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.
Kirsten Henson
Committee Member
Kirsten Henson is the founding Director of KLH Sustainability, a sustainable built environment consultancy based in London. She has contributed to various masterplans, corporate strategies and research over her 20-year career as well as implementing sustainability innovation on numerous award-winning projects including the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the Centre for Sustainable Chemistry (University of Nottingham), innocent’s net-zero factory and St James’s Market (The Crown Estate).
Kirsten is an independent technical advisor to the International Olympic Committee, providing advice on the sustainable design and construction of temporary and permanent facilities to Olympic and Winter Olympic Organising Committees. Closer to home she sits on several Independent Design Review Panels including High Speed 2, and the London Boroughs of Camden, Euston and Epping Forest. She is the co-convenor of the University of Cambridge’s recently launched on-line short course: Sustainable Real Estate and is a regular lecturer at numerous Universities.
Kirsten holds two masters degrees from the University of Cambridge in Engineering and Engineering for Sustainable Development. In part due to her civil engineering background, Kirsten’s technical focus is on materials sustainability, encompassing embodied carbon, circular economy and supply chains.
Munish Datta
Committee Member
Munish Datta is passionate about the crucial role every sector of society - government, business, civic, each individual - must play to create a truly inclusive, sustainable world.
As director at UK Green Building Council, he is responsible for leading the organisations membership & partnerships strategy and enabling the delivery of its mission to radically improve the sustainability of the built environment. As a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, he empowers senior business leaders & organisations to tackle critical global challenges.
He is a member of the UK Government (BEIS) Green Construction Board, Governor of the Stephen Perse foundation of schools & trustee of Rama Foundation. Munish is alumnus of Marks & Spencer where he led cross business teams to design and deliver the multi award winning, globally renowned sustainability strategy (Plan A), for its 1000+ buildings property portfolio.
Rahul Parekh
Committee Member
Rahul has been on both sides of the table having founded and exited a VC-backed business. Before joining 2150, Rahul co-founded EatFirst, which he ran as CEO for several years before the company was acquired in 2020. He was also a managing director in Rocket Internet’s investment team, focussed primarily on urban mobile on-demand businesses. He began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he spent eight years as an executive director in equity derivatives trading.
Rahul graduated from the University of Cambridge with an M.A. in economics. He became passionate about sustainability after studying the impact of mass-urbanisation on living standards in developing countries and then witnessing this first-hand during a trip to India in 2007.
Rahul’s personal commitment to sustainability in 2022 is to switch to 100% renewable energy at home.