10th BTR Forum

David Jennings

Chairman

Movers & Shakers

David started his career in Construction and Property and held senior directorships in a number of UK based businesses.

In 1990 he jointly founded and was a Joint Managing Director of the Salisbury Consulting Group; he sold his interest in 1995. In 1996 he formed Business Vantage, a business and research consultancy which specialises in property and construction and advises major UK plc’s.

During his career David has founded a number of businesses in Property Management, Serviced Offices and Consulting.

David is the Founder Director and Chairman of Movers & Shakers formed in 1996, the UK’s most successful and popular networking forum, which delivers a programme of forums and conferences across the UK.

Leigh Natasha Salter

Managing Director

Movers & Shakers

Leigh Natasha Salter is Managing Director of Movers & Shakers, having formerly been the Business and Events Director. Leigh has been responsible for developing the brand over the last 10 years and has recently launched the Movers & Shakers UK Regional events programme. Previously she worked in marketing, communications and research, and also ran the Windsor & Maidenhead Borough’s Business to Community Partnership, facilitating CSR for businesses. She qualified at Oxford University with a BA Honours in Human Sciences, and a scholarship, and is also a member of the BPF and UK-GBC.

James Pargeter

Senior Advisor

GAA

James has 25 years of experience within the residential sector, with a focus on purpose-designed Build to Rent (BTR) since 2012. He is a recognised advocate for the sector and was included in EG’s ‘BTR’s 50 Most Influential’ list for 2022. James’s extensive delivery experience across the tenure spectrum brings understanding of the varied priorities for investors, owners, residents, local communities and policymakers in delivering successful long-term rental led developments

Before joining GAA as a consultant Senior Advisor, James was a Senior Director at Greystar, where he led engagement with UK national and local government and helped to shape emerging BTR policies, as well as liaison with key stakeholders on each development. Before that, he was a Partner at Deloitte Real Estate leading their Residential Projects team.

James sits on the BPF’s BTR Committee and also co-chairs their London Engagement Group, as well as the UKAA’s Policy Committee and the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) Manufacture & Performance working group. He is also a recent member of the Government’s BTR Joint Committee (DLUHC), New London Architecture’s (NLA) Expert Housing Panel and the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) UK Residential Council. He is a regular speaker and commentator on BTR, wider housing issues and modular construction, and contributed to the ULI’s ‘Build to Rent: Best Practice Guide’

Alastair Mullens

Managing Director - Vertus

Canary Wharf Group

Alastair joined Canary Wharf Group in 2018, to establish the Canary Wharf Group’s (CWG) Build-to-Rent platform, Vertus. He is currently overseeing the delivery of three seed assets totalling 1,137 units, all based on the Canary Wharf Estate. The first new residential tenants moved in in February 2020. He is now working closely with CWG’s development team to design and envision the future phases of private rental product for the Estate.

Over the last twelve years Alastair has gained a broad experience of the UK residential property market; initially in Residential Management before moving into Residential Development and then centring on the emerging Build-to-Rent market. He spent 9 years with Hamptons International & Countrywide Group based in London and Hong Kong. In 2015 he returned from Asia to focus on Build-to-Rent lease-up delivery for various clients across London. His final role at Countrywide was as National Director of Corporate PRS & Build to Rent, during this time he oversaw the delivery of the group’s operational management platform. This included the delivery of two Build-to-Rent assets in the north-west totalling 488 units for the Vista fund, The Cargo Building in Liverpool and Pomona Wharf in Manchester.

Rick de Blaby

CEO

Get Living

Rick is CEO of Get Living PLC, the UK’s leading investor, developer and operating platform of Built to Rent residential homes with 4,000 in operation and a further 6,000 in pipeline. He has been with Get Living for 5 years, whose flagship assets neighbourhoods include East Village at the Olympic Park, Elephant and Castle Town Centre, MIddlewood Locks in Salford and Lewisham, plus others in Leeds, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leatherhead and Maidenhead. Rick has 40 years of real estate experience, with a particular passion for big scale urban regeneration and neighbourhood creation.. Past roles have included CEO of MEPC and United House and Non-Exec Chairman of Miller Developments.

