Webinar: DB & DC pension schemes, life insurers and illiquid assets

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.

Tom is an Investment Director and is Head of Real Asset Equity Specialists, with a core remit to commercialise and grow the Real Assets business as an integral part of Aviva Investors strategy in active outcome-oriented solutions. Tom’s primary focus is to scale our co-mingled fund offering and develop strategic partnerships with global investors for transactions of scale across Real Estate and Infrastructure Equity.

Tom has eighteen years’ experience in Real Assets fund management and capital raising, with experience gained as both a principal and advisor in the UK and European markets.  Prior to joining Aviva Investors, Tom was an Investment Director in the Product Strategy & Solutions team at Aberdeen Standard Investments focused on developing the Real Estate product strategy as a fundamental part of the firm’s Private Markets offer.  Tom has also held roles at LaSalle and Lazard.

Tom has a BA and MA in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge and is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS).

Rachel is responsible for working with a number of AREF committees, including the Research, Corporate Governance and ESG & Impact Investing Committees.

Previous to joining, Rachel worked as an independent investment management professional in real estate and prior to this she spent 11 years at Aviva Investors in the Real Estate Team as a Strategist and six years at Henderson Global Investors. 

Rachel has taken on a number of projects for AREF over the last few years, including the End of Fund Life Project, the Fund Structures Report, the History of AREF and also worked on the Open Ended Fund Pricing Project, in conjunction with INREV.

Paul is the CEO of AREF.  Before joining AREF in 2020, Paul was Head of the European Real Estate Boutique within Mercer’s investment consulting business for almost 10 years, previously he was Head of Indirect Real Estate Investment and Global Managed Accounts at LaSalle Investment Management, where he was responsible for managing global portfolios of unlisted real estate funds for clients from Europe and Asia Pacific.

He has over 25 years of real estate experience in investment, corporate finance and research, and has advised investors, occupiers and venture capital companies on property portfolio strategy and on financial structuring, including PFI, senior and mezzanine debt and joint venture arrangements. His employers have included LaSalle Investment Management, Cushman & Wakefield and Henderson Investors.

Before coming into the world of real estate, Paul worked in marketing and market research. He originally studied Physiological Sciences at Lincoln College, Oxford and has a Master of Science in Real Estate from City University Business School, London, now Cass Business School.