Jamie Ratcliff

Chief Communities & Sustainability Officer
SNG

Prior to his appointment at SNG Jamie was Executive Director of People, Partnerships and Sustainability at Network Homes which he joined in 2019. He has been Assistant Director of Housing at the GLA and has worked for Homes England’s predecessor organisation the Homes and Communities Agency.

He is a passionate advocate for social housing and community organising.

Jennet Siebrits

Head of UK Research
CBRE

Jennet is an economist with over twenty five years’ experience. Jennet joined CBRE 18 years ago to set up the residential research team. For the past three years she has also taken over responsibility for the commercial research teams. She focuses on the big issues in the real estate world, identifying trends, analysing the market, and providing clients with unrivalled insight and ideas. Jennet regularly produces bespoke reports for clients that help inform their strategic decision-making process.

In addition, she produces a wide-ranging programme of thought leadership looking at issues such as placemaking, premium pricing and the impact of regeneration. Jennet spends a significant amount of time presenting to clients (developer and buyers) to keep them up to date with market developments.

Harry Downes

Managing Director – UK Multifamily Investment
Greystar

After 6 years in the Army, Harry started his property career in the commercial sector in Canada. On returning to the UK he switched to residential with Savills, before spending 13 years as Sales and Marketing Director with Manhattan Loft Corporation. High points were the development and delivery of iconic schemes such as St Pancras Chambers, Bankside Lofts and West India Quay.

In 2010 the banking crisis was causing turmoil in the residential sector so Harry set about finding a housing solution for young professionals. The result was an idea that became Fizzy Living, one of the earliest entrants into the BTR market.

Fizzy grew to 1,000 units with financial backing from ADIA, and in 2021 the operating business was bought by Greystar. Harry is now MD Investments in its UK multi family business.

Morwenna Hall

Partner & COO
Argent LLP

“Morwenna Hall, a chartered mechanical engineer, is a Partner and the COO of developer Argent LLP. She joined the firm in 2011 and in addition to her corporate leadership role has led the design and delivery of several major projects at King’s Cross, including Fish & Coal, Gasholder No.8 park and Coal Drops Yard; a new shopping destination for London with 65 retail units in the repurposed Victorian coal sheds. She is now leading on the ground floor uses, public realm vision and activation for Brent Cross Town, a new Park Town, that brings together the very best of London’s great neighbourhoods while making the most of its natural assets and opportunities. Its most distinct local feature is a 44-acre playing field that is destined to become one of London’s great parks and home to a wide variety of new play and sports facilities.

Morwenna started her career at Arup as a mechanical building services engineer. During this time, she was the lead mechanical engineer for the Sainsbury Laboratory in Cambridge, designed by Stanton Williams architects, which in 2012 won the most sought-after accolade in the industry – the RIBA Stirling Prize. Morwenna has featured in many publications such as Property Week’s ‘Forty under 40’ list of young entrepreneurs, disrupters and leaders and her evident passion for design led to her being showcased as one of 27 women in the 2014 ‘Women Fashion Power’ exhibition at the Design Museum, alongside Princess Diana, Dame Vivienne Westwood and Dame Zaha Hadid.”

Mike Best

Head of Logistics
British Land

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Melanie Leech CBE

Chief Executive
BPF

Melanie joined the British Property Federation as Chief Executive in January 2015, following nine years as Director General of the Food and Drink Federation.

Melanie began her working life as a Police Constable in the Metropolitan Police Service. She joined the civil service (HM Customs) in 1988 and subsequently held senior roles in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Office of the Rail Regulator and the Cabinet Office. Her role is to champion UK real estate and to promote a long-term, sustainable partnership between governments and the sector to deliver a high quality built environment, creating economic and social value for local communities.

Melanie is a Fellow of the RSA and an external member of the Council of the University of Essex. In 2015 she was awarded a CBE for services to the food and drink industry.

Rebekah Paczek

Director of Public Affairs and Community Relations
Earls Court Development Company

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Peter Runacres

Head of Urban Futures
Earls Court Development Company

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Dinah Bornat

Director
ZCD Architects

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Professor Tony Travers

Director of LSE London
Visiting Professor in the Department of Government

Professor Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at The London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also a Visiting Professor in LSE’s Department of Government. His key research interests include local and regional government and public service reform.