Simon Scott

Lead Director - Living Capital Markets

JLL

Simon has over 20 years’ experience in the field of residential investment and development, and was actively involved in the development of the student investment market in an advisory capacity, and led in a number of innovative funding structures working with both Housing Associations and Universities in making institutionally acceptable investment assets in the residential sector. Simon is now overseeing the residential investment team and will be focused on matching investor appetite for residential investment, whether off plan bespoke developments or existing portfolios of income producing or reversionary assets.

Emma Rosser

Director, Living Research & Strategy, EMEA

JLL

Emma leads JLL’s research in EMEA living capital markets, providing insights and reports on build-to-rent, student accommodation, co-living and later living. She supports JLL’s living capital markets team and the research consultancy.

She is a former business analyst and journalist. She was residential editor at Estates Gazette, where she reported on residential investment and development, and established BTR data through EG Radius, alongside a series of print supplements exploring the growth of the sector.

Tom Goodall

Managing Director

Related Argent

Tom joined Argent in 2012, becoming Partner and the Head of Residential for Related Argent in 2020, over-seeing a pipeline of over 8,000 new homes across London. Tom is also CEO of the Related Argent Tottenham Hale development, leading the team which will deliver over 1.2m sq. ft of development including over 1,030 new homes. Prior to this, Tom was responsible for the residential product at the King’s Cross development including the delivery of the Gasholders apartments.

Before joining Argent, Tom worked in project management consultancy and as a practicing Architect on numerous large-scale mixed-use schemes including the Shard and the London 2012 Athlete’s Village. Tom is a chartered member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and sits on their Housing Group.

James Duncan

Corporate and Funds Partner

Winckworth Sherwood

James is a corporate and funds partner at Winckworth Sherwood. He advises institutional and high net worth promoters and investors on structure and finance for property investment and development. He is an expert in the structure of FCA regulated fund-managers, broker-dealers and their investment entities. James has vast experience of setting up JVs, IPOs and capital raisings as well as LP and LLP financing vehicles. With the tax team he provides a full service for domestic and foreign investors in all UK property tenures. James also works closely with the Social Housing Finance team at Winckworth Sherwood to develop alternative finance models for registered providers implementing their diversification programme. Clients include registered providers such as Genesis and Circle Anglia and investors M&G Investments, Aviva Investors and Europa Capital.

Rebecca Taylor

Managing Director, BTR Multi-Family

Long Harbour

Rebecca is the Managing Director of Long Harbour’s BtR / Multifamily business. Since joining Long Harbour in 2015, Rebecca has deployed over £750mn of equity and leads on the LHMF JV which is a £1.5bn partnership with PSP and Cadillac Fairview.

Rebecca has over 15 years’ experience in development and investment having worked in projects in Australia, UK, Ireland and UAE. Prior to joining Long Harbour, Rebecca spent eight years at Laing O’Rourke working in their property and investment team. Here she worked on their offsite housing solution and a number of PFI/PPP deals.

She is the Vice-Chair of the BPF BTR Committee, is on the steering group for the UKAA Best Practice Guide and a member of the ULI UK Residential Council.

Russell Pedley

Director & Co-Founder

Assael

Russell is Director and Co-Founder of Assael Architecture. With over 30 years as an architect and 15 years in urban design, he has a strong passion for creating a sense of place with historical and cultural connections in all of his work.

Russell spent many years spearheading Assael’s skills in the design of professionally-managed Build to Rent communities in the private rented sector. Following years of research, including many study trips to the US, and producing design guides for the UK, Assael is now one of the leading architects in the sector, paving the way with key projects such as Union Wharf in Greenwich for Essential Living, Blackhorse Mills in Walthamstow for Legal & General, and Pontoon Dock in Newham for Linkcity. Russell also co-authored both editions of the Urban Land Institute’s Build to Rent: A Best Practice Guide, which was sponsored by the British Government, and he is now Chair of the ULI’s UK Residential Council and advises on MHCLG’s Build to Rent Joint Committee.

Katherine Russell

Head of Build to Rent

John Lewis Partnership

Katherine graduated from Reading University with a degree in Land Management and spent her initial years at Fuller Peiser, Atisreal & BNP Paribas. She then moved into the world of retail property, at John Lewis as Property Manager followed by Asset Management and moving into the Head of John Lewis Property in 2016. In July 2017, she became Group Head of Real Estate, Planning, Policy and Commercial for the John Lewis Partnership, responsible for the strategic delivery of all Real Estate activity in both John Lewis and Waitrose across all asset classes (Retail, Distribution, Office, Residential and Leisure). In addition her role also ensures the commercial delivery of all capital projects, compliance with statutory policy and driving a sustainability strategy for the Property & Development function. Katherine has also been a Trustee and Director of a non profit organisation, setting the strategic direction and overseeing operational delivery.

