Kevin Gaskell - Keynote Speaker

Kevin Gaskell (see www.kevingaskell.com) is an experienced company chairman and sought after conference speaker addressing the topics of practical leadership, leadership in challenging environments, creating extraordinary teams and building high performing companies.

Appointed MD of Porsche GB at age 32, refocused the business and in 5 years led Porsche from close to bankruptcy to the UK's most profitable importer. Recognised as 'One of the top 40 managers under 40 in the UK.' From 1996 as MD BMW (GB) he led the business to 4 years of record growth improving sales by 50% and profitability by 500%.

In 2000 formed CarsDirect.com Europe. When the investors retrenched to the USA was a founder member of the team who created epyx Limited which became the UK's leading e-commerce solution for the fleet sector. Board member from 2001 until 2009 when he sold his equity to the management team.

From 2001 to 2007 Group CEO of the EurotaxGlass's Group AG, Switzerland. With his team converted a set of print based companies in 31 countries into the global leader in the provision of online data, systems and software to the automotive sector. Operating profits were improved by 300%. In 2007 he led a €500M MBO before stepping across to the role of non exec President of the group. He left the company in 2010.

Currently Deputy Chairman of Achilles Group, global leader in the management of supply chain data, Chairman of Courland Automotive, the global executive search firm and Chairman of Dorney Kitchen Garden Company.

Played cricket for his country. Now relaxes by playing in a rock band (see www.thehods.co.uk). Constantly searching for new challenges he celebrated his 40th birthday by climbing on Mount Everest. In 2006 he walked unsupported to the North Pole to raise money for Cancer Research. Three years later he walked with his 18 year old son, to the South Pole. Has recently climbed Kilimanjaro and is preparing for Elbrus as part of the 'seven summits' challenge.

TVPF Conference In-House Journalist

Sarah Rutt is a marketing and communications consultant with more than 20 years experience of working in architecture, property and regeneration. She has worked for international property firm Knight Frank, multi-disciplinary architectural practice Arup Associates and leading visualisation firm Hayes Davidson, as well as in a number of consultancy roles. She is currently Associate Director at ING MEDIA and a non-executive Director of AVR London.

David Adams

David joined Willmott Dixon Rethinking Ltd as Head of Energy and Carbon at the beginning of November 2010 from Knauf Insulation.

With Knauf he held a number of roles including General Manager of the Polyfoam business and latterly as Head of External Affairs. In this role his focus was on mainstreaming energy efficiency refurbishment and enhancing new build standards including: policy, regulatory, technical and funding mechanisms development. He developed and promoted the 'Pay As You Save' and 'Green Deal' low energy financing concepts for upgrading the energy efficiency of existing homes and chaired the UKGBC's "PAYS" Task Group.

In 2007/8 David was instrumental in creating and setting up the Zero Carbon Hub, reporting to the Housing Minister and 2016 Task Force; the organisation works with the wider house building industry and government to facilitate the mainstream delivery of low and zero carbon new homes for 2016. As a Director of the ZC Hub, he chaired the specialist task group which developed the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard for homes and is currently chairing the Task Group commissioned by the Minister to recommend an appropriate minimum national Carbon Compliance standard.

His early career was within the automotive sector and he has also spent a period inthe Government Agency WRAP.

Alastair Storey

Alastair Storey is Chairman and Chief Executive of WSH Ltd and has over 30 years experience in the catering sector. Alastair's ability to lead business was evident in his earlier career where he began new business units, created new market sectors, oversaw acquisitions and constantly drove standards, increased profit and broadened the vision for the businesses he managed. Before BaxterStorey,Alastair worked for Sutcliffe Catering for 25 years where he, in his role as Group Managing Director, was responsible for almost doubling turnover to £920m.

He set up Wilson Storey with Keith Wilson in 2000 with the aim of creating a business that reflected their strongly held beliefs and values. In 2001 the business merged with Halliday Catering to become Wilson Storey Halliday (WSH). Within 3 years WSH became the UK's leading independent food service management provider with a turnover of £75m. This position was entrenched further in November 2004, when he oversaw the acquisition of BaxterSmith,creating BaxterStorey.

In 2007 the business took a further step in the market with the acquisitions of benugo and Holroyd Howe, making it the fourth largest caterer in the UK. Today, WSH owns the brands BaxterStorey, Holroyd Howe Independent, CaterLink, benugo and Portico and has sales revenue of over £360m.

In 2007 he was awarded Catey Food Service Caterer of the year.

