About Us

Robin Harris has 20 years' experience in the property industry, including nine years with ISG. For the last two years he has been Sales & Marketing Director with COMO Group Ltd, a subsidiary of MACE.

Robin has been a member on the Board of the UK Chapter of CoreNet Global since its inception in 2002 following the integration of NACORE and IDRC, where he also played an active role.

As VP Programmes on the UK Board, Robin has overseen the UK Chapter's annual events calendar, which includes around 15 events plus the UK Summit and Awards Dinner. In addition to his responsibilities as VP Programmes, Robin was elected as Joint Deputy President in March 2006, and he took over the role of President in September 2007.

Robin's interests include dinghy and yacht sailing, as well as the odd spot of golf when time allows.

Paul provides overall leadership and direction, both strategically and operationally, for the firm’s real estate principally in Europe, Middle East and Africa but also all major global real estate projects outside the US.

Whilst leading his team through two mergers, one globalisation and the disposal of the firm’s consultancy business to IBM, including a European collocation exercise of 14,000 projects and 50,000 people moves, Paul additionally initiated, developed and implemented a Real Estate Centre of Excellence to support PwC property initiatives worldwide.

Other major achievements include: significantly reducing overhead costs in operational properties; the adoption and integration of new working practices as part of the firm’s business culture ‘PwC global workplace’; management of change including both the restructuring of the real estate group and the communication/structure necessary to implement new accommodation initiatives .

Paul continually leads research on the future working environment and is a regular speaker and contributor for both UK and International Property Conferences and Conventions.

Richard is a Chartered Surveyor with 25 years experience in Commercial Property Management. Richard is Vice President Group Real Estate for BP International responsible for BP's global real estate strategy and he heads up a small team of real estate professionals based in the UK, Singapore and USA. The BP group real estate team handle all real estate transactions across a variety of property types within the BP portfolio including offices, industrial & manufacturing sites, research facilities, pipelines and depots. The BP group real estate team is a centralised corporate function based in the UK, but which supports all BP business units worldwide. The BP real estate team operates with a leveraged outsourced real estate services model with external RE supplier partners providing a full range of real estate services to the BP group in three distinct regions – EMEA, Americas and Caribbean and Asia Pacific.

Current Responsibilities

Michael is a Director of the Pan European Corporate Capital Markets group within Corporate Finance based in London providing financially orientated advice to corporates on real estate strategies. 

Experience

Over 15 years experience advising large US and UK corporate occupiers on the development of corporate real estate strategies that meet their business objectives and the financial implications. He has advised major occupiers on the rationalisation of their portfolios as a result of mergers and acquisitions, on options to meet future growth requirements, bundled disposals of surplus space, evaluating real estate outsourcing options and sale and leaseback strategies. Experience of financial modelling of complex property problems and evaluating their financial and qualitative impact on the business as well as preparation of board papers. Clients have included Barclays Bank, National Australia Group, ITV plc, Land Securities Trillium and Capital One.

Positions

2007 - Present      Jones Lang LaSalle Corporate Finance Ltd (London)
National Director Project Manager (Corporate Capital Markets)

2004 - 2007         Donaldsons, Chartered Surveyors - Partner

1992 - 2004         Jonathan Edwards Consulting, CRE Consultants - Director

1989 - 1992         Clark Whitehill, Chartered Accountants - Senior Manager

Education and Affiliations

BSc (Hons) Economics and Statistics       University College London

ACA     Member of ICAEW

MCR     Master of Corporate Real Estate

Michael is also a Board member of CoreNet Global UK, a membership organisation for the corporate real estate community, and is on the executive editorial board of the Journal of Corporate Real Estate (JCRE). He is as regular speaker and takes an active role in CRE education.

Phil has over 20 years experience in the Property and Construction Industry working for a number of leading consultancies. Phil is by background a specialist building services quantity surveyor and now leads a team of quantity surveyors, at International property & construction consultants Rider Levett Bucknall, who are experts in commercial office fit outs and refurbishment projects. Phil is also the partner responsible for Business Development within the London office of Rider Levett Bucknall and is account manager for several key customers.

Phil joined the board of the UK Chapter of Corenet Global in 2006.

As VP of communications Phil is committed to ensuring UK members are aware of the excellent programme of events and the good work being undertaken on education and research, as well as raising the profile of the organisation within the real estate industry.

Susie graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1988 and qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1991.

Starting her career in the professional departments of Healey & Baker and later with Kemsley Whiteley & Ferris, Susie joined John Laing Property in 1993. Moving to head the corporate real estate team at the beginning of 1999 she restructured the occupation of property throughout the Laing Group whilst continuing to manage the asset portfolio to maximise and extract value. In particular, disposing of much of the construction division's premises and replacing it with flexible occupational arrangements. In February 2002 she moved to Land Securities to work on their new initiative, Landflex. With this product now established and growing she has moved to Land Securities Trillium as Director of Corporate Markets to develop new customer products and service initiatives.

Susie is an active member of CoreNet and UK President in 2005/6. In 2000 she completed the CoreNet Master of Corporate Real Estate course.

Susie enjoys all sports as a spectator and having retired from softball, now enjoys golf. She lives in South West London with her husband, Nick and daughter, Rosie.

Helen Butcher‘s  professional career reflects over fifteen years experience in Corporate Real Estate in multifaceted operations within Europe, Middle East, Africa and India. She is adept in the orchestration of programme and project management; planning, identifying resources and leading teams, most recently within the medical technology industry.

Helen joined the UK Chapter Board in May 2007 and is responsible for Communications. She has been instrumental in the setting up of the new web site.

She is committed to raising the profile of the Chapter and ensuring their voice is represented on all major property issues.

Harry is currently the European Real Estate Manager for Electrolux Major Appliances, the major Swedish White Goods Manufacturer. He has worked for them for 9 years. His focus is the provision of strategic advice to the operating business, which integrates real estate and financial analysis with the business drivers, to arrive at commonly agreed solutions.

His background and experience is varied. His career started as a Stockbroker before he moved into  real estate, initially in private practice, then retail banking (sorting out bad loan portfolios) and then latterly within Corporate Real Estate.

He has worked for end users for the last 15 years, 12 of which have been on the international stage, Europe, the Australasia's and North America.

Harry's interest in Corporate Real Estate has involved him in a variety of different arenas, speaking at conferences and both contributing and reviewing articles for different publications. He is also actively involved with Corenet and is currently Deputy VP learning on the UK Board.

Tracey Byer has been at DTZ since 2000, and primarily responsible for both creation and
management of large global corporate client relationships, including management of service delivery from transactions, through to valuations, financial re-engineering of real estate portfolios, including value creation via redevelopment/alternative use.

Nigel Baker joined Microsoft in 2004 as the Director of Corporate Services - International for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA).  Within his remit, he covers 5 disciplines, namely Real Estate and Facilities, Travel and Entertainment, General Procurement, Marketing Procurement and Auto Car Programme.

The EMEA region comprises of in excess of 65 countries, with a total of 210 properties, providing over 4mft².

Before joining Microsoft, Nigel was the Director of EMEA Real Estate at EDS (Electronic Data Systems).  He held this position for over 5 years.  During his time there, he was accountable for the property portfolio for the region which included handling new acquisitions, disposal of properties, lease renewals and re-gearing of leases.  One of the key success factors made within the region during his time there, was the decrease in the number of mt² per head and the FM outsourcing programme that happened within various countries, such as the UK, Belgium, France and Germany.

Nigel qualified as a surveyor and operated as a developer for a number of years.  He lives in Chiswick, West London with his wife and son.

Ian is an Executive Director of AYH.

Qualifying as a Building Surveyor, Ian's early career focussed on Project Management. His potential was soon recognised by AYH and his career development was fast tracked during the early/mid 1990's, resulting in him becoming actively involved in the AYH service broadening programme. As a major supporter of the company's sectorisation, and due to his background of working with occupiers and end users, Ian has been instrumental in project delivery at AYH as well as proactive client account management. Utilising his ability and strategic vision to develop ideas, together with his dynamic management and business knowledge, Ian has worked with many client organisations across all sectors assisting them in many aspects of their property portfolio rationalisation. He is now the Director responsible for the Client Development Group.

Richard Watton graduated with a Diploma in Estate Management in 1982 and has worked in a wide variety of real estate roles over the past 25 years. Initially based in the Midlands in England he specialised in residential building surveying, estate agency and property management. A move into rural practice work in 1984 involved compensation, land management and development.

