Webinar - Insights Unveiled: MSCI/AREF UK Property Fund Index Analysis

Tom is Chair of AREF's Index Committee. Tom is a member of the Knight Frank Investment Management UK Indirect Property team with responsibility for managing various separate accounting mandates, developing new portfolio strategies, overseeing the team’s fund-research effort and sourcing secondary market opportunities. Prior to his current role, Tom worked for Aberdeen Standard Investments for five years, where he was a senior investment manager with a focus on discretionary institutional separate account mandates investing into commercial and residential property in the UK and globally via property funds. He has been in the industry since 2004 and started with Aegon Asset Management in 2018 before the Indirect Property team moved to Knight Frank Investment Management in 2025. Tom has a BA (Hons) in Politics, Economics and Social Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, an MSc in Real Estate from the University of Reading and is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Ed leads the UK Consultant team in MSCI Real Estate and has been with MSCI for 3 years. Ed joined MSCI from Homes England where he was Head of Corporate Strategy and Development for the organisation. Prior to this Ed was part of the founding team at HCA-Investments responsible for building the Management Information Framework and Analytics platforms across debt and equity.

Ed started his career at IPD as an analyst going on to hold various positions within the UK business.

Frances Spence joined Swiss Life Asset Managers in 2013 and is responsible for the formation of the UK house view, reporting and monitoring investment risk in the UK mandates, and management of operational risks in the UK business. She is a member of the UK Executive Board, UK Investment Risk Committee, and is the UK representative on the Management Committee Risk at Swiss Life Asset Managers.

Frances has worked in commercial property research for more than 20 years, including several years working in the EMEA research team at JLL, specialising in offices and capital markets.

Frances has a degree in Psychology from the University of Warwick and has completed her Investment Management Certificate. She is a member of the Society of Property Researchers and Investment Property Forum.