Meet the Academy of Real Assets Team!
Stephen Yorke – CEO and Founder
Stephen founded The Academy in 2020 and is CEO. He is also the proprietor of The Property Chronicle, a global digital and print magazine he founded in 2017. Between 2005-2019, he was CEO of D&GAM, a small real estate fund management company. Prior to that, between 1987-2003, Stephen was a chancery barrister, secretary in Number 10 Downing Street and worked in FX/Rates at SBC Warburg.
Victoria Baring – Membership Manager
Victoria is a freelance consultant providing office and personal administration services. She has over 20 years’ Office Manager and EA experience in the financial services industry including work with equity long short investment funds, Goldman Sachs and the Financial Services Authority (FCA).
Louisa Browne – Partnerships Manager
Louisa is a freelance consultant supporting small business owners on all their operational and strategic projects, particularly in the educational and property domains. A strong advocate for social mobility to bridge the gap in life transitions for all young people.
Reanne Anglin – Partnerships Manager
Reanne has over a decade of experience working with children and young people from underprivileged backgrounds. As a youth worker and teacher with a passion for bringing out the best in others, she brings leadership, support and a reassuring energy to any project or team.
She is proficient in a range of teaching methodologies including Makaton, TEAM teach and Elkan. Coordinating Legacy Youth Zone’s Empowered Employability Programme, Reanne highlighted the importance of reducing the barriers for learning and career development that young people may face.
Robbie Beveridge – Communications Manager
Robbie is a freelance consultant specialising in charity communications, editing and copywriting. He has over a decade’s experience working in PR & Communications for charities such as Anthony Nolan and Teenage Cancer Trust.
Margaret Hopkinson – HR and Administrator
After a 15 year career in banking at NatWest and RBS, Margaret moved to the Public Sector with the Child Protection Team. Most recently, she was a partner in a successful recruitment business for 12 years.
Margaret now works in a support role for the Academy and enjoys the variety and flexibility. Having left her comprehensive school at 16, she is truly on board with the ethos of the Academy and firmly believes in opportunities for all students from different backgrounds. Margaret is happiest outdoors, gardening, walking and spending time with her young granddaughter.
Stephen Hopkinson – Finance and Accounts
Stephen runs the finance department for The Academy of Real Assets. From 2007, he ran a successful recruitment business before being acquired by a PLC in 2019.
Between 1981-2007 Stephen was a Director of an Automotive manufacturing/distribution business. His formative years were spent with Lloyds Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia, London.
Interests: Most sports, long walks with his chocolate Labrador and good wine, (not necessarily in that order!)
Governance
Eric Adler – Chairman
Eric Adler is Chief Executive Officer for Asset Management at L&G, spearheading its future growth plans globally.
Eric has spent his career at major global organisations and has extensive asset management experience. Prior to joining L&G, Eric was President and Chief Executive Officer of PGIM, Private Alternatives where he led the private alternative strategies, investments and client financing solutions across private credit, agriculture, real estate, infrastructure and private equity.
Before joining PGIM in 2010, Eric was a senior Managing Director and Co-Head of Europe for Tishman Speyer. Eric has also previously worked for Morgan Stanley Real Estate, where he led investment activities in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Eric is a founding member of the European Advisory Board of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School. Also, he is Chairman of The Academy of Real Assets, a UK organization that aims to have a significant positive impact on diversity within the real assets industry through philanthropic and educational activities with underserved youth.
Eric has a bachelor’s degree in business administration, summa cum laude, from University of Arizona. In addition, he holds a graduate business degree from HEC Business School in France.
Hamzah Ahmed
Hamzah is a real estate investment manager with experience working across private equity and credit mandates in the UK and USA. As an Associate at Venn Partners, he works to deploy capital into the UK’s residential sector via two UK Government Guarantee Schemes totalling £9bn.
He sits on the British Property Forum’s Living Sector Council and serves as an interviewer with the Yale Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Hamzah holds a BA and MPhil from University of Cambridge and was awarded the Edward P. Bass Fellowship at Yale University.
Simon Allford
Simon Allford is a founding director of Allford Hall Monaghan Morris. He leads a studio of two hundred architects working around the world on the design and construction of projects. These projects reflect his belief that outstanding architecture accommodates different uses to those that called it into being by offering an extraordinary and delightful backdrop to the theatre of everyday life.
Simon is a frequent teacher, judge of major awards and competitions, a writer, and critic. He has been a visiting professor at numerous schools including The Bartlett, UCL and the GSD Harvard. Currently he is a Trustee of the London School of Architecture, The Grimshaw Foundatiom and Chickenshed Theatres Trust. Simon is a former chair of the Architecture Foundation and is Immediate Past President of RIBA where he initiated the House of Architecture Project
Nina Coad
Nina has been at Brunswick Group for 25 years and is head of its real estate practice, based in London. She advises clients in the UK and internationally on strategic issues facing business and / or the sector specialising in financial and corporate communications, working with listed and private companies of all sizes. Nina also sits on the advisory board of Weidenfeld Hoffmann Trust which provides scholarships to undergraduates from emerging economies to carry out a Master’s and Leadership Programme at Oxford University each year, and is an advisor to the Nelson Trust.
Haydn Cooper
Haydn Cooper is the Chief Executive of Calthorpe Estates, a role he has held since July 2020. With a background in urban property management and development, Haydn has extensive experience working with historic estates such as Grosvenor, Cadogan and the Duchy of Cornwall. His career has spanned various sectors, including offices, retail, residential, hotels, and medical in London and in Shanghai.
At Calthorpe Estates, Haydn oversees the management of the 1,600-acre mixed-use estate in Edgbaston, Birmingham. His leadership focuses on sustainable growth and the continued transformation of Edgbaston Village, Edgbaston Medical Quarter, and Pebble Mill. Haydn is passionate about placemaking, aiming to create thriving communities and exceptional places within Birmingham. Haydn’s vision for Calthorpe Estates includes enhancing public spaces, improving accessibility to green areas, and fostering vibrant communities through long-term stewardship.
Andrew Frost
Andrew Frost is a Chartered Surveyor. He began his career Savills leaving as a Director. He became a Partner and Board member at King Sturge & then joined JLL when the business was acquired in 2011.
Andrew was appointed to the JLL UK Board in 2013 and the EMEA Capital Markets ExCo in 2020.
As Head of UK Capital Markets at JLL Andrew is responsible for overseeing all UK Capital Markets related activities and a team of circa 500 people. He has a track record of building fast-growth, high-performing teams and developing new products and business lines ahead of market trends.
In his role, he believes empowering colleagues with the autonomy and support they need to succeed in a dynamic real estate environment.
John Gellatly
John has been active in the real estate sector and wider investment markets for over 35 years and, in that time, has held a variety of roles providing him with very broad experience and knowledge of analysing, investing and managing real estate assets, platforms and products from both the debt and equity perspectives and on a global basis. That experience extends to encompassing the role of real estate in wider multi asset portfolios and the relative attraction of the individual asset classes (and vehicles / structures through which to invest).
Most recently, John was Chief Investment Officer (CIO) Real Estate for the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC) with responsibility for the oversight and management of the Council’s global real estate investment portfolio targeting value add / opportunistic returns across multiple geographies and sectors. Prior to ADIC, he had fulfilled similar roles at Aviva Investors and BlackRock, having previously worked as a real estate investment banker and REIT analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston and ABN AMRO. He started his career in the research and strategy departments of Knight Frank & Rutley and DTZ before moving to launch Savills Fund Management.
Having completed a successful full-time real estate investment management career, he is now curating a small portfolio of senior advisory / non-executive positions, under the umbrella of his personal consultancy platform (Consigliere Real Estate), to deploy the skills and experience he has developed over the past four decades, and currently holds the following positions:
- Senior Independent Adviser, COIMA, Italy’s largest independently owned real estate investment manager with circa $10bn AUM;
- Global Advisory Committee, Lightspeed, US software and AI defined robotics company on a path to revolutionizing the construction industry (with an initial focus on the home building sectors in US, Europe & GCC); and
- Chair, RICS Property Forum, A high level, private gathering of senior industry figures, Government and RICS senior management that discuss issues impacting the real estate markets.
Marc Gilbard
Marc has been the CEO of Moorfield since 1996 and has led Moorfield’s transformation from a small company listed on the London Stock Exchange into one of the leading UK real estate private equity fund managers.
Marc initially specialised in investment and development finance and then became a top-rated real estate equity analyst and advisor prior to becoming a private equity investor.
In October 2011, the Howard de Walden Estate appointed Marc to its Board as a Non-Executive Director, he now chairs the Investment Committee and serves on the Audit Committees. In April 2016 Marc became Chairman of Audley Retirement Villages and a member of their Investment Committee. Marc has advised as a Policy Committee Member of the British Property Federation (BPF), a Member of the Property Advisory Group to the Bank of England, a Member of the Investment Property Forum (IPF) and a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
James Mathias
James Mathias is an executive director with PGIM Real Estate and currently serves as the lead portfolio manager for European senior debt and a member of the global Core Debt portfolio management team. Based in London, James oversees investment activities, strategy, implementation and relationship management for mandates across European and global mandates. He is a member of the European Core Debt Sub-Committee and Debt ESG Council.
James joined PGIM in 2008 and over the last ten years, James has been responsible for the development and executing an extensive range of real estate debt strategies globally on behalf of institutional investors. Earlier, James was chief underwriter for PGIM Real Estate in Europe overseeing nearly $10 billion of debt and equity investment activity across Europe and, prior to that, was the portfolio manager for the European investment activity of 10 Global Real Estate Securities portfolios.
James started his career in investment managers at Evelyn Partners in London. He holds a bachelor’s degree in politics from Manchester University, is a Chartered MCSI and holds the IMC designation from the CFA Society of the UK.
James is a pension trustee for the PGIM UK Pension Scheme, a member of the Office and Mixed Use Product Council for the Urban Land Institute and is the Social Mobility lead for PGIM Real Estate’s Inclusion & Leadership Network (ILN). James sits on the Advisory Board of the Academy of Real Assets and is the chair of the membership committee.
Rob Martin
Robin Martin, Global Head of Investment Strategy & Research, leads the development of global investment strategy across real estate, infrastructure, private credit and venture capital, in the context of private markets as a whole. Leading a team of researchers and analysts, he is responsible for supporting the integration of market themes into client portfolios, assisting clients in their strategy formation through thought leadership and in guiding L&G’s commercial strategy for private markets. He is also responsible for investment performance measurement, identifying appropriate benchmarks and working to ensure that portfolios meet risk and return objectives. Rob sits on the UK and US Property, Private Credit and Infrastructure Equity investment committees, the Private Markets Investment Oversight Committee and is a member of the Private Markets Management Committee.
Rob currently sits on the Board of the Investment Property Forum and was the chair of its Research Steering Group from 2015-18. He sits on the Advisory Board of the Academy of Real Assets, a members’ entity and social enterprise which connects the country’s leading real estate and real assets firms with students at UK state schools. Rob sits on the Board of Energycloud England, which helps people in fuel poverty by diverting renewable electricity that would otherwise go to waste.
Rob joined L&G in 2006 from Hammerson plc, where he spent 5 years, progressing to the role of Head of Research. Prior to that he had was an economist with the CBI, and previously spent 3 years in a consultancy role in the oil & gas industry. He graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in Economics & Economic History and is a CFA charterholder.
Edith Monfries
Edith is a Chartered Accountant having trained with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells. She has over 30 years experience in the retail and leisure property sector, combining Finance, Operational and HR roles, specialising in advising on strategic and operational matters.
Edith was appointed Head of HR at NewRiver in October 2018 and now in her role as COO brings her expertise in talent development within the sector to the business. She served as COO of Hawthorn when the pub company was under NewRiver’s ownership and oversaw the smooth transition following sale. Edith previously held the role of president of the Scottish Beer and Pub Association (SBPA) when NewRiver owned a pub portfolio.
Imogen Moon
Imogen Moon is a consultant in Spencer Stuart’s London office. She leads the Real Estate practice in EMEA, working with investors and operators across the risk spectrum. She is experienced in conducting searches across front office functions and across the capital structure. Additionally, she helps new entrants access the European market, through both organic build and team lift out strategies. She also chairs the Oxford Real Estate Society. Imogen read English Literature at Oxford University.
Alex Moss
Alex Moss is Director of the Real Estate Research Centre at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass). He has been involved in research and transactions in the global real estate sector for over 35 years. His career has encompassed award-winning sell side research (BZW), investment banking (CSFB), private equity (Apax Partners Capital), and fund management advisory roles (M&G and Investec).
He formed AME Capital in 2002, which developed a proprietary database and analytical tool for all listed real estate companies and real estate securities funds globally. This business was sold to Macquarie Securities in 2008, where he stayed for over three years as Head of Global Property Securities Analytics.
In 2012 he formed Consilia Capital, a real estate investment advisory firm, and has developed an international institutional client base, as well as publishing regularly in academic journals. Consilia Capital specialised in the performance and strategies of real estate, infrastructure and real asset companies and funds, combining academic research with practical applications. In 2020 he moved to a full time role at Bayes Business School.
John Ryley
John Ryley was until 2023 the Head of Sky News for 17 years – one of the most senior and long-standing leaders in the British news industry. Unusually, John worked for all three of Britain’s main news broadcasters, the BBC, ITN, and Sky News, producing digital, television and audio news, winning many international Emmy and BAFTA awards for news and current affairs coverage in the U.K. and abroad.
His record of achievement was recognised with the award of an OBE for ‘services to journalism’ in the 2023 New Year Honours.
This followed the Royal Television Society’s award for Outstanding Contribution to Television Journalism in 2021. The judges said, “he has effected genuine change in our business…his style is innovative, idiosyncratic. His integrity, influence, and authority, colossal.”
John began his BBC career as a graduate News Trainee in 1987 going onto to become the Head of Sky News in 2006, responsible not only for its journalism but also for its overall strategic direction, finances, people, marketing and communications
Katharine Walsh
Katharine joined Delancey in 2010 as a Marketing & Communications Director, and is responsible for brand development, community relations, media relations, crisis management, digital and traditional marketing for Delancey Real Estate its key joint ventures.. She also oversees Delancey’s charity and sponsorship commitments.
Seasoned in developing and managing stakeholder and community engagement programmes, internal and external communication plans and strategic PR and marketing launches on a national and international level, Katharine has spent much of the last decade working with colleagues within the Delancey business to help to build long-term legacy out of the London 2012 games. A core member of both the East Village and Here East teams from the very start of both bid processes, Katharine was instrumental in the naming and brand development strategy, local community engagement work, and in supporting and helping to establish a full-time dedicated in-house marketing and comms function for each multi-award winning standalone business.
Prior to joining Delancey, Katharine held senior communication roles with the luxury travel and hospitality sector, including Head of PR for the Grove Country Estate and Director of Communication for Intercontinental Park Lane and Bovey Castle. Prior to that she represented a wide range of luxury, retail and blue-chip brands, including BP, Birds Eye Walls, Kimberley Clark, House of Fraser, Prada Beauty and Tesco. Katharine graduated from Newcastle University with an Honours degree in English Literature, and subsequently obtained a post-graduate diploma with Honours in Public Relations from the Cardiff School of Journalism at Cardiff University.
John White
John entered the commercial real estate market in 1987 and after qualifying as a chartered surveyor at Allsops moved to the investment team at Cushman & Wakefield. There he became a partner and spent the next 18 years advising a range of institutional investor clients on their UK acquisitions and disposals across the full range of real estate sub-sectors including retail (in and out of town), offices (London, Thames Valley and regional cities), logistics, and alternatives. John moved into private equity real estate in 2007 and co-founded Osprey Equity Partners in 2011 and LXI REIT Advisors in 2017.
John left LXi in 2024 when the business was sold to London Metric. He then co-founded Farran Investments Ltd.
Ambassadors
Manish Chande
Manish Chande is a founding partner of CC LLP. He is the Chairman of the Investment Committee and a director of the Manager. As Chairman he is involved in all aspects of the business, including chairing business plan review meetings, investor relations at senior level, leading strategic and operational elements of the business, and navigating the more challenging investments. With over 35 years’ experience in real estate, Manish has a wide network within the industry.
