Dame Kate Barker CBE
Dame Kate Barker CBE, Office for Budget Responsibility Oversight Board, Senior Visiting Fellow Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge.
Kate Barker read PPE at Oxford. She is presently a non-executive director of Electra Private Equity plc, Taylor Wimpey plc and the Yorkshire Building Society. She also chairs the trustees of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Fund. Previously, Kate Barker was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England from 2001 until May 2010. During this period, she also led two major policy reviews for Government, on housing supply and on land use planning. Before joining the MPC she was Chief Economic Adviser at the CBI. In 2011 she was appointed to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Oversight Board.
Barker is a member of the advisory board for the Centre for Economic Policy at the LSE, and became Chair of the advisory board for the Centre for Business Research at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge in October 2012. She is a senior visiting fellow in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge.
In 2014 she chaired a Commission on the Future of Health and Social Care in England for the King's Fund, and led a quality review of the National Accounts for the Office of National Statistics. She took over as Chair of the Society of Business Economists in 2013.
Douglas Blausten
Douglas Blausten is a Consultant of Carter Jonas.
He has over 40 years of experience in the commercial real estate sector as an independent adviser to major corporate clients and as an Executive and Non-Executive Director of publicly quoted real estate companies and public bodies. He has extensive experience of public speaking as a keynote speaker and panellist and has chaired many conferences and lectures.
He strongly believes that operational property assets of companies and businesses can be a major catalyst for change in workplace practices and the provider of added value for shareholders/stakeholders. The projects he has led and worked on over his professional career illustrate these outcomes.
As an innovator and strategist he has a strong track record, having for many years advised companies in the transport, power and energy, pharmaceuticals and environmental services sectors and across the manufacturing and distribution sectors.
For twelve years he was a General Commissioner of Taxes and for two and a half years was Vice Chairman of the £ 3.5 billion NHS Property Services Company and Chairman of its Assets and Investment Committee. He has been a Trustee and Director of the Mental Health Foundation until 2017 and also founded the policy discussion and thought leadership forum, The CULS Whitehall Group and subsequently chaired this for three years until September 2017. He is a member of the Cambridge Land Economy Advisory Board. He served as a Centre fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research for six years. He is a director of and consultant to several property investment companies and to industrial and education businesses in the UK and Germany.
Stuart Corbyn FRICS
Stuart was Chief Executive of the Cadogan Estate from 1986 until 2008. During that time Cadogan evolved from being a traditional ground-rent estate, becoming an active property owner with an emphasis on forming direct relationships with residential and commercial occupiers. Substantial investment was made in the buildings, with several major refurbishments and developments undertaken as well as additions to the portfolio, an example being the Harvey Nichols building.
Some of the more significant projects were the re-establishment of Sloane Street as a location for luxury retailers, the creation of a concert venue, Cadogan Hall, following the acquisition and conversion of a former church, and the purchase and adaptation of the TA Headquarters to become Duke of York Square with a mixture of educational, office, residential, restaurant and retail uses, a home for the Saatchi Gallery and extensive new areas of public realm.
Stuart Corbyn is a Chartered Surveyor and past President of the British Property Federation. He has been a Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and a trustee of the Chelsea Physic Garden. Also, a Commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, a Member of the Council of the Royal Albert Hall, Chairman of the Property Development Committee of the Royal Brompton Hospital’s Charitable Fund, and a Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Paul Finch OBE
Paul Finch is Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival (WAF). He started professional life as a journalist in the early 1970s; he has edited Building Design, Architects’ Journal and Architectural Review, where he launched WAF in 2008. He has been co-editor of Planning in London since 1994. He was a founder-commissioner and later chair at CABE (Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment). He chaired its design review programme, subsequently chairing its London Olympics design panel from 2005 to 2012. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster and honorary fellowships from University College London and the Royal Institute of British Architects. He is an honorary member of the British Council for Offices and the Architectural Association. He was awarded an OBE for services to architecture in 2002.
Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE
Chairman NHS England
Professor Sir Malcolm Grant CBE is the Chairman of NHS England.
Sir Malcolm is also Chancellor of the University of York, and immediate past President and Provost of UCL (University College London) from 2003-2013. He is a barrister and a Bencher of Middle Temple.
As an academic lawyer he specialised in planning, property and environmental law, and was Professor and Head of Department of Land Economy (1991-2003) and pro-vice chancellor (2002-03) of Cambridge University, and professorial fellow of Clare College.
He has served as Chair of the Local Government Commission for England, of the Agriculture and Environmental Biotechnology Commission and the Russell Group. He is currently a trustee of Somerset House, a director of Genomics England Ltd and a UK Business Ambassador.
Heather Hancock LVO DL
Heather Hancock has been Master of St John’s College, since October 2020, having graduated from the College in 1987 with a degree in Land Economy. She was previously an Honorary Fellow of St John’s, and is an Honorary Fellow of Darwin College and of Trinity College Dublin.
Prior to the Mastership, Heather chaired the Food Standards Agency and held a portfolio of non-executive roles. She spent 11 years as a strategy consultant in Deloitte, serving as Managing Partner for the UK and Swiss firms and in Deloitte’s global leadership team. Her advisory work focused on strategic governance in novel and complex situations. In the 1990s, Heather held a series of senior roles in national, local and regional government.
She is Chair of the Prince’s Countryside Fund and the Agricultural Forum, and holds non-executive directorships for a FTSE250 and a private property company. Former roles include Trustee of the International Business Leaders Forum and of The Prince’s Trust, Deputy Chair of the World Athletics Championships, and 15 years providing independent advice on the BBC’s rural affairs output. Within Cambridge, Heather is President of CUMS and currently chairs a University/Colleges’ working group on sport and physical activity.
Spencer de Grey CBE RIBA
Head of Design, Foster + Partners
Spencer de Grey shares design responsibility for all Foster + Partners’ projects as joint Head of Design. He studied architecture at Cambridge University under Sir Leslie Martin. On graduating in 1969 he worked for the London Borough of Merton, being responsible for one of the first Middle schools in the country.
He joined Foster Associates in 1973, continuing his work in education on the Palmerston Special School. In 1979 he set up Foster Associates’ Hong Kong office to work on the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. He returned to London in 1981, becoming the director in charge of Stansted Airport, which he saw through to completion in 1991. During this period, he also worked on the BBC Radio Centre and the Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts, both in London. Since becoming a Partner in 1991, he has overseen a broad range of projects, including the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, the Law Faculty at Cambridge University, the Great Court at the British Museum, The Sage Gateshead, HM Treasury in Whitehall, and nine City Academy schools in the UK. He has been responsible for a number of cultural projects in the USA, including the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, the courtyard at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC and the reworking of the New York Public Library. Recent projects include masterplans for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong and Slussen in Stockholm.
He is visiting Professor of Design at the University of Cambridge, Chairman of the Building Centre Trust, and architectural advisor to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. He also lectures widely. In 1997 he was made a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and in 2008 was elected a Royal Academician.
Ian Henderson CBE
Non-Executive Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Non-Executive Director
Formerly Chief Executive of Land Securities Group PLC, Ian, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, has been widely involved in property industry matters, including being a past President of the British Property Federation.
Colin Lizieri FRICS FRGS
Colin is Emeritus Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of Cambridge and was Grosvenor Professor of Real Estate Finance between 2009 and 2022 and head of the Department of Land Economy between 2016 and 2020. He is a fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, Colin helped establish the Cambridge Real Estate Research Centre and the part-time MSt in Real Estate. Colin’s academic career included spells at City University, the University of Reading, and the University of Toronto. In his academic research, he has focused on commercial real estate risk and investment, office market dynamics and international capital flows.
Recognition of his research work include the award of the David Ricardo medal of the American Real Estate Society for “… his thought leadership, his influence on new directions of research, teaching, public policy and practice” and the International Real Estate Society Achievement Award for “for outstanding achievement in real estate research, education and practice at the international level”. He has been elected as a fellow of the Weimer School, Homer Hoyt Institute and as an honorary senior fellow of the Society of Property Researchers. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Throughout he has maintained close links with the industry and professions, chairing the World Economic Forum’s industry committee on the future of real estate and urbanization and serving on the research committees of the RICS, the IPF and EPRA. Colin’s consultancy has included advisory work for central banks, sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors and international real estate consultants and he has been an expert witness in the Upper Chamber (Lands Tribunal) and the Australian Federal courts.
Roger Madelin CBE
Head of Canada Water, British Land
Roger joined Argent in 1987. He became a Director in 1989 and, for the ten years that followed, was responsible for delivering all of Argent’s developments, including Green Park and Thames Valley Park in Reading, Brindleyplace in Birmingham, and Piccadilly in Manchester and office buildings in the City of London.
