Amira Hashemi, sustainability manager, Frasers Property UK

Hashemi has worked in real estate and sustainability since 2015, following the completion of her Masters of Sustainability at the University of Sydney. Having worked in Australia and the UK, she has accumulated a wealth of experience to deliver impressive sustainability outcomes for Frasers Property UK. Leading the sustainability strategy for FPUK, she has taken FPUK from zero stars to a four-star GRESB portfolio in only two years. She has also led the development of the company’s roadmap to zero carbon aligned to Science Based Targets by 2050. She is an alumni of the UKGBC’s Future Leaders programme and is a qualified workshop facilitator. She is also an accredited Fitwel Ambassador. Outside of work, Hashemi is the vice-chair of Eastside Youth, a not-for-profit organisation in east London.

Louise Ellison, chief commercial officer, Longevity Partners

Ellison was appointed as Longevity Partners’ global chief commercial officer in 2021, where she leads the development of tailored programmes helping clients achieve their current and future ESG and climate goals. She is recognised as a leader in the world of sustainable real estate. She has many years’ experience in industry and has served on a range of boards and committees including eight years as chair of the Better Buildings Partnership.  

Andrew Leiper, net zero carbon leader, Max Fordham

Leiper is responsible for driving forward – and disseminating to the wider industry – the practice’s approach to the delivery of net zero carbon buildings. He has worked on wide range of sustainable exemplar buildings, from the large-scale regeneration of Peabody’s St John’s Hill Estate to the Olympic water polo venue for London 2012. Leiper was lead author of the Net Zero Carbon Guide and has written numerous articles on the subject of net zero carbon buildings for industry publications. He is also curating the Efficient Buildings stream of the upcoming Footprint Conference. Leiper co-ordinates Architects/Construction Declares Scotland and is based in Edinburgh.

Basil Demeroutis, Managing Partner, FORE Partnership

Demeroutis is the Managing Partner of FORE Partnership, the purpose-driven real estate private investment firm that believes in driving social and environmental innovation in the built environment. FORE achieves this by transforming buildings through active, hands on asset management that focuses on low carbon strategies, social impact, place making and design. Prior to founding FORE, Basil was a partner at Capricorn Investment Group, the family office of Jeff Skoll (eBay), overseeing the firm’s European business, the real estate strategy globally, and serving on the firm’s investment committee. Previously he was a Managing Partner at real estate private equity firm, Jargonnant Partners, and spent 13 years in investment banking working for ING Barings, Bear Stearns, and Bankers Trust (Deutsche Bank). He received a BSc in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Cornell University.

Nina Reid, Head of Responsible Property Investing (Global), M&G Real Estate

Reid has overseen Responsible Property Investment (RPI) within M&G plc’s Real Estate business for more than 10 years, driving its ambitious RPI strategy, which seeks to enrich the lives of people and communities by creating and managing world class places which deliver positive value for its investors, society and the environment. She also oversees investor reporting on RPI initiatives, engaging directly with investors to ensure that funds are meeting their sustainability requirements. With more than 10 years’ experience in responsible investment and real estate, prior to joining M&G Real Estate in 2011, Nina was an associate director within the Upstream Sustainability Services Team at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Greg Borel, Managing Partner, Ampersand Partners & CUBE

Borel is the founder of sustainability focused management consultancy Ampersand where he leads the energy and net zero practice. He serves both energy clients such as renewable energy investors, grid scale battery storage developers or utilities, and large energy users in the real estate sector including large REITS, industrial and logistics specialists, and data centres. Ampersand is the organiser of CUBE in the UK, a community of commercial building owners, landlords and users driving reductions in energy usage through changing behaviour.

Sarah Ratcliffe, CEO, Better Buildings Partnership

Ratcliffe has over 20 years’ experience working in the property sector on sustainability issues. As CEO of the Better Buildings Partnership, she leads collaboration with the organisations’ 34 Members with the objective of improving the sustainability performance of their portfolios. Most recently, Ratcliffe spearheaded the BBP Climate Commitment, signed by 25 property owners across UK, European & Global portfolios and covering over £300bn AUM. Prior to this, as a founding Director of Upstream (acquired by JLL in 2007), she advised many of the UK’s leading property investors and developers on sustainability issues and was instrumental in establishing some of the earliest sector sustainability benchmarks including the Property Environment Group, NextGeneration and The Third Dimension. As a European Director at JLL, Ratcliffe was responsible for leading the firm’s sustainability consultancy in UK and Europe and sat on the Global Sustainability Board. She contributes to a wide range of industry steering groups and projects and is also a visiting lecturer on Sustainable Real Estate at Cass Business School and a Board Director of the Sustainable Development Foundation.

Jane Wakiwaka, Environmental Sustainability Director, The Crown Estate

Wakiwaka is Environmental Sustainability Director for The Crown Estate. She leads and implements sustainability strategy across The Crown Estate’s Central London and Regional portfolios. She manages sustainability, stewardship and innovation across operational assets and development projects of the business. She is also Chair of GRESB European Benchmark Committee and Vice-Chair of GRESB Advisory Board.

John Davies, Head of Sustainability, Derwent London

Davies is Head of Sustainability at Derwent London. He is responsible for leading the company wide sustainability and responsibility agendas. He 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, Davies was Head of Sustainability at Davis Langdon LLP where was responsible for developing and delivering its range of sustainability services.

Samantha McClary, Editor, EG

McClary has almost 20 years’ experience in real estate and business journalism, covering a wide range of topics. Alongside making sure EG delivers the best, most helpful, most accurate and, of course, most interesting content to EG’s readership across all platforms – print, online and audio – she also plays a leading role in enabling and delivering a more diverse environment for the real estate community through EG’s REWIRE and tech initiatives. A keen chair and regular wearer of too bright trousers, McClary seeks to help keep panel discussions and events lively with audience participation and insightful questioning.