Steve Bennett

Chief property and development officer, Travelodge

Steve 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.

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 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 and advises them on particular tax issues pertaining to them and their investors. Dunlop is also a stamp taxes specialist and has extensive experience advising on matters in relation to stamp duty land tax.

John Davies

Head of sustainability, Derwent London

John 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 of 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), 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 navigating the risks and opportunities sustainability presents in order to maximise value and liquidity across sales and acquisitions.

Alex Edmans

Professor of finance, London Business School

Edmans is professor of finance at London Business School. He has a PhD from MIT as a Fulbright scholar and was previously a tenured professor at Wharton 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 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.

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 the impact focussed real estate advice, tailoring advice to enable acquisitions, occupation, and disposals of properties in a sustainable way. With over 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 range of clients including charities, social enterprises, impact led organisations and investors.

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. McKillop-Paley is also head of the real estate support to our preeminent Energy and Infrastructure Sector developing clean energy projects. She is recognised for her strategic portfolio management of her client’s portfolios including renewable energy generation or calling on commercial energy advice in relation to CPPAs. With a keen interest in sustainability and ESG, McKillop-Paley is also a founding member of Shoosmiths’ sustainability group.

Bára Melezinkova

Head of ESG, LondonMetric Plc

Melezinkova is responsible for leading and continually enhancing LMP’s sustainability agenda, working closely with the wider team to oversee implementation of environmental, social and governance considerations across all investments. She is a qualified Chartered Surveyor (Property Finance & Investment pathway) with 15 years’ experience in the real estate investment management sector, including property asset management and a background in research and analytics. Melezinkova represents LMP across a number of industry bodies and initiatives, such as the Better Buildings Partnership and the Don’t Waste Buildings campaign.

Paul Morrish

Chief executive, Landaid

Morrish joined LandAid in 2015 having worked in a wide range of charities and not for profit organisations over a 25-year period. He works with the Board of Trustees to ensure LandAid has a clear strategy and is equipped to deliver that strategy. He leads a small leadership team, who in turn lead their larger – but still small – and outstanding team. He 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 at 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. Oldham has held various education and strategy roles at the City Corporation and at the Railway Industry Association.

David Partridge

Governance board chair, Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard & 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 UKGBC 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

Robinson co-founded Ellandi in 2008 with Morgan Garfield. Over the past 25 years, he’s worked for both owners and occupiers of town-centre spaces and is an active advocate for the future of our high streets. He’s a commentator on town-centre issues in both industry and national media, including The Times, the Financial Times and BBC. At Ellandi, Robinson leads 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 Street Task Force.

Charles Royle

Portfolio manager, AEW

Royle joined AEW in 2015 and has 20 years’ industry experience. He is currently portfolio manager for AEW’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 Royle’s role on the UK ESG committee, he 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 RICS in March 2007, passed the IMC in May 2014 and holds a BSc in Land Management from the University of Reading.