David Jennings

Chairman
Movers & Shakers

David started his career in Construction and Property. 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.
David is the Founder Director and Chairman of Movers & Shakers formed in 1996 the UK’s most successful and popular networking forum.
He is also a Founder Director and shareholder of Stonemartin plc, an AIM listed serviced office business; founded in 1999.

Adam Challis

Head of Research & Strategy, UK
JLL

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Catherine Raynsford

Director of Stakeholder and Investment Management
Hyde Group

Catherine Raynsford is Director of Stakeholder and Investment Management.

Catherine has worked in real estate for over 15 years specialising in public private partnerships, working with public sector landowners to bring forward major developments and regeneration projects.

Catherine works closely with our public sector partners and grow our initiatives with local government, this is a new role for Hyde and will focus on our strategy to engage with private capital.

Catherine leads a team to identify, develop and enhance long-term partnerships with a broad mix of private sector partners including housebuilders, developers, and institutional investors.

Michela Hancock

Managing Director Europe
Greystar

Michela Hancock is a Managing Director and is responsible for the expansion of the company’s third-party management platform and strategic partnerships for wider development and investment deals across Europe. Previously, Michela was Managing Director of Development and Construction for the UK, where she oversaw all project financing, amenity, unit planning, design, planning, construction, and lease-up efforts on high-density Build to Rent and student developments. She has a MSc in Real Estate Development from Johns Hopkins University and worked in development for Bozzuto Development Company and Grainger PLC. Michela is a founding board member of the UK Apartment Association, an advisory board member of Commercial Real Estate Finance Council and a member of the British Property Federation Build to Rent Committee. She is a member of the ULI European Residential Council, serves on the Real Estate Balance Policy and Campaigns Committee and is an active member of Commercial Real Estate Women’s mentorship programme.

Rebecca Taylor

Managing Director 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.

Graham Sibley

Senior Business Development Manager
NHBC

Graham has many years’ experience in infrastructure and housing sectors, leading stakeholder engagement for commercial organisations and industry bodies. He leads NHBC’s engagement with the affordable housing and private rental sectors, establishing a partnership approach to managing the risks of new home development, working with investors, developers, landlords and contractors. Graham also leads NHBC’s engagement with partners in the funding and mortgage lending, working to build confidence in homes built using offsite manufacturing.

Cllr Darren Rodwell

Leader
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

Darren has been Leader of Barking and Dagenham since 2014. He has served as Deputy Chair of London Councils, having been Executive Member for City Development and now as the Executive Member for Housing and Planning. In his current role he has promoted inward investment in the capital via Opportunity London and prioritised the delivery of affordable housing, addressing fire safety, tackling homelessness and reducing the use of temporary accommodation. 

Darren is also a member of the Homes for Londoners Board, Arts Council England, the Arts Council for London and the Create London Board and, since May 2023 Chair of the LGA Local Infrastructure and Net Zero Board. He was awarded LGIU Leader of the Year Award in 2019. In 2021, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education by Coventry University in recognition of his efforts to expand educational opportunities in Barking and Dagenham.

Andrew Saunderson

Director of Investments
Grainger plc

Andrew Saunderson is Director of Investments at Grainger plc. Since joining Grainger in 2001 he has been instrumental in facilitating several large acquisitions of both assets and corporate entities, helping to establish Grainger as a market leader in the Private Rented Sector (PRS). In line with the group’s strategy, Grainger has developed a pipeline of PRS homes, valued at £2bn, all of which have been sourced and acquired by Grainger’s inhouse Investment team, which is managed by Andrew. Andrew also has overall responsibility for the Sales and Asset Management divisions within Grainger. A member of Grainger’s Executive Committee, Andrew is also Grainger’s representative on the British Property Federation (BPF) Residential Committee. Prior to joining Grainger Andrew worked at Allsop LLP where he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor.

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

Tom Copley

Deputy Mayor for Housing & Residential Development
Greater London Authority

Tom Copley became Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development in March 2020 and oversees the Mayor’s two affordable homes programmes, including ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ – the first-ever City Hall initiative dedicated to council homebuilding.

Tom also oversees the Mayor’s work to improve the private rented sector, support the delivery of community-led housing, commission services to support rough sleepers, and on building safety.

He sits on the board of Barking Riverside Ltd, a joint venture between the GLA and L&Q housing association which is delivering 10,800 homes along with new transport and other infrastructure in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Before becoming a Deputy Mayor, Tom was a London Assembly London-wide List Member for eight years, serving as Chair of the Assembly’s housing committee and as Labour Group housing spokesperson. He also served on Lewisham Council, representing Sydenham.

Prior to his election to the Assembly, Tom worked for Hope not hate - an anti-fascist, anti-racist charity that works with communities to fight racism and hatred.

He is a trustee of New Diorama Theatre in Camden.

Karen Cooksley

Karen is highly regarded within specialist planning, advising clients on the full spectrum of planning and environmental issues they face, including devising strategies for obtaining planning permissions and other consents, viability, environmental impact assessment, s106 agreements and CIL, compulsory purchase and highways matters. She has particular expertise in relation to mixed use developments, tall buildings, urban extensions, waterside schemes and the optimisation of consents to increase financial value for clients. She works for leading developers, private rented sector operator and management companies, national housebuilders, registered providers, local authorities and funders. The majority of her projects are in London – she is currently working on several tall building projects, advising on the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station and other major schemes in the Vauxhall opportunity area and securing office to residential conversions under permitted development rights. She and her team also work across the country – they have recently obtained permission for the £5.5 billion Liverpool Waters scheme and are advising on new settlements in Cambridgeshire, Devon and Kent.

Ben Denton

Chief Executive
L&G Affordable Homes

Ben is Chief Executive of Legal & General Affordable Homes and joined at the inception of the business in August 2018.

Ben has over 30 years of experience across housing design and development, regeneration and real estate. Ben joined Legal & General Affordable Homes from Sovereign Housing Association, the 6th largest housing association in the UK where he was Executive Director of Property and Development, responsible for sales and a development programme of 1,300 homes a year. Previous positions include Group Director of Strategy and Business Development at house builder Keepmoat, Executive Director of Growth, Planning and Housing at Westminster City Council, Director of Investment at First Base and was a Director and Executive Consultant for ABROS financial advisory and KPMG.

Additionally, Ben was previously Chair at Westminster Community Homes and held various Board and Committee positions at Thames Valley Housing Association.

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.

Ian Gibbs

Director of Neighbourhoods
Get Living

Andrew Screen

Senior Director – Investments (Europe)
Cortland

Gabrielle Berring

Director of Loans
Homes England

Richard MacDowel

Group Treasurer
Quintain

Gwynn Thomson

Property Investment Director
Sigma Capital Group

Jane Hollinshead

Director
IJD Consulting Ltd

Caitlin Wilkinson

Policy & Public Affairs Manager
Generation Rent

Kate Freer

Senior Vice President, Acquisitions and Asset Management
Realstar

Simon Scott

Lead Director - Living Capital Markets
JLL Europe

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.

Richard Jackson MRICS

Managing Director & Co-Founder, Apache Capital
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder, Present Made

Richard Jackson is a founding partner and Managing Director of Apache Capital Partners. He is one of the senior leadership team and has over 20 years’ experience in property and development funding. Prior to launching Apache Capital Partners in 2008, Richard worked with John Dunkerley primarily on two funds in the UK and Europe, the latter of which Richard focused on growing the portfolio by acquiring assets throughout mainland Europe. Together with John, Richard launched Apache Capital Partners with a strategy of investing in chronically undersupplied but structurally supported residential sectors. Richard’s day to day role focuses on investment and business development and he is also responsible for the company vision and strategy. He has worked closely with Joint Venture Partners Moda Living on the company’s prime BTR investments to create exceptional places to call home. Richard is a member of the IPF Residential Special Interest Group (SIG) Committee, PREA and INREV.

Russell Pedley

Director & Co-Founder
Assael Architecture

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.

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.

Michelle Hannah

Director
Cast Consultancy

Christy Hayes

Chief Executive
Tide Construction

James Stephens

Managing Director
Offsite Solutions

Akeel Malik

Fund Manager
Urban Splash Residential Fund