Lesley Roberts

Director of BTR Operations

Godwin Developments

Lesley plays a pivotal role in developing and delivering Godwin’s plans to build a £1 billion national BTR portfolio. Her main remit is the creation of the BTR operational strategy across both the single and multifamily developments for the business. Working in close collaboration with internal teams and external providers, she is responsible for the operational performance and profitability of our single and multifamily assets while also delivering a leading customer experience across the entire proposition.

With a career spanning over 20 years, Lesley has extensive high-level experience with both the BTR and PRS sectors, and has for some time been at the heart of shaping the UK’s Build to Rent offer as President of The UK Apartment Association (UKAA). Prior to joining Godwin, she served as a Partner at Allsop LLP and CEO of Allsop Letting and Management, where she advised developers and institutional investors on the acquisition, design, build and operation of large-scale BTR portfolios. A member of the British Property Federation’s (BPF) residential board, Lesley also toured the US studying the multifamily model there and was instrumental in the concept and development of the UKAA’s BTR Best Practice Guide launched in 2022. She was previously Chair of Soho Housing Association and held roles at Pinnacle Places, Young Group, and City Living London.

James Saunders

Chief Operating Officer

Quintain

James was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Quintain in October 2019 and since then has led the company through the Pandemic, during which Quintain achieved the biggest construction completion year in its 30-year history.

Starting with just 141 apartments for rent in 2016, James led the team to reach 3,651 homes under management, noting the 2022 year-end occupancy across the entire rental portfolio sat at over 98%. Since then, Quintain’s tenth build to rent development has opened at Wembley Park.

James was previously Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Quintain and has been a main board director since 2017. As COO, James led the place-making and estate management at Wembley Park, commercial partnerships, group marketing, IT and health and safety.

During his time at Quintain, James has led the repositioning of Wembley Park from an event destination to an exciting new neighbourhood for London. He has created the strategic direction for marketing, communications and place making that has led to dramatic reconsideration of the area, increase in footfall, improvements in press coverage and word-of-mouth, plus new partnerships including with Boxpark, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Troubadour Theatres and Second Floor Studios.

He has managed key stakeholder and commercial partner relationships with GLA, London Borough of Brent, Wembley Stadium, the FA, AEG and Realm. He was responsible for the renegotiation of agreements with adjacent landowners that unlocked the Wembley Park site from a development and operational perspective.

Prior to joining Quintain, James was the Chief Marketing Officer at The Cloud Networks, a consultant to Vodafone Europe and Brand Director at Coca-Cola Great Britain. He holds a Sloan Masters from London Business School, a Law Degree from Cambridge University and is a barrister-at-law.

Harriet Pask

Director of Communication

Quintain

Harriet is Quintain’s Director of Communication, joined the business in 2013 and was appointed to the Operational Board in 2023. Harriet is responsible for directing the strategy for all communication across the Group. Harriet has over 20 years’ experience in public relations and corporate communication and prior to joining Quintain, spent more than a decade in the airline industry specialising in crisis communication and investor relations. Harriet sits on the Strategic Advisory Group for the UKAA and is a member of the Corporate Affairs Committee for the British Property Federation (BPF).

Bella Peacock

Senior Managing Director, Investment Management and Operations

Greystar

Bella Peacock is Senior Managing Director and member of the European Leadership team. She is responsible for asset execution across student and multifamily leading the company’s Asset Management and Operations teams across Europe. Bella works with her teams in France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain and UK to ensure the effective implementation of the Greystar global operating model, applying it to the local context of each market to drive asset performance across all stages of the investment lifecycle.

Bella joined Greystar in 2014 as one of the first members of the new European business where she was engaged with the growth of the platform across the region. Prior to Greystar, she worked in the residential real estate sector covering serviced apartments, PRS and BTR at Native where she was responsible for portfolio growth, investor relations and asset management. Bella started her career at The UNITE Group.