Paul Newman

Paul is a Chartered Civil Engineer with over 25 years experience in rail and civil engineering industries. He has worked on a wide range of enhancement and renewal programmes, including:

- Sponsorship for 'Operation Princess' The Virgin Cross Country Upgrade
- Lead Development Manager with the Bristol Development Corporation
- Regional Protection Manager safeguarding the railway infrastructure from the activities of Outside Parties/developers and also legal liability obligations affecting railway land

Paul is currently working working on the £850m scheme at Reading to deliver performance and capacity improvements at this key railway station, including the use of a Transport and Works Act Order.

As Sponsor, he is responsible for ensuring the successful development of the project working closely with Stakeholders e.g. the DfT, ORR, Reading BC and FGW, to ensue that the project delivers the benefits identified in the business case.

Rob Harris

Rob is principal of Ramidus Consulting Limited, a business that he founded in 2003 as a specialist built environment research and advisory business. Rob has over 25 years experience that has involved projects throughout the property process, including design, development, investment and occupation. His particular interest is in market research where he has completed numerous innovative projects. He works closely with investors, developers and policy makers, advising on market trends, investment opportunities, building specification, changing needs of occupiers and benchmarking.

Immediately prior to setting up Ramidus, Rob worked for Interior Services Group, where he was Operations Director Consulting. Before ISG, Rob worked in a number of organisations, including Stanhope Properties, Hillier Parker (now CBRE), Debenham Tewson & Chinnocks (now DTZ) and DEGW.

Rob has previously been co-opted onto a number of industry initiatives, with current commitments including: Board member, Federation of Corporate Real Estate and Founder Council member, Workplace Consulting Organisation. Rob publishes and talks widely on real estate, specialising in occupier issues, demand research and the role of real estate in change management.

David Leon

David Leon FCSD FRSA

David has specialised in designing advanced Working Environments and Buildings for Research,Technology and Innovation throughout Europe over many years.

He is Director of David Leon & Associates, the design and architecture consultancy he founded thirty years ago. More recently David has turned to re engineering existing buildings and recycling them into newproductive Workplaces- adding value to both owners and occupiers.David was one of the first designers to recognise that organisations could optimise their performance through successful Workplace design. Projects designed by his company have led to significant gains in business performance and space utilisation.

Corporate client organisations have included BP (UK and France), Dow Corning (Belgium), DSM (The Netherlands), Johnson & Johnson (UK), Shell (The Netherlands) and Unilever (UK) Science and Business Park client organisations include Birmingham Aston Science Park, Howbery Park- Wallingford,Manchester Science Park and Warwick Science Park.

This year-2011- David Leon & Associates, as Workplace and Interior Designers, was part of the team to win the BCO South West Regional Award for Corporate Workplace Design for Kestrel House, Wallingford- a new headquarters building for HR Wallingford Ltd.

In 2010 David wrote the Good Practice Guide on renewing Workplaces and Buildings for the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA) David is a member of EIRMA(The Paris based Industrial Research Management Association), the UK Science Park Association and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Tim Smith MBE

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, READING UK CIC

Tim has led the evolution of Reading's long-standing town centre partnership to a business-led economic development company that brings together all those sectors with an interest in sustaining Reading's world class economy. He leads a wide range of activities such as influencing policy; marketing, promotion and PR; co-ordination of stakeholders and business investment, support and intelligence.

In 2009 Tim led the creation of the 'Reading Diamond (economic) Forum', which provided a platform for one of the first Local Enterprise Partnership's in England - Thames Valley Berkshire LEP. He has since been part of a small secretariat that is supporting the development of the LEP.

In partnership with property consultants Hicks Baker he delivers the Reading Property Conference and previously chaired the Reading Marketing Group, which continues to roll out the place brand: Reading UK.

Tim also directed Reading's first Business Improvement District (BID) (the first in the South East of England and outside London) and led the project to secure a 'yes' vote in the BID renewal ballot of February 2009. In 2008 he was nominated as the IoD's Director of the Year in the South East.
 

Gareth Osborn

Gareth joined the Investment team of SEGRO in May 1988.  He moved to the company's Retail team in 1991 and became the General Manager of the Division in March 2005.  Gareth was moved to Regional Director of the Thames Valley and the West team with responsibility for a portfolio of £550m.  In October 2007 Gareth was promoted to Business Unit Director of National Markets with responsibility for a UK portfolio of £1.2bn

Gareth has undertaken a number of roles within SEGRO, more recently as BUD for National Markets.  Gareth has recently taken on responsibility for the Thames Valley portfolio which includes Winnersh, Farnborough and Slough. He is passionate about the Thames Valley and is activerly involved with the Berkshire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership).

