planning and delivering Grosvenor’s commercial investment strategy away from the core London Estate holding. The aim of the strategy is to identify and deliver opportunities for Grosvenor Property UK to invest on a sole basis and with partners to build a complimentary and diversified investment portfolio with a strong financial return and which accords with our social objectives.

Keith’s current focus is on building a Regional Office Portfolio and over the past 12 months has acquired 6 assets in Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds totalling £170m of capital commitment. The focus of the portfolio is to reposition and adapt well located offices to provide for the evolving workplace and ESG demands of companies in those chosen markets.

Keith joined Grosvenor in 2013 as the Director of Capital Transactions for Grosvenor’s London Estate before moving to lead the asset management of the Mayfair portfolio between 2016 and 2020.

Prior to joining Grosvenor, Keith worked for PwC, Knight Frank and DTZ in transactional roles. He was educated at Cambridge University reading Land Economy and he is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.’

Joe Rigby is Managing Director of CBRE's Northern business, overseeing the Manchester, Liverpool, and Leeds offices. During his decade at CBRE, Joe has held several leadership roles in the North including Head of Occupier Services and Head of Office Agency. Widely regarded as a market leader, Rigby has advised occupiers on several high-profile Manchester deals, including Pinsent Masons and S&P Global at Relentless' St Michael's development which is now fully let.

Lucy is a Partner in Addleshaw Goddard's Real Estate Division, advising across a range of sectors including offices, life sciences and living. She is co-head of Addleshaw Goddard's student accommodation subsector. Lucy is Client Relationship Partner for a number of Addleshaw Goddard's key clients, including the Bruntwood Group, Watkin Jones Plc and Schroders Ground Rents Income Fund Plc. She is considered a leading lawyer in her field and is named as a "Next Generation Partner" in Legal 500.

Alexandra has an extensive career in the hospitality industry spanning 25 years. She is known for successfully scaling businesses while maintaining service delivery and without compromising brand standards. She is leading the charge at Clockwise as it doubles its portfolio year on year and expands internationally.

José Pellicer joined M&G Real Estate as Head of Investment Strategy in August 2019. He is responsible for setting the investment strategy across the fund range as well as overseeing the development of new products. He has over 20 years research and investment strategy experience in the UK and Continental Europe. Prior to this, he was Global Head of Research at Patrizia AG and a partner at Rockspring PIM prior to its acquisition by Patrizia. He has also worked at Goldman Sachs in the Property Derivatives team and at AEW, where he was Head of its London research operation. Jose began his career in 2000 as a general economist at Deutsche Bank and moved into the real estate division in 2002. José holds a Masters of Real Estate Investment from Cass Business School, a Masters in Quantitative Economics from Université Catholique de Louvain and a Bachelors degree from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

May is Head of Sustainability and Stakeholder Engagement.

May works across the Trilogy portfolio ensuring that ESG is embedded in everything we do, from on-the-ground in our assets to the Trilogy corporate strategy. She also brings 25 years’ experience of stakeholder engagement and partnership building in complex projects. As such she works closely with the teams in each asset – making sure we build ownership and support for our projects and deliver the Trilogy vision of taking unloved buildings and transforming them into creative, inspiring, and impactful places.

May has a First-Class Degree in Economics, Social Policy and primary and qualitative research. She is a government appointed High Street Task Force Expert and a Design Council, Built Environment Expert.

Raised in Salford, Tim took on his first derelict property (his own house) at the age of 21, having upcycled cars and sold student art during his time at Manchester Met University. Since then, he’s transformed unloved spaces across the North into amazing, design-led places. Never short on opinions on the state of the industry, he’s carved an enviable brand for CAPITAL&CENTRIC as one of the country’s most forward-thinking developers. They’re behind plans to transform parts of Manchester’s East Village – the area surrounding Piccadilly – into the city’s next growth district, with first mover projects including Crusader Mill. He’s this year been tasked by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to chair the Business Network for Homelessness, the private sector response to helping end rough sleeping in the region.

Catalina joined the Manchester studio in 2021 as an Architect supporting the Feasibility team. She brings a passion for successful placemaking to her work in the residential and mixed-use sectors. She has experience working on a wide range of projects at all work stages, including large residential developments, masterplans, offices and listed buildings restorations.

Having completed her MArch degree in Architecture at Sheffield Hallam University in 2018, Catalina is now conducting PhD research there, with a focus on art-centred placemaking. In 2020, she made RIBA’s Rising Stars shortlist for her project work and her research on ethics and sustainability in architecture.

Areas of expertise:

Residential / Mixed-Use / Concept Design / Placemaking / Research

Richard joined Cain International in 2015 and is responsible for leading the firm’s investment and asset management activities across Europe. Since 2015 Richard has built an experienced multi-disciplined team, overseen the development of the UK portfolio and expanded the firm into Continental Europe.

Prior to joining Cain International, Richard was managing director at Oxford Properties the real estate arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS), the C$97 billion (December 2018) Canadian Pension Plan. Richard was a founding member of the Oxford Properties European team and between 2010 and 2015 was responsible for Investment and asset management activities, including three development partnerships with British Land, Brookfield and The Crown Estate and the acquisition of five central London office and retail investments and a large South Eastern England office park.

Before Oxford, Richard was European development director at MGPA, where he had responsibility for the funds development and asset management activities across Europe including France, Poland and the UK. In addition, Richard has held senior positions with Lend Lease, the Australian property group, where he worked in the UK, Germany, Spain and Poland and also with Laing O’Rourke, the international construction group.

Katherine is the Managing Director of VervLife; a specialist consultancy, operations and creative partner for the BTR and rented homes sector engaged on multi-family, single-family and co-living communities.

Working within BTR since its genesis in the UK, Katherine is an operational expert and has a keen focus on what shifting resident behaviours and lifestyles mean for the product being brought to market, how technology can be harnessed to drive operational effectiveness and the role of intelligent asset design in enhancing investor returns.

VervLife is BCorp Pending and is committed to lead standards of social value, resident wellness and planetary awareness in the rented residential sector.

John is Commercial Director for the Commercial Real Estate team at Aldermore. He is responsible for developing new propositions and enhancing the customer journey to meet growing demand. John has 30 years’ experience in the industry having previously worked in a number of national roles at Bank of Scotland, CYBG and NAB.

Mark is Chief Executive of Landsec, joining them in April 2020. He has extensive knowledge and experience of the property sector combined with strong operational leadership and financial and strategic management skills. Prior to joining Landsec, Mark was Chief Executive of St. Modwen Properties Plc. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of The Unite Group since 2006. He moved to Unite in 1999 from KPMG and held a number of financial and commercial roles in the business, including Chief Financial Officer from 2003 to 2006. Mark is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Mark is a senior Real Estate partner with over 25 years’ experience, based in our Manchester office, and he heads CMS’s regional offices. He is an investment, development and mixed-use regeneration specialist with a particular interest in forward funding structures and so-called income strip deals across a range of sectors. In the last year, he has advised LandSec on the Media City deal, advised FEC and Mayfield Partnership on two of Manchester’s most ambitious regeneration projects at Northern Gateway and Mayfield respectively, and advised on numerous transactions relating to industrial and logistics assets. Mark is consistently rated as a top-tier lawyer by the leading legal directories.

Justin Harley is a residential real estate visionary with over 18 years’ experience in building and implementing flexible workspace software solutions to make portfolios operationally efficient. Harley joined Yardi in 2019 as Regional Director and has dedicated his time ensuring clients and software seekers are adopting the most appropriate tech solutions for their businesses.