Chris Grigg

Chief Executive
British Land

Chris Grigg is chief executive of British Land, a constituent of the FTSE100. Since taking the role in 2009, he has put placemaking, wellbeing and design excellence at the heart of British Land’s approach to real estate. This is summed up in the company’s strategic focus on creating “Places People Prefer”. Aligned to the corporate strategy, British Land’s sustainability activity addresses major social trends and benefits over 35,000 people every year. British Land’s portfolio, which covers approximately 25 million sq ft, includes three office-led campuses in central London and retail-led assets across the UK.

Prior to joining British Land, Chris was Chief Executive of Barclays Commercial Bank and a partner at Goldman Sachs. He is a Non-Executive Director of BAE Systems plc and is on the Executive Board of the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA).

Julie Hirigoyen

Chief Executive
UK Green Building Council

As Chief Executive of UKGBC Julie is focused on delivering lasting change within the industry by engaging with UKGBC members, regulators, and wider stakeholders in an effective and collaborative way.

Julie was previously UK Head of Sustainability and an International Director at JLL, having come into JLL as a result of an acquisition. JLL acquired Upstream, a leading sustainability consultancy which Julie was co-founder and Joint MD of, in 2007. Having led the Upstream team through the integration into JLL, Julie oversaw further development of cutting-edge sustainability services to property investors and occupiers across the UK and EMEA.

Julie sits on the Green Construction Board, the Igloo Footprint Advisory Board, Grimshaw’s Stewardship Group and the Carbon Trust Advisory Panel. Julie is a London Sustainable Development Commissioner, and previously chaired the British Property Federation’s Sustainability Committee for two years.

Cllr Darren Rodwell

Leader
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

Darren has been Leader of Barking and Dagenham since 2014. He has served as Deputy Chair of London Councils, having been Executive Member for City Development and now as the Executive Member for Housing and Planning. In his current role he has promoted inward investment in the capital via Opportunity London and prioritised the delivery of affordable housing, addressing fire safety, tackling homelessness and reducing the use of temporary accommodation. 

Darren is also a member of the Homes for Londoners Board, Arts Council England, the Arts Council for London and the Create London Board and, since May 2023 Chair of the LGA Local Infrastructure and Net Zero Board. He was awarded LGIU Leader of the Year Award in 2019. In 2021, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education by Coventry University in recognition of his efforts to expand educational opportunities in Barking and Dagenham.

Richard Upton

Chief Executive
U+I

Richard is a creative entrepreneur and patron of the arts, who is passionate about quality of place, architecture, heritage and provenance. Over the course of his career, he has established, built and sold four property investment and professional companies and developed more than six million square feet of mixed-use real estate.

Pioneering Mount Anvil in 1991, Richard delivered 5,000 student bedrooms and regenerated several award-wining social housing projects. In 1998 he co-founded Cathedral Healthcare and Cathedral Group PLC, nurturing the latter to become a market-leader in public-private partnership developments and building a pipeline of over £2bn.

In 2014, Cathedral merged with Development Securities, which ultimately became U+I in 2015. U+I is a listed public company with a development pipeline of >£11.5bn. Together with U+I’s Chief Executive Matthew Weiner, Richard is a driving force behind the strategic direction of the company, whose vision is to create long-lasting social and economic change for communities and sustainable value for shareholders.

Abigail Dean

Global Head of Strategic Insights
Nuveen Real Estate

Abigail is the Global Head of Strategic Insights for Nuveen Real Estate. She is responsible for the organisation’s global research, sustainability and proptech and innovation functions. She oversees Nuveen Real Estate’s Tomorrow’s World Strategy which future proofs the investment strategy in light of global megatrends and integrates ESG across fund and asset management. Working alongside our Product Development team, Abigail is also responsible for ensuring that new product and the growth of the business are under pinned by solid research and sustainability considerations overseeing the global research team.

Since joining the firm in 2016, Abigail has overseen the organization setting a target to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2040. Abigail is a member of Nuveen Real Estate’s Investment Committee and has spearheaded the integration of sustainability considerations into the acquisition process. She is also leading the organisation to develop investment guidelines related to physical and transition climate change risk. She previously worked at JLL, where she led on sustainability for the Property and Asset Management’s U.K. team.

Abigail is passionate about driving sustainable change in the property sector and sits on several industry committees including the GRESB Benchmarking Committee and the INREV ESG committee.

Bill Hughes

Head of Real Assets
Legal & General Investment Management

Bill joined Legal & General in 2007 and is responsible for transforming its UK property fund management business into a global-reaching real assets platform. Operating in both the direct investment and lending markets, today it actively invests and manages over £27.2bn AUM across commercial property, private residential, infrastructure, property lending and corporate credit as at 31 December 2017. Since the beginning of 2015, L&G has worked closely with Government’s Regeneration Organisation to identify and invest in critical regeneration projects that support UK growth.

Bill previously held positions at RREEF, the Real Estate Fund Management business of Deutsche Bank and Schroder Property Investment Management. From July 2014 to July 2015, Bill was President of the British Property Federation. He is currently Chair of the Property Industry Alliance (PIA), bringing together the UK’s leading property bodies to give them a stronger collective voice on issues such as policy, research and best practice.

Nina Reid

Director: Responsible Property Investment
M&G Real Estate

Nina has overseen responsible investment within M&G Real Estate for over 8 years, driving its ambitious Responsible Property Investment (RPI) strategy, which seeks to enrich the lives of people and communities by creating and managing world class places which deliver positive value for its investors, society and the environment. Nina and her team work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure that M&G Real Estate’s fund range embed environmental and social considerations, identify opportunities whilst minimising risk associated with obsolescence and depreciation. She also oversees investor reporting on RPI/ESG initiatives, engaging directly with investors to ensure that funds are meeting their sustainability requirements.

With over 15 years experience in responsible investment and real estate, prior to joining M&G Real Estate in 2011, Nina was an associate director within the Upstream Sustainability Services Team at Jones Lang LaSalle. She has an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and is Practitioner Member of the Institute for Environmental Management & Assessment (PIEMA). Nina is an active member of several industry groups, and is currently chairing the Better Building Partnership Net Zero Working Group and participating in the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) Paris Aligned Investment Initiative working group.

Peter Pereira Gray

Managing Director Investment Division
Wellcome Trust

Peter Pereira Gray is a Managing Director in the Investment Division of The Wellcome Trust. Peter is working with a team managing the £18 billion multi asset global investment portfolio, reporting to the Chief Investment Officer. Peter is also a member of the Investment Committee.

Peter is the Chairman of the farming & land management business, Farmcare Ltd, as well as the UK Marina, Boatyard and Boat Storage organisation Premier Marinas Ltd. Peter is also a Main Board Director of VeroGroup, a newly formed student housing joint venture with Goldman Sachs.

Peter is a Life Member and past Chairman of the Investment Property Forum, a past founding and advisory board member and member of the Management Board of INREV. 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 an Advisory Board member for Composition Capital Partners, and an honorary vice president of Cambridge University Land Society. 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.

Paul Sutcliffe

Co-Founder
EVORA

Paul co-founded EVORA, the 60 strong, tech-enabled real estate sustainability consultancy, which launched in 2011. He is a Chartered Environmentalist, a Chartered Energy Manager and a full member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. He has 20 years’ experience of delivering strategic advice and practical sustainability solutions to diverse and large property portfolios. One of Paul’s current roles is to help clients incorporate Social Value into existing sustainability strategies. Prior to EVORA, Paul was Sustainability Director at DTZ