SEGRO have supported the Thames Valley Property Forum since 2005 when they sponsored the 'Where have all the people gone?' conference held in Slough and attended by more than 150 people.

Tim Caiger

Tim is the former Vice President of Corporate Real Estate and Facilities for Oracle Corporation, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).  Acting as a Consultant he is now responsible for Oracle’s real estate strategy and development, which includes the management of approx. 4 million sq ft of buildings located in 65 countries across EMEA.  Tim has more than thirty-five years of experience in corporate real estate, construction and development, architecture and building management.

Tim joined Oracle in 1988 when there were approximately 600 employees in EMEA and a 100,000 sq ft portfolio.  Since then, Oracle has grown to a substantial global business with thousands of employees.  During his tenure at Oracle, Tim has overseen major achievements including multi-million dollar projects such as Oracle’s developed and owned campuses at Thames Valley Park and Blythe Valley Park in the UK and more recently substantial developments in South Africa, Egypt, Romania, Russia and Spain.  In addition, he is part of Oracle’s mergers & acquisitions team that has managed the integration of real estate holdings and facilities following its $35 billion acquisition strategy of in excess of 60 companies so far, which include PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, Hyperion and BEA Systems.

Prior to joining Oracle, Tim held executive posts at Barclays Property Holding Company, Hewlett Packard and Digital Corporation.  In addition, he has worked for architectural firms in the UK and spent five years in Canada for working for a leading developer, Campeu Corporation. 

Tim is past president of the global organisation CoreNet (the Corporate Real Estate Network) and received the Corporate Real Estate Executive of the Year Award in 2003.  He is a board member of the British Council of Offices, a BIFM fellow and a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust.

Scott Witchalls

Scott is a Partner of Peter Brett Associates, an international sustainable transport, land development and engineering consultancy. He has over 25 years experience in transport planning and engineering. Scott leads the management and delivery of area wide transport strategies and major land development projects both in the UK and overseas. Major mixed use projects include; Ebbsfleet station and development area (8Msq.ft), the Krakow transport hub major regeneration project in Poland (4Msq.ft), and the Reading Station area renaissance project (3Msq.ft). Scott has also developed transport strategies and implementation plans for several major employment areas including Green Park and Thames Valley Park in Reading, and Slough Trading Estate, and also many strategic housing sites. As a former Director of the Thames Valley Economic Partnership, Scott successfully lobbied Government for transport infrastructure investment in the Thames Valley. Scott regularly appears as an expert witness at regional, local planning and CPO inquiries including that for the £65M M4 Junction 11 project.

He has been an active supporter of the Thames Valley Property Forum since 2004 helping to shape and drive many of the key issues affecting the Region with particular emphasis on transport and sustainable travel. 

David Gillham

David is Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Reading. His role involves supporting the University to build on its reputation for excellence in research and its fast growing portfolio of business and enterprise activities. This includes maximising income from competitive research grants, fostering and building mutually beneficial links with industry and through the protection and commercialisation of University Intellectual Property.

As part of this portfolio of activities, he lead the Universities business incubation offer- the early phase of the University of Reading Science Park. This currently includes some 80,000 sq ft. of technology and business incubation space which is focused on early stage and growing innovative and technology based companies that seek to interact with each other and the University. Additionally The University is anticipating a further phase of the Science Park for which planning consent has been granted for an 800,000 sq ft. development off campus.

Aside from the day job David is interested in supporting collaboration and innovation and is actively involved in the local economic development 'scene', is a Board member of UKSPA, the UK Science Parks Association and holds Directorships on a number of spin out and affiliated companies.

A plant scientist by background, prior to joining the University, David's earlier career was spent in various R&D and commercial roles related to plant based biosciences. This has involved leading research projects and managing large research teams, including licensing and business development. He also has done considerable international travel including extended assignments abroad. Prior to joining the University he was Site Head of Syngenta's Jealotts Hill International Research centre just outside Bracknell.

Albert de Beer

Albert's current role is Director of Facilities,EMEA with a responsibility for Real Estate, Facilities Management and Procurement of FM services. The RIM Blackberry estate is spread between South Africa to Sweden and comprises of R&D, Data Centres, Serviced Offices and Commercial offices. Previous experience has been within the banking industry (Citibank based in London). Business Process Outsourcing (Sitel) based in Watford, Telecommunications (Ericsson) based in Guildford as well as Pharmaceutical (Covance) based in Maidenhead.With most companies looking for cost reduction and service improvements, the task has mainly been to drive costs down by simplifying processes and procedures as well as strategically looking at longer term opportunities to create a better working environment.

