Ami Kotecha
Chair
Co-Founder & Head of Venture Investments, Amro Partners
Ami graduated from the London School of Economics with a degree in Economics in 1989 and went on to obtain her post graduate degree, an M. Phil. in Economic Development, from Wolfson College, Cambridge in 1990. She also holds an RICS post graduate Diploma in Property Investment
Ami started her career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers, New York and went on to join The LEK International Partnership as a strategy consultant. In the early nineties, Ami launched her first start-up in Kenya in the consumer goods industry sector and after a successful exit moved on to founding and building businesses in the real estate sector in East Africa, UK and Europe.
In 2010, Ami co-founded Amro Real Estate Partners - a property investment and development firm based in Central London that specialises in the purpose-built student accommodation and Build to Rent (BtR) sectors. In her role as Managing Director of AmroLiving, the group’s BtR operations platform, Ami is currently responsible for the delivery, leasing and management of c.1,500 rental BtR apartments with a GDV of c.£700m. Ami is a strong proponent of an end- user focussed approach to leasing and asset management, and as Head of Innovation at Amro, she combines her experience in asset management with her insights into technology-enabled solutions to drive a customer-focussed, hospitality-led operations strategy.
Ami is a member of the ULI Residential Council and the ULI Technology Forum. Given her interest in “proptech” and entrepreneurship, she plays an active role as a mentor on several technology start up incubator programmes and female entrepreneurship support initiatives. One of her stated aims is to promote gender equity and social diversity in the real estate sector in the UK.