Bella is an active member of the Urban Land Institute, Real Estate Balance and The Class Foundation. She earned her Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Oxford before completing her Master of Science in Real Estate Investment and Finance from Henley Business School at the University of Reading.

Antonio Marin-Bataller

Managing Director, Pan- European Transactions

Patrizia SE

A residential specialist, Antonio has focused on PRS, student housing and senior living for much of his career. At PATRIZIA, he has led the acquisition of 3,500+ residential properties in the UK&IE, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain. He is involved with the full cycle of every transaction, from deal sourcing and negotiation, through to the delivery of each project, fit-outs and refurbishments, and initial leasing up to full occupancy.

Prior to joining PATRIZIA, Antonio was a Director at CBRE in their residential investment and funding team and started his professional career as a banker at Goldman Sachs. He holds an Msc in Real Estate Finance from Cass Business School.

David Martin

CEO

Be Known

David has over 20 years of PR, marketing and reputation management experience, the majority of which has been spent working with some of the property sector’s leading brands.

As a strategic advisor, David works with businesses to develop brand strategies that fit with wider business goals and market positioning needs. He has been responsible for delivering corporate positioning strategies and consumer focused, sales led campaigns, for everything from small development projects and start-up businesses, to major regeneration schemes and global organisations.

Having originally trained and worked as a journalist, David worked for a number of award-winning PR agencies before setting up his own consultancy in 2015, working with clients to build their personal and corporate brands.

Brian Stevenson

Major Projects Senior Manager

NHBC

With a 35-year career in construction, working in Building Control, Technical Operations and now in NHBC’s Major Projects Team, Brian has an in-depth knowledge of the Building Regulations and associated legislation. He leads a multi-disciplinary team of technical building consultants, building control surveyors, structural engineers and fire engineers. His team has responsibility for the assessment and management of the Building Control and technical risk on the most complex, high-risk and high-value residential or mixed-use developments with NHBC.

Francesco Nerici

Chief Creative Officer

Hunter Design

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Stephanie Pollitt

Programme Director, Housing

BusinessLDN

Stephanie Pollitt joined BusinessLDN (formally London First) as Programme Director leading on Housing. BusinessLDN is a campaigning organisation with a mission to make London the best city in the world in which to do business working with and for the whole of the UK. BusinessLDN is active in helping shape public policy across a number of areas including housing, planning and development and members include housing associations, developers, build to rent providers, planners and architects.

Stephanie’s role recognises the importance of increasing the quantum and diversity of homes built in London which is absolutely vital to securing and retaining the talent the capital needs to thrive. She considers ways to increase the supply of affordable housing, as well as championing other parts of the sector such as build to rent and build for sale.

Prior to joining BusinessLDN, Stephanie was Assistant Director at the British Property Federation leading on the Federation’s housing and commercial policy portfolios. She took a strategic view on residential and commercial real estate matters and worked on a number of projects including the creation of a new high street investment model and the establishment of property owners Business Improvements Districts within London.

Justin Harley

Regional Director

Yardi

Justin Harley, regional director for Yardi has over 20 years of experience in building and implementing software solutions to make portfolios operationally efficient. Harley joined Yardi in 2019 and helps clients and prospects adopt the best tech solutions for their businesses to automate processes, streamline operations and provide a frictionless experience to tenants and members.

Ryan Prince

Vice Chairman, Realstar Group

Founder & CEO, UNCLE

Ryan Prince grew up in Toronto, Canada before moving to the UK in 1998 to pursue a post graduate degree at the London School of Economics. At 21, Ryan co-founded iGabriel, an early stage technology venture capital firm with investors including Lord Myners, Peter Gabriel and Brent Hoberman.

Ryan entered the property sector by establishing the international arm of the Realstar Group of companies in 2002. Realstar is a fully integrated real estate investor and manager with $9B of AUM. Since that time, Ryan has led the firm’s overseas efforts in the healthcare, hospitality, student housing and professional living sectors. The firm has gone on to acquire or develop in excess of £3B assets including the UK’s largest hotel real estate transaction, a £1B portfolio of Holiday Inn hotels comprising over 13,000 rooms in a joint venture with GIC Real Estate and Lehman Brothers, which it successfully sold in 2015.