Matthew Battle

Matthew was appointed by Bovis Construction as a Management Trainee in 1982, Matthew then worked with Bovis in the UK on various projects and as a business development professional across the UK until 1993, when he joined PMI (Project Management International) and BAe. Working with clients in the City of London and Manchester at PMI for eighteen months, before returning to Bovis International in Johannesburg, establishing the brand in the region. Upon return to the UK, Matthew spent eight years with InteriorExterior plc (now ISG plc) as Divisional Director setting up the Thames Valley and UK Regions part of the business. Since 2007, Matthew has been a Director of Ibex, part of the Doyle plc group of companies, providing business development and marketing advice at Board level within Ibex, a £80M+ specialist fit-out, refurb and residential company operating across the UK Regions and London.

Matthew set up and Chairs the Thames Valley Propery Forum as a Director of Battle Associates. Established in 2004, TVPF is now the leading discusion group and networking forum for all those operating in the Thames Valley and West of London markets. He juggles this role with his day job at Ibex but having lived (Bourne End & Hampton)and been educated (Shiplake College and West London University) in the Thames Valley, he is very informed about the Region and passionate about the development of a Forum for those involved in the Thames Valley property market.

David Wright

David is a well-known and high profile Corporate Real Estate Executive who has worked for many years within the property industry. As such, he is often sought out for speaking and presentation assignments at conferences, seminars and other professional forums. Until January 2007, he held the post of Chairman of the Thames Valley Branch of CoreNet and is still an active member of that organisation.

David has also acted in an advisory capacity to several institutions in both the public and private sectors. He sits on the judging panel for the British Institute of Facilities Management Awards and the Corporate Real Estate Executive of the Year Awards within CoreNet Global.

Before joining Corporate Property Advisers, David spent recent years in an executive capacity at Dell Corporation, responsible for a large and expanding estate in a very dynamic & demanding international business environment.

David’s experience and versatility have enabled him to undertake a wide range of assignments with CPA and he continues to use his personality and strong motivation to continue his career in the consultancy and management fields.

Nigel Baker

Nigel was the former Senior Director EMEA Real Estate and Facilities, Microsoft Corporation and now Head of NVW Capital

He joined Microsoft in 2004 as the Director of Corporate Services – International for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region (EMEA).  The area of indirect responsibility covered 5 disciplines, namely Real Estate and Facilities, Travel and Entertainment, General Procurement, Marketing Procurement and Auto Car Programme. 

The EMEA region covers in excess of 65 countries, with a total of 210 properties, providing over 4mft².

As at July 1st 2007, Nigel has been the EMEA transition manager to restructure all of Real Estate and Facilities and Procurement, to formulate World Wide RE&F and General Procurement teams. 

As at July 1st 2007, Nigel assumed the full responsibility for all countries in EMEA and was promoted to Senior Director EMEA RE&F. This role include direct responsibility and accountability for all RE&F matters, working with an internal team of approximately 45 staff and over 300 partners.

Before joining Microsoft, Nigel was the Director of EMEA Real Estate at EDS (Electronic Data Systems).  He held this position for over 5 years.  During his time there, he was accountable for the property portfolio for the region which included handling new acquisitions, disposal of properties, lease renewals and re-gearing of leases.  One of the key success factors made within the region during his time there, was the decrease in the number of mt² per head and the FM outsourcing programme that happened within various countries, such as the UK, Belgium, France and Germany. He left Microsoft at the end of 2010.

Nigel qualified as a surveyor and operated as a developer for a number of years.  He lives in Chiswick, West London with his wife and son and enjoys sailing and skiing.

Simon Taylor

Simon is Global Head of Property and Facilities for the Reading based International Directories business Yell, whose products in the UK include Yellow Pages yell.com and telephone directory service 118247.

Simon's early career was as a property investment fund manger in the City. In recent years he has worked for Lloyds TSB Property Division and before joining Yell in 2005 he was Head of Property for the Insurers Royal and Sun Alliance.

Since joining Yell he has been concentrating on amongst other things acquiring and preparing Yell's 2010 HQ relocation to One Reading Central.

Simon is also an active member of the Reading Committee of the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce.