Steve Bennett

Chief property and development officer, Travelodge

Bennett joined Travelodge in February 2020 to oversee the property and development function of the business. In this role he is responsible for the company’s overall growth and development in the UK and Spain, maintaining Travelodge’s existing estate and relationships with landlords, overseeing the operations of the Spanish hotels and heading the company’s large in-house maintenance team. Key projects he has been involved with since joining Travelodge include leading the acquisition of 66 hotels from the group’s largest landlord, evolving its leasehold model to include freehold opportunities and overseeing Travelodge’s continued expansion in Spain. Prior to joining Travelodge, Bennett spent three years as director of property at Marks & Spencer, which included overseeing the group’s new store acquisition programme, refit investments, asset management and an international strategic review. Earlier in his career, he held property director roles at Travis Perkins and Dixons Carphone, as well as new store development positions with Specsavers and Superdrug’s parent company, AS Watson.

Julia Cahill

Senior writer, EG

Cahill first joined EG in 2004. She has continued to contribute to the title ever since, including as news editor during the pre-credit crunch boom and then as deputy editor when the market rapidly cooled. More recently, she has focused increasingly on ESG – tracking how it is becoming embedded in all aspects of the real estate sector. She is editor of EG’s ESG supplement and has previously edited other supplements including UK Cities, the Property Auction Buyers’ Guide and the EG Rich List. Cahill has also written about property for The Daily Telegraph, The Times and the London Evening Standard. 

John Davies

Head of sustainability, Derwent London

Davies is head of sustainability at Derwent London and sits on the executive committee. He is responsible for leading the company wide sustainability and responsibility agendas. John is a recognised sustainability expert in the commercial property sector and has been instrumental in creating a number of industry leading sustainability programmes and strategies. Prior to joining Derwent London John was head of sustainability at Davis Langdon LLP where was responsible for developing and delivering its range of sustainability services.

Basil Demeroutis 

Managing partner, FORE Partnership

Demeroutis is managing partner at FORE Partnership, the purpose-driven real estate private equity firm that drives social and environmental innovation in the built environment using low carbon strategies, social impact, placemaking, and design. Prior to founding FORE, Demeroutis was a partner at Capricorn Investment Group, the family office of Jeff Skoll (eBay’s first president), and was managing partner of a German property fund. He spent 13 years in investment banking in New York and London. Demeroutis is chair of children’s charity, the Institute of Imagination, and sits on the board of trustees of the UK Green Building Council. He graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

Janey Douglas

Head of sustainability, UK capital markets, JLL

Douglas has 11 years’ experience in the real estate industry, with almost 10 years spent working within capital markets. She is sector-agnostic and focuses on tracking sustainability-related market trends, advising on investment-centric sustainability strategies and supporting investors to navigate the risks and opportunities sustainability presents in order to maximise value and liquidity across sales and acquisitions.

Jason Dunlop

Partner, Evelyn Partners

Dunlop has extensive experience on real estate ownership structures taking into consideration the tax profile of the investors, the nature of the asset and the investment strategy. He advises his clients throughout all aspects of the real estate ownership lifecycle, from acquisition to exit, looking at UK direct taxes, VAT, stamp taxes, transfer pricing, capital allowances, and international taxes. Dunlop has a particular focus on the UK and clients in relation to stamp duty land tax, pan-European real estate M&A and the tax services required by investors in connection with the acquisition of entities owning real estate, including financial and tax due diligence, tax structuring, SPA advice and tax forecasting/modelling. He works closely with real estate funds and investment managers, advising them on particular tax issues pertaining to them and their investors.

Alex Edmans

Professor of finance, London Business School

Edmans is professor of finance at London Business School. He has a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Fulbright scholar and was previously a tenured professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an investment banker at Morgan Stanley. Edmans serves as non-executive director of the Investor Forum, on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Responsible Investing, on Royal London Asset Management’s responsible investment advisory committee, and on Novo Nordisk’s sustainability advisory council. Edmans’s book, Grow the pie: how great companies deliver both purpose and profit, was a Financial Times book of the year in 2020 and has been translated into nine languages. Edmans also co-authored Principles of Corporate Finance (with Brealey, Myers and Allen). His latest book, May contain lies: how stories, statistics and studies exploit our biases – and what we can do about it, was published by Penguin Random House in April 2024. He is a fellow of the British Academy and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.