In 1988 he relocated to Hong Kong, joining the commercial department of what is now CBRE. After 10 years specialising in office agency, marketing and corporate services he joined The Chase Manhattan Bank as regional portfolio manager for the Bank's occupational real estate in 1997.

Following the acquisition of Robert Fleming and subsequent merger with JP Morgan he was appointed Regional head of Real Estate Business Services with overall responsibility for the provision of real estate, facilities and general office services in the Asia Pacific Region. He gained extensive practical experience throughout the diverse real estate markets in Asia and managed a team of professionals comprising surveyors, architects, engineers, facility and project managers.

In mid 2005 he relocated with JPMorgan to London, to take on the role as Business Executive for Corporate Real Estate for the Europe Middle East and Africa region. He has overall responsibility for the delivery of the integrated real estate, construction, property management, real estate finance, critical systems and engineering functions. The occupational portfolio comprises around 3.5 million sqft. in 27 countries from Moscow, to Bahrain and Cape Town with an annual spend of around $485 Million. A predominantly leased portfolio it comprises mostly CBD offices with several owned data centre properties.

Now based in London he is a Chartered Surveyor, was Formerly Asia Pacific Regional Chairman of CoreNet Global, and is a member of the UK Board.

Stuart Bowman is the Director of the Energy and Sustainability Division at multi-disciplinary consulting engineers, hurleypalmerflatt. Stuart is a passionate believer in "evolution not revolution" when helping clients to achieve changes in their energy policies. He is process-driven, believing that effective change requires working with the flow in organisations, and not against it.

Stuart is also a Low Carbon Consultant and a Carbon Trust Adviser. He has vast experience in delivering sustainable solutions for construction as well as strategic environments, and his work spans most sectors of industry from commercial to education to healthcare.

Stuart is currently heading up phase three in the energy and sustainability solution for Stockley Park, which is the first data centre to meet GLA energy requirements. This project includes a 5MW on site Combined Heat Power and Cooling Energy Centre together with a 500kW Geothermal Heating and Cooling scheme. He is also currently fronting an on-site renewable and energy study for a corporate telecommunications company, which is likely to include a 40MW energy centre.

With well over twenty years experience in the Real Estate Industry I am employed by Black & Decker as Director of European Real Estate. The role covers the EMEA and Asia Pacific Regions and covers approx 5,500,000 sq.ft. in around 140 buildings.

The Global Real Estate team for Black & Decker comprises two people and is responsible for circa 17,000,000 m sq ft world wide with 350 plus locations in 100 plus countries. A significant proportion of this changes in any given year.

The role focuses on close liaison with the various business units and requires that the Real Estate function delivers solutions that meet the requirements of the individual business units in both the short and medium term. These must be achieved in such a way that the overall Corporate Objectives are adhered to, significant input is required and made into these so far as they relate to Real Estate.

Projects handled over the nine years I have been in this position cover all the normal Real Estate functions such as acquisition, disposal and fitting out works. However these functions only take place and the end of a lengthy and detailed business planning process that assesses the needs of the business and the best methods of delivery. Approximately 50% of my time is spent in this business planning and analysis stage.

Example of Major Projects.

• Acquisition and construction of four major new production facilities (32,000 sq m, 27,000 sq m, 12,000 sq m & 24,000 sqm) in China. Also handled office acquisitions in China, smaller factory acquisitions, marketing surplus manufacturing space in China and Taiwan and sold a large plant in Malaysia.
• Member of Core Planning team for Restructuring of European manufacturing operations that lead to closure of one UK plant and creation of a new plant in Czech. This was a fundamental element of rebuilding the European business such that it met all the key financial targets. I remain part of the core team that reviews manufacturing strategy on a rolling basis.
• Full Business Analysis of Distribution options for Middle East ie third party v in house v current scenario. Subsequently procured and constructed 13,000 sq m facility which we decided to own after lease v buy analysis. Currently this is being extended to add warehouse capacity and create a new office for he MEA Region HQ.
• Work with supply chain to rationalise European finished goods distribution network. 
• Restructuring of sales offices across one European sub-region to reduce costs and enhance future flexibility.
• Leading project to review Facilities management in Asia.