Professor Travers is currently an advisor to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Select Committee and the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

He has published a number of books on cities and government, including Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis), Paying for Health, Education and Housing: How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills) and The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City.

Sean Mendez

Founder / CEO
Solidarity Sports

Two things shaped my childhood, and me as a person. Firstly, I grew up thinking there were no green spaces where I lived in Earl’s Court, which is why my friends/brothers and I adopted the local cemetery as our park – playing sports, riding bikes and climbing trees. Later on, I learnt there were plenty of local gardens, but they were all private and under lock and key.

Secondly, on weekends my mum took me to work with her at ‘The Gateway Club’ – a centre for young people with learning disabilities. It was a club with scarce resources, but the staff were very caring, patient and nurturing. This stuck with me! I was proud to know that my mum took care of these people. They would call me their ‘brother’ and my mum their ‘mum’. We were all one big family.

In 2006, I travelled the world for a year. During that time I mixed with wonderful people, each with their own traits and with a common goal in life: to be happy. I absorbed the environment – from the street children in Mumbai to the opulence of Dubai, and realised that sports played a big part in children’s happiness. It was a way of bringing people together. From the homemade cricket bats in India to the dilapidated boxing gyms in Cuba, resourcefulness seemed to overcome the hardship of poverty.

I returned to the UK in 2007 and founded Solidarity Sports. Our first project – ‘Six Weeks of Football Fun’ – gave 20 children living in Earl’s Court the opportunity to enjoy sports and keep healthy. Since then, we have helped children all over London. From taking over 100 children on exciting trips abroad to publishing our very own cookbook, our journey has given us smiles, tears and lots of laughter, along with many rewards.

Our vision is to help more children and have a more positive impact on their lives. Our slogan used to be: ‘Inspiring children to be’. We help build the foundations for children to realise their potential. However, sometimes I think I enjoy working with children so much that it should read the opposite: ‘Inspiring adults to be’. It’s closer to the truth.

Greeta Nanda OBE

CEO
Metropolitan Thames Valley

Geeta Nanda OBE is Chief Executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley housing association, and serves as a non-executive director of Redrow plc and PRS REIT plc. She serves on the government’s Older People’s Housing Taskforce and the advisory board for Homewards the Princes of Wales’ homelessness initiative. Geeta is a former board member of the National Housing Federation and Chair of the G15 group of London’s largest housing associations.

In 2013, Geeta was awarded an OBE for achievements in social housing.

Mike Woolliscroft

Group Business Improvement Director and London Divisional Chair
Countryside Partnerships

Mike Woolliscroft is a member of the Vistry Group Executive Leadership team and is Divisional Chair of the Group’s three London regional businesses.

He is a respected leader in partnerships and urban regeneration having spent over 16 years in senior roles at Countryside Partnerships and The Berkeley Group.
Mike’s Vistry team in London is currently delivering 34 major, residential-led, projects. These are reference points for good design and community development, as well as delivery through high-performing partnerships.

Vistry Group is the UK’s leading partnership housing provider and trusted partner of local councils, housing associations and other public sector organisations across the UK.

Rick de Blaby

CEO
Get Living

Rick is CEO of Get Living PLC, the UK’s leading investor, developer and operating platform of Built to Rent residential homes with 4,000 in operation and a further 6,000 in pipeline. He has been with Get Living for 5 years, whose flagship assets neighbourhoods include East Village at the Olympic Park, Elephant and Castle Town Centre, MIddlewood Locks in Salford and Lewisham Gateway plus others in Leeds, Glasgow and Maidenhead. Rick has 40 years of real estate experience, with a particular passion for big scale urban regeneration and neighbourhood creation. Rick is also a Non-Executive Board Member of Curo Housing Association. Past roles have included CEO of MEPC and United House and Non-Exec Chairman of Miller Developments.

Adam Challis

Head of Research & Strategy, UK
JLL

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Jennifer Murray

Senior Manager - Product Development
Homes England

Jennifer began her career in property investment management at Schroders where she was fund manager for directly invested funds and multi manager portfolios on behalf of pension fund and charity clients for over 15 years. Prior to joining Homes England, where she has responsibility for Institutional Investment, Jennifer was a fund manager for Tesco Pension Investment. Here she developed a professional interest in residential as an institutional investment class having managed overseas investment strategies. Jennifer is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Investment Property Forum.