AREF FutureGen Educational Series 2020 'The Bricks and Mortar of Real Estate' Event 1: Investment Management

Rory Blazeby is a director at Ocorian Fund Services based in their London office. He joined in May 2019 and is tasked with driving growth across the Alternative Investments business with a particular lens on the UK and European Real Estate market. Prior to this, Rory was with Ernst & Young in the Asset Management practice focused on Private Equity and Real Estate.  

Rory graduated from the University of Plymouth with a BA in History and has been involved in private markets since 2013.

Phil holds a series of Non-Executive roles across Education, Social Enterprise and the investment management Industry. He has established multiple institutional real estate investment businesses in the US, Europe and Asia in executive roles held over the previous 37 years most recently with the Dutch Insurance company, AEGON Asset Management, a top 5 global real estate business, where he was Global Head of Real Assets Equity responsible for listed, non-listed and direct investments across real estate, private equity and energy investments.

Phil is past Chair of the Investment Property Forum, current Chair of Pinnacle Investments, a Member of the UCL Governing Council, and is Chair the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Commercial Property Forum.

Phil is the founding Chair of the Real Assets Academy. The Academy connects school children approaching GCSE’s at the UK’s 2000 most economically challenged state schools, to provide knowledge of, and access to, careers across the entire spectrum of the real estate industry.

Karen is a fund manager in the property team and co-manages the Kames Property Income Fund.

She joined Kames Capital in 2016 following a career break, prior to which she was a fund manager at Aviva Investors responsible for three specialist property funds over her 8 years at Aviva. Prior to that, she worked at CBRE for 8 years in the national investment team.

Karen has a BSc Hons from Reading University and has 18 years’ industry experience. She is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

Chris has broad experience of both general international corporate and funds work with particular expertise in private equity and hedge funds, having spent ten years in the City at two leading international firms and a large hedge fund.

Chris advises on all aspects of fund and corporate transactions, including the legal and regulatory aspects of fund launches, and joint ventures. He also has considerable experience in dealing with the Jersey Financial Services Commission in navigating investment vehicles through the Jersey regulatory approval process as part of the Jersey funds team. He also spearheads Carey Olsen's crypto practice, having advised on a series of token offerings/ICOs, crypto funds and crypto exchanges.