Louise Ellison

Sustainability managing director, EQT Group

Ellison is sustainability managing director at EQT Partners, a global private equity firm, working in the private capital sustainability team. She has more than 25 years’ experience in the real estate and investment sectors, focusing since the early 2000s on sustainability. Ellison has experience in designing and implementing sustainability strategies within corporate and fund management contexts and in consultancy. In addition to her executive role, Ellison is a member of the Green Construction Board, a joint industry-government initiative to support better environmental performance across the sector, and a member of the investment committee of the British Design Fund.

Will Hawking

Head of life sciences, Royal London Asset Management

Hawking leads the life sciences team at Royal London Asset Management, having been with the business since 2017. He retains responsibility for strategic investment partnerships, development activity and the implementation of strategic asset management across the portfolio. Prior to joining Royal London, Hawking spent 10 years with JLL establishing an early career in lease advisory and valuation before leading a national team as director of asset management advising UK Institutions and global high-net-worth investors on the strategic development and execution of asset management projects. 

Karli Hiscock

Partner, Bates Wells

Hiscock is a Partner at Bates Wells, a City firm using the law as a force for good. She leads on impact-focused real estate advice, tailoring advice to enable acquisitions, occupation and disposals of properties in a sustainable way. With more than 17 years’ experience in advising on all aspects of commercial property transactions, her work includes acquisitions and disposals, all aspects of landlord and tenant advice and property management, acting for a range of clients including charities, social enterprises, impact-led organisations and investors.

Anyi Hobson

Founder, Seam Advisory

Hobson is the founder of Seam Advisory, enabling real estate, arts-led and social value organisations to link and meet their ESG and DEI commitments. The company also helps social impact and arts-led organisations raise capital and funds, respectively. It also offers the SEAMless Spaces Framework, a proprietary DEI tool. Hobson has worked on all aspects of retail property across 12 countries, including investment, development, regeneration and asset management. She applies her knowledge of net zero, ESG and DEI frameworks in the UK, the US and Europe. Her expertise is informed by a background in financial services, retail, fashion, the arts, the charity sector and social value. Hobson also serves as the first and only ally board member of Freehold LGBT CIC. Adept at managing diverse stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams, she is a skilled analyst, writer and speaker who is fluent in English, Spanish, German, French and Italian.

Charlotte Hopkinson

Head of sustainability and CSR, Grainger

Hopkinson is Grainger’s head of sustainability and CSR. She joined the company in 2018 having previously worked as a sustainability consultant with JLL, where Grainger was one of her clients. Hopkinson’s role involves overseeing Grainger’s corporate sustainability programmes such as its net zero carbon commitment and charity partnerships and working with teams across the business to embed sustainability in everything that it does.

Sonal Jain

Head of sustainability, Workspace Group

Jain is head of sustainability at Workspace, a London-based FTSE 250 REIT which is a leading owner and operator of flexible workspace. With more than 20 years of global experience in sustainability across the built environment, Jain leads the company’s initiatives for positive environmental and social impact. She oversees strategy creation, implementation, reporting and stakeholder engagement on sustainability. Prior to Workspace, she led climate action at JLL and served as a senior built environment adviser to COP26 climate champions. Sonal holds master’s degrees in environmental economics from LSE and in energy performance and buildings from Arizona State University.

Vivienne King

Founder and managing director, Impactful Places

King has held leadership positions in real estate for more than 30 years, working across investment development, regeneration and management, joint venture partnerships, strategy development and ESG. She is founder and managing director at Impactful Places and also head of real estate social impact at Good Economy, the UK’s leading independent social impact advisory firm. King’s NED roles include the Greater London Authority’s Property X-Change, where she is its ambassador focusing on regenerating London’s high street communities, chair of the shopkeepers’ campaign for business rates reform and Revo operating board member.

Katie Krelle

Head of UK sustainable asset services, JLL

Krelle has almost 20 years’ experience in the construction and real estate industry, having spent the last 13 years at JLL. Krelle is a chartered project manager by background and has used her passion and knowledge of sustainable buildings to set up the sustainable asset services team, helping clients implement their net zero carbon strategies across their existing portfolios and developments. She is passionate about the transformation of the sector to create a better, healthier, and more resilient future for all.

Liz McKillop Paley

Real estate partner, Shoosmiths

McKillop Paley is a real estate partner at Shoosmiths specialising in investment and portfolio management, acting for institutional landlords, corporate investors and developers. She is also head of the real estate support to our pre-eminent Energy and Infrastructure Sector developing clean energy projects. McKillop Paley is recognised for her strategic portfolio management of her client’s portfolios, including renewable energy generation and calling on commercial energy advice in relation to Corporate Power Purchase Agreements. With a keen interest in sustainability and ESG, she is also a founding member of Shoosmiths’ sustainability group.