Frustrated by the lack of decent living accommodation in the UK, Ryan established the UNCLE brand in 2017. UNCLE aims to take the ‘lord’ attitude out of being a landlord by offering design-savvy apartments combined with a straight-talking, no-nonsense approach for renters who are tired being treated like second-class citizens in their own homes. Since its launch, UNCLE has opened 7 locations with 4 more on the way, totaling nearly 4,000 apartments, primarily in London and one in Manchester and Leeds. Most recently, Realstar formed a joint venture with QuadReal, the property arm of the province of British Columbia’s pension funds in order to continue to grow the UNCLE portfolio.

Ryan is also on the Leadership Council and Advisory Board of Facing History & Ourselves (www.facinghistory.org), a not‐for‐profit organisation that works with students to take an active role in society in fighting racism and intolerance. He is married with three children.

University of Western Ontario, London School of Economics

Ian Fletcher

Director of Policy

British Property Federation

Ian is Director of Policy at the BPF, and focuses on the Federation’s development and housing work. He was a member of the Government’s Montague Review and is a long-term champion of the Build-to-Rent sector. He helped Government review the case for protecting client money, and has been involved in the Unipol/ANUK codes, which regulate student accommodation standards, since their inception, including stints chairing the Audit Panel and Committee of Management. He was a member of the Smith Institute’s Affordable Housing Commission. Ian is an Honorary Fellow of the IRPM and Fellow of the RSA.

Ian was formerly Head of Policy and Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce. He has also worked in banking and teaching, and holds professional qualifications in finance and market research. He is a married and has one eighteen-year-old son.

Tim Chapman Cavanagh

Director

Assael Architecture

Tim is an experienced architect and project director at award-winning Assael Architecture, a large London-based practice that specialises in the intelligent design and successful delivery of residentially-led mixed-use developments.

Tim has been responsible for the design of many high-profile projects across all living concepts at Assael, including the redevelopment of the iconic Riverside Studios in Hammersmith and 101 on Cleveland in Westminster. More recently, he has spearheaded Assael’s development in the co-living sector, contributing to the publication of the Urban Land Institute and JLL’s The European Co-living Best Practice Guide in 2022, and directing the design on several co-living projects across London and Surrey, including the highly praised Sunday Mills in Wandsworth, which completed last year as one of the UK’s first purpose-built co-living schemes.

Stephanie Smith

Head of Living Sector Operations

Hubbl

Stephanie has extensive experience in the Living Sector, working within reputable third party and owner operators on behalf of large institutions, such as JP Morgan, CalSTRS, and Colony Capital, in North America.

She moved to the UK in 2013, establishing herself as a trusted advocate for the Build to Rent industry as a founding member of the UK Apartment Association and senior executive at Yardi Systems before launching the UK division for US operator, Atlas Residential as Director of Operations.

Prior to joining Hubbl, an end to end advisory group, as Head of Living Sector Operations, Stephanie was with Invesco Real Estate, where she was responsible for £2.5BN of real estate assets across Europe.

Stephanie is also a featured speaker for industry events, a member of the Research and Policy Committee for the UKAA, along with chair for the EDI Working Group.

Chris Fletcher

Director of Direct Development

Grainger

A Registered Architect and member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Chris joined Grainger in July 2011 following 6 years at a major international architectural practice in central London. Having worked on many high profile, complex schemes in the UK and Australia, Chris specialises in the planning and delivery of high value projects. Since joining Grainger, Chris has been involved in securing and delivering over 15 development schemes and is a member of Grainger’s Development and Health & Safety Boards.

Matthew Dearlove

Product Director

Way of Life

Matthew is Product Director at Way of Life which create buildings of lasting value through thoughtful design and exemplary stewardship, whilst supporting them with an ethos of hospitality. Way of Life lays the foundations to make a home, allowing renters to create a sense of belonging. With thoughtful design and state-of-the-art spaces coming hand-in-hand with comfortable living and community.

Matthew trained as an architect, working in practices in London, New York and Hong Kong, before moving client-side for the last twelve years delivering complex mixed-use projects at a range of scales and is currently working on BTR schemes in Tottenham Hale, Walthamstow and Bromley-by-Bow.

Prior to joining Way of Life, Matthew spent 6 years as Design Director for Knight Dragon delivering residential, mixed use and public realm projects on Greenwich Peninsula – most notably the Design District: 150,000 sq ft of workspace across 16 buildings designed by 8 architects. The district is a thriving home for creative businesses offering permanent purpose-designed workspaces, co-working within Bureau, Canteen an international food hall and bar, and an exciting events programme.

