AREF Crisis Forums: Webinar #4

Nick is a Big4 trained Finance Director with extensive experience within both public practice and commercial environments. His expertise lie in providing financial and commercial oversight to investment intensive organisations that require strategic financial management to maximise IRR and mitigate risk including Funds, Real Estate and Infrastructure.

Anne is a fund manager at Kames Capital UK plc and is responsible for looking after the Kames Target Healthcare Fund. She joined Kames in 2008 from Aviva Investors where she was a Fund Manager for funds including Ashtenne Industrial Fund and Quercus Healthcare Property Partnership and then more latterly she was responsible for fund operations in the UK, Channel Islands and Europe.  Prior to this Anne was an Investment Manager with Schroder Property Investment Management from 1996 to 2001 working on both SEPUT and SERPUT.

Anne has a 1st Class honours degree in Land Management and Development from Reading University, is a Chartered Surveyor and is regulated by the FCA.

John Forbes is an independent consultant advising real estate investment managers, investors and others in the real estate industry in the rapidly changing areas of product development, governance and regulatory matters for real estate funds.  He has advised on the restructuring of high profile open and closed-ended real estate funds in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, as well as the establishment of new funds. He has advised service providers to the real estate investment management industry on the strategic implications of regulatory and other changes.  Prior to setting up John Forbes Consulting LLP in 2013, he spent over twenty-five years with PwC, where he led the firm's Real Estate Industry Practice in Europe, the Middle-East and Africa across all of the firm's services to the real estate industry.

John is the chairman of the Independent Supervisory Board of the UBS Triton Property Fund, independent chair of the Urban Splash Residential Fund and non executive chairman of Ginkgo Advisor UK Limited.

Part of the Mercer Alternatives' Real Estate Team within Mercer’s Wealth Practice, Anne is responsible for Mercer’s research and intellectual capital on European real estate, supporting colleagues who provide investment management and consulting services around the world.

Before joining Mercer, Anne spent most of my career at two real estate investment managers, where she worked in a Research & Strategy capability. She started her career in the research team of a large property agency. Throughout her career she has focused on real estate markets in Continental Europe and has gained considerable expertise in this field.
She participates in several industry bodies, the Investment Property Forum (IPF), the Society of Property Researchers (SPR) and the European Association of Non-Listed Real Estate Funds (INREV).

She holds the IMC and a professional certification in Data Analysis from the LSE. Her academic achievements have been in Geography and Urban Planning, wherein she holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Amsterdam and a Master of Science from the LSE. 

Alison is a funds partner at Osborne Clarke with a particular focus on the real estate sector. She has experience working with fund managers on the structuring and establishment of real estate funds as well as ongoing governance issues, management arrangements and providing transactional support.