Paul Morrish

Chief executive, LandAid

Morrish joined LandAid in 2015, having worked for a wide range of charities and not-for-profit organisations over a 25-year period. He works with the board of trustees to ensure that LandAid has a clear strategy and is equipped to deliver that strategy. He heads a small leadership team, which in turn lead the charity’s larger – but still small – and outstanding team. Morrish brings a passionate determination to everything LandAid can do to end youth homelessness across the UK, and a commitment to making LandAid a great partner to work with. He is always impressed by the best that the property industry can achieve and sees huge potential in its companies and staff working together to achieve social change.

Chris Oldham

Senior policy and programme manager, skills policy team, City of London Corporation

Oldham is senior policy and programme manager in the City of London Corporation’s skills policy team, and programme lead for the Skills for a Sustainable Skyline Taskforce, which aims to address green skills gaps across the full project life cycle of sustainable commercial buildings in central London boroughs, via its upcoming Skyline Skills Hub resource to promote green skills best practice. He has held various education and strategy roles at the City Corporation and at the Railway Industry Association.

Brett Ormrod

European net zero carbon lead, LaSalle Investment Management

Ormrod is the net zero carbon (NZC) lead for Europe, and is responsible for providing technical guidance to the European business in the development and delivery of asset-level NZC pathways. He led the roll-out of more than 220 NZC audits by a select panel of NZC consultants across £20bn of direct real estate, establishing existing asset energy performance and providing a detailed set of costed asset-specific energy conservation measures. He is involved in a number of cross-industry working groups, including co-chairing the Better Buildings Partnership’s investor engagement working group, and both the GRESB NZC working group and UK NZC Building Standard working group, where he leads on defining the standards for measuring operational carbon. Prior to joining LaSalle, Ormrod was a sustainability manager in Lendlease’s urban regeneration team, where he was responsible for developing strategies for projects and business units to achieve the company’s ambitious sustainability targets. He also spent nine years at architectural firm Foster + Partners, embedding sustainable design into projects for clients such as Apple and Bloomberg.

David Partridge

Governance board chair, Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard and chairman, Related Argent

Partridge joined Argent in 1990. He was appointed joint chief executive in 2006 and managing partner of the new Argent in 2012, and became senior partner in 2019. He is now chairman of the Related Argent Partnership. He is currently a trustee of the UK Green Building Council and LandAid, and is chairman of the governance board of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard. He also sits on the advisory boards of Construct Zero and Standard Gas Technologies. Partridge read architecture at Cambridge and is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

Mark Robinson

Head of regeneration, NewRiver REIT

Robinson co-founded Ellandi in 2008 with Morgan Garfield. Over the past 25 years, he has worked for both owners and occupiers of town centre spaces and is an active advocate for the future of our high streets. He is a commentator on town centre issues in both industry and national media, including The Times, the Financial Times and the BBC. At Ellandi, which was bought by NewRiver REIT, Robinson led on repurposing projects and strategic delivery. In 2019 he represented the retail and leisure property industry as president of Revo and in 2020 was appointed as chair of the High Streets Task Force.

Charles Royle

Portfolio manager, AEW

Royle joined AEW in 2015 and has 20 years’ industry experience. He is currently portfolio manager for the company’s Urban Real Estate Fund and chairs the firm’s UK ESG committee. Royle is involved in a range of projects across the UK, with a strong focus on repurposing underutilised retail accommodation to alternative uses, enabling social change in urban areas. As part of his role on the UK ESG committee, Royle has worked alongside the UK Impact Fund team, transforming the fund into the UK’s first Sustainability Disclosure Requirements-approved impact fund. Royle became a member of the RICS in March 2007, passed the Investment Management Certificate in May 2014 and holds a BSc in land management from the University of Reading.

Sylvie Sasaki

Sustainability director – private markets, Aviva Investors

For the past 20 years, Sasaki has worked across multiple sectors to navigate the ever-evolving ESG landscape, including developing and implementing strategies for some of the world’s best-known brands, such as Marks & Spencer, CBRE, Royal Mail and, most recently, Aviva Investors.

Marco Tomasi

Director, Formation Architects

Tomasi studied in Venice, Porto and Cambridge, and practised as an architect in Italy before moving to the UK. Since joining Formation Architects in 2007, he has gained in-depth experience through a variety of projects, focusing on residential buildings at the design and planning stage. He has also led several projects from inception to completion in the UK and abroad. As director, Tomasi leads Formation Architects’ pre-planning team, which is involved in the early stage design of commercial and residential schemes with a range of typologies, locations, tenures and sizes.