Richard Blakeway

Housing Ombudsman

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Richard was appointed as Housing Ombudsman from 1 September 2019. He has extensive experience in the housing sector, with previous roles including Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, chair of the Homes for London board and a non-executive director of Homes England.

During his eight years at the Greater London Authority, Richard was responsible for housing investment and land generation programmes. He also led the creation of the first team at City Hall to address rough sleeping, commissioning around £10 million of services each year, as well as the first Social Impact Bond on homelessness.

Richard is a former board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has been an election observer in Somaliland and Ukraine. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and sits on the Administrative Justice Council.

Richard also chairs the Ombudsman Association and is a board member of the British Library.

Olaide Oboh

Executive Director

Socius

Olaide is a skilled strategic thinker and problem-solver with a 15-year record of successful delivery in public and private sector organisations. As Executive Director, she is focused on establishing and nurturing relationships with partners and growing the company’s pipeline in new and existing locations across the country. A qualified project manager, Olaide’s experience is varied ranging from managing communications at Marks and Spencer to working on large scale regeneration in Hackney and leading the external relations for East Village, the new neighbourhood on the Olympic Park.  More recently, Olaide is delivering an arts and culture hub in Bristol to grow and support the local economy and enabling a tech-led offer at the heart of the Ox-Cam Arc in Milton Keynes.

Jo Green

Director of Business Development

Cortland

Jo is the Director of Business Development for Cortland Europe.

During her career, Jo has gained substantial expertise as a real estate leader. Having been in the Build to Rent sector in various roles since its inception, Jo has considerable knowledge across all stages of Build to Rent with extensive experience and expertise in the leasing and operational elements.

Jo’s industry influence and contribution includes seats on British Property Federation Committees as well as currently being the Chair of the joint UKAA and IRPM Education Committee which provides the only professional qualifications for the Build to Rent sector.

Kate Brown

Head of Marketing

HUB

Kate is Head of Marketing at residential developer HUB. She is a brand and marketing professional, with experience across many sectors and markets, but with a focus on the property industry. With a degree in maths and philosophy, Kate brings a combination of strategic rigour and creative flair to her thinking, and has worked as Brand Director for some of the best-known and most innovative development businesses including Pocket Living, Urban Splash and now HUB Residential. Kate helped relaunch the HUB brand two years ago, and has developed the HubCap sub-brand which focuses on city centre urban living, through the refurbishment of commercial buildings. She also helped establish HUB’s ESG working group, who together published their ESG framework earlier this year.

Miles Keeley

Principal

HubCap

Miles is Principal at HubCap, a specialist developer and subsidiary of HUB, focusing on low carbon short stay living in central London and other lifestyle cities across the UK. Since its inception 18 months ago, HubCap has acquired five “functionally obsolete” commercial buildings spanning over 200,000 sqft, with the goal of re-using and retrofitting them into living space. HubCap has particular focus on emerging urban living models including co-living and aparthotels. Prior to joining HUB and HubCap, Miles spent three years at BlackRock where he was responsible for sourcing, execution, and management of investments for a £1 billion multi-sector property fund and other segregated mandates. He began his career in debt and structured finance, after graduating from Kingston University with First Class honours in Real Estate.

Rory Cramer

CEO & Co-Founder

HomeViews

Prior to co-founding HomeViews, Rory spent 13 years in the residential development sector, having been a Senior Director at CBRE before becoming Head of Consultancy at Marsh & Parsons New Homes. Combining this in-depth experience with a substantial contacts list, Rory is now a leading figure in the UK property development sector.As an early investor, co-founder and now CEO, Rory is an advocate for the benefits HomeViews brings and its increasing significance within the property industry. He is passionate about using the HomeViews platform to help raise standards across the built environment – for the benefit of developers, managers, owners and tenants alike.

