Accelerating Careers in Real Estate

This evening I am sat with Cedric Bucher, CEO of Hearthstone Investments a real estate investment manager 100% focused on UK suburban private rented housing or as the US call it Single Family. Cedric is not a real estate native, he was born in Switzerland began his career in Switzerland with Mckinsey and worked within in multi-asset investment and finance for Barclays Wealth and Architas to name j...

This evening I am sitting with Tom Pocock, Central London MD for Berkeley Group St Edward, Tom has spent 17 out of his 18-year career inside the Berkeley Group beginning as a land graduate to a series of MD designate titles including for West London at just 30 followed by MD of its strategic land business in Central and West London and now MD of Berkeley’s St Edward Central London. I’m always fasc...

In this episode, I get to sit down with Helen Martin, a seasoned leader in construction and development, who is now MD of the central region of Wates Construction. A former engineer, Helen has built a career on the fundamentals of honesty, direct communication and ultimately not allowing external forces to dictate her path. In the episode, Helen describes her path from engineer to contractor, turn...

In this episode, I get to interview Chris Davies, CEO of Uncommon a flex office provider with 7 buildings owned and operated by Uncommon. Chris is a self-confessed non-conformist in real estate and has led an incredible career over a steep trajectory to running a portfolio of 250k sq/ft worth £350m. Chris shared his thoughts on his own career and answered the questions of our audience on the topic...

In this episode, I am joined by Ian Morrison Co-Founder of Beyond a young and entrepreneurial developer of mixed-use projects. Ian began his career as a QS with EC Harris and has moved his career and reinvented his skills moving through the roles of QS to PM, DM and Director and now Co-Founder. Ian spent 14 years with Grosvenor eventually leading their London development team and a development pip...

So after two years of me beating the Accelerating Careers drum of three repeating chapters in our careers, patterns I have seen over and over again in more than 1000 interviews I have conducted in real estate, I was really looking forward to putting these to the test with an expert whose experience spans 25 years across all commercial sectors.   Dr Catherine Sandler, founded the Sandler Consu...

Episode 51 and I am talking to not one but three guests and I have something very exciting to announce. I will get to fulfil the ambition to record a podcast with a live audience on May 4th. IN today's episode I am talking to three members of the PropSki Committee about its up and coming reunion as well as asking them about their personal career lessons. I am talking to Laura Shields, Sales Direct...

In episode 50 I take the chance to look back at the last 25 episodes and reflect on how our guests have built "accelerating careers". As well as sharing some of my hopes for how I plan to spend the next 50 episodes. We all experience the same phases of our career, but why does it feel like some careers go up like a rocket yet others struggle to launch. Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/grou...

This evening I sat down with Clare Hebbes, Director of Development at the London Legacy Development Corporation, responsible for the delivery of c2,500 homes. Clare has over 20 years’ experience working on some of the most significant urban regeneration with several of London’s most prominent developers including Argent and the redevelopment of King’s Cross, Battersea Power Station Development Com...

This evening I am sat with Simon Harding-Roots, Managing Director of the London Portfolio for The Crown Estate. With 10 million square feet of office, retail, dining, leisure and residential space in London, The Crown Estate is one of the West End’s largest property owners, with a diverse customer base and portfolio currently valued at £7.7 billion. Simon has led a career across global locations w...

Yair has 20+ years' experience in real estate development with a career including some of London's largest projects including Elizabeth House and 22 Bishopsgate.   As former Partner at Lipton Rogers Developments, and Development Director at Chelsfield, Yair has been responsible for delivering £5bn+ of mixed-use projects, from initial concept through planning, to construction and disposal. In...

This evening I am sat with Tom Venner, Managing Director of The Euston Partnership. Responsible for the multi-billion pounds of investment into transformational infrastructure and real estate change at Euston. This was a role he gained after spending 3.5 years as the Commercial Development Director for HS2 responsible for 3.4 million square metre development pipeline around the 8 stations, a...

This evening I am sat with David Twohig, Founding Partner of MurrayTwohig. MurrayTwohig is a real estate consultancy business focused on vision, place and execution strategy. They have advised on over 300 million square feet of development globally. David is no stranger to megaprojects as between the years 2008 to 2017 he was the Chief Development Officer, Head of Design and Placemaking for Batter...