He became CEO in 1997 after an innovative acquisition by British Telecom Pension Scheme and, due to the dramatic expansion of Argent’s business, his long-term colleague David Partridge joined him as Joint CEO in 2006. At the end of 2012 Argent restructured as a Limited Liability Partnership and Roger stepped back from new Argent business and concentrated on specific delivery aspects of King’s Cross including the design and delivery of 3 major buildings for the Aga Khan Development Network.
In January 2016, after 29 years, Roger formally left Argent and joined British Land as Head of Canada Water, a 46 acre development opportunity in Central London. He will maintain a consultancy role at King’s Cross with Argent in connection with the Aga Khan buildings.
Roger is an Honorary Fellow of RIBA, an Honorary Fellow of the College of Estate Management and was awarded a CBE for ‘services to sustainable development’ in the 2007 Honours List.
Jeremy Newsum
Artist
Jeremy Newsum, DL, FRICS, was the Executive Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate from 1993 to 2016 and had overall responsibility for the Grosvenor family’s business interests. Among numerous non-executive roles, he has been a Church Commissioner and a member of the Council of Imperial College; a director of Grupo Lar, the Wates Group and TR Investment Property Trust; and an adviser to the AI Futtaim Group in Dubai. He lives near Cambridge and was the founding Chair of Cambridge Ahead, a member of the Investment Committee at Trinity College and a member of Cambridge University's Syndicate for the West and North West Cambridge Estates. Past industry appointments include Chairman of the Urban Land Institute (2009–2011) and President of the British Property Federation (2001-2002). He is now an artist painting rural and urban landscapes in oil.
Liz Peace CBE
Liz is a well-known figure in the property industry, having served as Chief Executive of the British Property Federation for thirteen years until her retirement at the end of 2014. During that time, she managed to change the Government’s perception of the commercial property industry, to establish it as a key voice in policy debate, to dissuade the Government from legislating on commercial leases, to win innumerable changes to planning and tax legislation and, working as part of a pan-industry alliance, to persuade the Government to introduce real estate investment trusts (REITs).
Previously, she was a civil servant in the MOD, eventually becoming a key player in the team that created QinetiQ plc.
Liz is now embarking on a portfolio career with a range of non-executive, advisory and charity roles, including at Morgan Sindall plc, Redrow plc, Howarde de Walden Estates, Holtby Turner, Arcadis, Peabody and the Churches Conservation Trust, and the Architectural Heritage Fund. She is the chairman of LandAid, the property industry’s principal charity. She is also chairing the shadow board for the Curzon Urban Regeneration Company in Birmingham and has recently been appointed to chair the embryonic organisation that is being set up under the Government’s New Property Model initiative to asset-manage departmental property portfolios.
Peter Pereira-Gray
Peter Pereira Gray was until recently CEO and Managing Partner of the Wellcome Trust's Investment Team and worked with a team managing the £14 billion multi asset global investment portfolio. Previous roles held were Co head of the portfolio Management team and Head of Property Investment. Peter had a wide brief responsible for the oversight of the Investment Services, Support and Portfolio Management teams.
Prior to joining the Trust in January 2001, Peter worked for 12 years at Prudential Property Investment Managers, latterly as a Director of Property Fund Management and Deputy Life Fund Manager.
Peter is a past Chairman of the Investment Property Forum, the UK’s leading property investment professionals’ members association and was a past founding and advisory board member and member of the Management Board of INREV (the European Association for unlisted real estate vehicles). He is a member of both the Bank of England Commercial and Residential Property Forums, and a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Peter is also an Advisory Board member for Composition Capital Partners, with offices in Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
Outside work he is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Advisory Board member and Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Continuing Professional Development.
Mark Preston
Executive Trustee, Grosvenor Group
Mark Preston, FRICS, is the Executive Trustee of the Grosvenor Estate with overall responsibility for the Grosvenor family’s business interests. He also holds the position of Chief Executive of Grosvenor Group to which he was appointed in 2008.
Earlier in his career, and after joining Grosvenor in the UK in 1989, he was seconded to Hong Kong in 1995, returned to the UK to lead Grosvenor's Fund Management operations in 1997, spent four years in San Francisco from 2002, became Chief Executive of Grosvenor Britain & Ireland in 2006 and was appointed to the Group Board in 2006.
Mark is a Non-Executive Director for international property company Sonae Sierra SGPS. He is a Trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and a Trustee of the Westminster Foundation.
He is a member of the (University of) Cambridge Land Economy Advisory Board and an Honorary Vice-President of the Cambridge University Land Society.