Neil Brearley

Founding Director

Cast Consultancy

Neil is a Founding Director of Cast and Chief Financial Officer. Neil has 20-years’ experience within the Construction Industry and has worked with many leading developers, housebuilders and contractors in the residential market. Neil has delivered many completed schemes through his career – including major urban regeneration, strategic land, build to rent, later living, student accommodation, for-sale residential, commercial offices and listed buildings. He has personal involvement throughout our portfolio of projects including leading on feasibility & viability setting, establishing core strategy, vetting cost outputs, leading procurement, contract negotiation and service quality assurance. Neil wants to positively influence those with whom he directly works as well as driving wider change in the construction industry. He wants to address the key issues regarding sustainability and the fitness for purpose of our housing model, helping to create dwellings that people aspire to live in. Neil enjoys working with people with a shared vision to challenge the status quo, be that through product development, R&D, Design for Manufacture & Assembly (DfMA), Modern Methods of Construction or carbon led design. Neil has presented at numerous industry seminars relating to residential and construction markets and has acted as an Expert Witness as part of successful evidence submissions in formal hearings.

William Krespi

Director, Real Estate Development

Greystar Europe

Will Krespi is a Development Director for Greystar’s BTR and PBSA business in Europe and has nearly a decade of experience in residential development, working in private equity real estate.

He is responsible for the delivery of 5,500 BTR & PBSA units across six developments in London, including the new Chapter Living flagship student development in London Bridge, the Greenford Quay BTR led masterplan in Ealing, luxury BTR development Bloom in Nine Elms, and further developments in Staines, Wembley and Hayes.

Will has been at Greystar for eight years, becoming a director in 2022, with prior experience in engineering and investment banking. He has a first-class Bachelor’s degree in Business & Management with a focus on European economics, strategic management and international business in emerging markets, from the University of the West of England.

Lesley Chen Davison

Chief Operating Officer

Telford Homes

Lesley is the Chief Operating Officer of Telford Homes, a Trammell Crow Company Developer. In her role, Lesley is responsible for Telford Homes’ investment underwriting, Investment Committee processes and the implementation of business plans. The Investment, Development Management and Customer Services teams report directly to her.

Lesley has over 26 years’ experience in real estate and is a well-established leader in the UK’s build to rent (BTR) market, having been heavily involved in some of the UK’s earliest purpose-built BTR projects, including East Village and Elephant Central during her time at Delancey.

Lesley was previously the Head of Commercial Strategy for GoSpace AI Limited, where she oversaw strategic, go-to-market, client and operational initiatives along with investor and partner relationships. Prior to that, she was CIO of Seaforth Land leading the firm’s investment strategy, property acquisitions and financing.

Katherine Rose

Managing Director

VervLife

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. Katherine is an experienced property professional with a wealth of knowledge in the build to rent and private rented sectors, Katherine has a proven track record in mobilising BTR housing, apartment and co-living schemes.

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

Ben Turner

Brand & Design Director

Greystar Europe

Responsible for the creation and continued development of impactful, consumer-focussed brands for student and multifamily assets across Europe and the continued development of the Greystar corporate identity. Ben also oversees the design of all marketing collateral both on and offline and drives the design strategy. Prior to joining Greystar in 2016, Ben led the marketing design team at Bloomsbury Publishing where he was responsible for creating international marketing campaigns for some of the world’s best-selling authors and book franchises. He has also worked for creative agencies producing branding and design work for companies such as Rolls Royce, British Airways and Bupa. Ben also spent time in the film industry, in post-production special effects, working on many Hollywood films including the Harry Potter and James Bond series. He is a design graduate from the University of Brighton.

Olivia Harris

Chief Executive

Dolphin Living

Olivia Harris was appointed as Chief Executive of Dolphin Living in April 2017. Previously, Olivia was Finance Director at Dolphin, providing financial and commercial oversight on a wide range of property and related projects, including debt and fund raising. Olivia is a Chartered Accountant and has worked for more than 15 years in the property industry.

Freya Richard

Director - Leasing & Operations

Vertus

Freya joined Vertus, in 2019 to launch Canary Wharf Groups first Build-to-Rent portfolio of 1137 units across 3 buildings on the Canary Wharf Estate. Following the success of its launch, she is now focusing on the delivery of future phases from 2024 onwards delivering a further 1300 homes to Canary Wharf.

Prior to joining Vertus Freya spent 7 years at Knight Frank in their Investment Lettings & Management department, managing Offshore Trust Structure portfolios, Institutional investments, Estates & distressed portfolios. As build to rent grew, she then started to work with the likes of Greystar, Kennedy Wilson, Essential Living as they started to launch new assets into the market.