A Chartered Accountant, Manish has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales since 1980. He worked at Deloitte, Haskins & Sells in London from 1980 to 1985. In 2008, Manish was elected a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Between 2003 to 2011, Manish was a Commissioner of English Heritage. In 2007, Manish was appointed a Trustee of The London Clinic, one of the UK’s premier private hospitals and served as a Trustee of the Canal and River Trust from 2012 to September 2018, where he remained Chairman of the Investment Committee. The Canal and River Trust is one of the UK’s largest charitable trusts formed from the Government assets of the previous British Waterways Board.
Phil Clark
Phil Clark is an experienced global investment management executive whose roles have included being the Global Head of Real Assets Equity at AEGON Asset Management, with responsibility for public and private real assets investment strategies. Prior to that he pioneered the Specialist Real Estate Funds sector as Head of Specialist Property Investment Funds at Aviva Investors. Phil has established and led multiple award-winning investment teams internationally. Phil formed what the United Nations acknowledge as the world’s first sustainable property investment fund – Igloo Regeneration. Phil has also enjoyed creating and teaching postgraduate programmes in advanced real estate finance and funding.
His current roles include being Chairman at The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Pinnacle Investments, Calthorpe Estates and UCL Estates and Investment Committees, and Non-Executive Director at Pension Insurance Equity Investment Committee, Thriving Investments, Pinnacle Group (Hyde Housing) and UCL Council. Phil is a former chair of the Investment Property Forum and RICS Property Investment Forum
Bianca Forrester
Bianca has been a Development Manager for the last two years at NewRiver and is involved in the development management and analysis of the existing assets, focussing on the assets within the regeneration pipeline. She has over three years’ worth of experience in various management accountant roles and a further two years in a Development Analyst role. Prior to joining New River Bianca worked for Westfield within the Development Finance team where she was responsible for the investment analysis on a range of non-retail projects including residential, hotel and offices, during her time at Westfield Bianca studied towards her Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) qualification and is currently an ACCA affiliate.
Melanie Leech
Melanie joined the British Property Federation as Chief Executive in January 2015. Prior to this, Melanie spent 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 and Excise) in 1988 and subsequently held senior roles in a number of departments including the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Office of the Rail Regulator and the Cabinet Office.
She was awarded the CBE in 2015 for services to the food and drink industry.
Martina Malone
Martina Malone, former managing director and global head of capital raising at Prologis, the global leader in logistics real estate. Martina worked for Prologis from 2010 to 2025 where she was responsible for client relations and capital raising with Prologis’ global investor base. Her focus was to develop and deepen relationships with institutional investors and consultants across the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. She ran a team of up to 18 professionals globally based in NYC, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Amsterdam and Singapore. Prior to heading up the team, Ms. Malone was responsible for institutional investors in Europe and the Middle East. Since 2010, the team has raised $20 billion of capital for Prologis’ funds globally.
Prior to joining Prologis in 2010, Ms. Malone was head of European client relations and capital raising for JER Partners for eight years. Previously, she was at Deutsche Bank AG as vice president in the European Securitization group. Ms. Malone also served as vice president, asset finance, at Credit Suisse First Boston, and served in various real-estate-related roles at Hypo-Bank in Munich and London.
Ms. Malone holds a master’s and a Bachelor of Arts from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich and spent one year at Ecole de Management in Strasbourg, France. She was an active member of INREV and sat on the Real Estate Balance Policy & Campaigns Committee, an initiative that encourages greater gender balance in the Real Estate industry, for a number of years. She is a German national and is fluent in German, English, French and Spanish. She is married with two children and lives in London.
Andy Rothery
Andy is the co-head of affordable housing at QSix LLP and prior to that was the head of Deloitte Real Estate where he worked for 27 years. Andy is the Chair of Governors of the Leathersellers Federation of Schools comprising three inner London state schools in Lewisham educating around 3,000 students from 4-18.
During Andy’s tenure as a governor within the Federation, he has been involved in the development of a new Primary School, a new Secondary School, and has seen two schools receive Good Ofted judgements having previously been rated as Requires Improvement. All schools in the Federation are now rated either Good or Outstanding.