This evening I get to sit down with Californian native JP Newman, CEO of Thrive FP based in Austin, Texas. JP tells a great story of his career from pre-law at UCLA to being an executive at a children’s toy company to Sony production and producing his own films. But then comes an eventual flip from the creative industries to real estate lending in Austin Texas. He kindly shares the stories and les...

This evening I am sat with Kate Ives, Strategic Director at Countryside Partnerships South. I talk a lot about the chapters in our career: acceleration, consolidation and spark and for Kate who is just days into a new role, I expect it is just at the beginning of a new exciting acceleration chapter. Before Kate joined Countryside she was a member of the fledgling development department at Wates Re...

This evening I am joined by Charlotte Constance, Founder of Conductor. Charlotte and her team focus on bringing science and soul to spaces and places. This means bringing data, insights, marketing and customer experience to bear thereby unlocking the potential of developments. At Conductor, they start every project with the people that will be influenced and affected by the spaces and places they...

This marks our fourth and final instalment of our Self-Starters mini-series. Today I am joined by Chris Monkman, founder of Neighbourhood, Camilla Topham, Co-founder of Distrkt and Paul Clark, Co-Founder of Stories.   The series was introduced to look at the options to accelerate your career through starting your own business not developing within someone else’s. However, over the course of t...

In part 3 of the mini-series we continue our look into the drives, ambitions and challenges of starting a new company in real estate. In this episode, we hear from Peter Hall Co-Founder of Situu, Ieva Dvilinskiene Co-Founder of Flow Space and Hannah Bruce Founder of Dissideo. I ask our guests what drove them to the decision to start up their own company, when did they know they were on the right t...

In part 2 of the mini-series we continue our look into the drives, ambitions and challenges of starting a new company in real estate. In this episode we hear from Riccardo Tessaro, Co-Founder of Gravity Co-Living, Holly Porter, Co-Founder of Urbane London and Justin Shee, Founder of Citizen G.   Linkedin Group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9054319 Contact details Ncarman@macdonaldandcompan...

So today's episode is a little different, in fact, the next few episodes are going to be a little different. Over the past 12 months since the depths of the pandemic I have noticed with increasing frequency individuals choosing to "go it alone", leave the corporate ladder and start their own company. It got me thinking, how often does this feature in the career playbook? So over the coming few epi...

This evening I am joined by Eric Schaffer, CEO for Asia Pacific for Essensys. The leading provider for technology to the flexible office space. Eric’s education begins in the US but he starts his career in China establishing himself in the office capital markets with Colliers, Cushmans and establishing a new business Core Capital before joining WeWork as their Head of APAC Advisory. In 2021 he joi...

This evening I am sat with Ciara Keeling, CEO for Bruntwood Works the North West and Midlands commercial developer and investor. Ciara has spent her 16 years career with Bruntwood, developing skills in leadership and asset management through chapters featuring the GFC, Northern Power House and recently the pandemic to become the CEO in 2018 for this regional goliath of commercial property.  L...

This evening I am sat with Sarah Cary, Executive Director of Place, Enfield Council. Sarah is responsible for a workforce of more than 1500 people in the built environment services for the council. A relative newcomer to the public sector, Sarah shares her experience growing up in Dallas, moving to London, gaining her PhD and building a 10 year career in development with British Land culminating i...

This evening I am sat with Russ Edwards, Head of Residential Product for Lend Lease Europe, Russ has responsibility for a pipeline of 30,000 homes across the UK and Europe. Prior to joining Lendlease Russ was Design Director for Pocket Living, Head of Residential for DRMM and an Architect with Design Engine Architects. In this episode Russ shares his story starting in architecture, transitioning t...

This evening I am sat with Alex Jezeph Senior Property Development Manager for Transport for London, 11 years with JLL within the Planning and Capital Markets divisions. Former Co-Chair of the ULI UK Young leaders committee and Non-Executive director for Bright Blue, an independent think tank and pressure group for liberal conservatism.   Alex shares her career journey as she has continued to...