Speakers

Panel Debate Speakers

Chair: Professor Duane Passman, Director of 3Ts: Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

Duane, originally an Astrophysicist, has worked on major investment programmes and projects in the NHS for almost 25 years utilising public funding and PFI. He has worked on some of the largest projects in the NHS, being directly involved in well over £1 billion of investment to date.

He joined Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in August 2008 as the Programme Director for the development of teaching, trauma and tertiary services (“3Ts”) which will result in a £400m+ redevelopment. In September 2009 he assumed responsibility for the Estates and Facilities Management portfolios across the Trust.

He is a Visiting Professor in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Salford, which is a 6* rated research institute and has recently been made the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Salford Centre for Research and Innovation.

He has published and presented widely on healthcare planning and capital investment in the UK and internationally.

Stuart Ladds, Head of National Property Controls: Government Property Unit

Stuart Ladds is a career civil servant whose travels have taken him from the DWP, HMCS, MoJ, OGC, the Shareholder Executive in BIS and currently leads the Cabinet Office Efficiency Reform Group spending controls team delivering property savings. Last year, he was the SRO for government’s property benchmarking service (the largest of its kind in the world), the SRO for the 2010 parliamentary report “The State of the Estate” and remains SRO for government’s residual estate

He's a jointly Chartered Institute of Building/College of Estate Management certified Construction Project Sponsor and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors and has spent the last five years prior to his current appointment, leading the government relocation programme which arose from the Sir Michael Lyons report on the location of civil servants. He has been a part-time speaker on construction and change management issues for the National School for Government and was on the review group of the OGC/APM P3O product. He has extensive experience of consulting for overseas governments, including Japan, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Western Cape (SA) and South Korea. He is a regular contributor to the Parliamentary Report “The State of the Estate” 2008-11 and is currently an advisor to the Megaproject Research Group, School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Thomas Fleming DipSurv MRICS, Property Manager: ACCESS LLP and President: ACES

Anna Hutchings, Head of Client Development: DVS

Anna has worked for the VOA for over 35 year developing a wealth of experience and knowledge in public property in all aspects of valuation. Specialising in DVS services from 1995, Anna served as District Valuer South East for seven years up to 2008.With a team of over 100 staff providing a wide range of property services and advice to central and local government, transport and infrastructure and the NHS.

Currently appointed as Head of Client Development and working in the London Chief Executives office. Responsibilities include supporting delivery of DVS national property services across the UK, and liaising with major departments in Whitehall, and the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales for efficient and effective property advice / delivery in support of government property policy. Anna takes the lead on DVS contract and framework submissions, as well as service level agreements with central government departments seeking cost reductions and efficiencies required of government initiatives against the background political and economic climate.

Contributes and speaks at many public events and public sector property forums, including conferences led by the GPU and ACES. Since 2010, Anna has been a member of the RICS public sector executive group that produces advice and guidance on emerging policy for publicly owned property e.g., strategic asset management, collaboration, asset backed vehicles.

Colin Proctor, Director of Asset Management: Scottish Futures Trust

Colin is a Director at SFT and leads their Scotland-wide public sector programme on property asset management. SFT's remit, set by Scottish Government, is to champion a strategic approach and take forward a programme of change supporting and challenging public bodies to deliver a step change in improved property asset management. Part of this is to facilitate collaborative planning and property rationalisation between different public bodies. Colin is a Chartered Surveyor with more than 25 years experience in property and construction.

David Seath, Head of Central Services: Lothian and Borders Police

David Seath joined the public sector from industry in 1995 when he was appointed by Lothian and Borders Police as Head of Central Services Department. This post is responsible for managing the physical assets of the organisation. In turn, the department is organised through three branches (Estates, Fleet and Procurement).

Within a few years he established a forum for property professionals across the Scottish Police Service to meet and discuss relevant property-related matters. Since its inauguration, David has been the Chair of the Estates Management Forum. David also represents the interests of the Scottish Police Service on the National Police Estates Group, which covers all forces across the UK and Northern Ireland.

During his employment with the police David has acted as the Programme Manager for several large construction projects, which have resulted in major changes in working practices. These projects have unlocked the door to modern methods of working and given the stimulus to seeking better performance from our physical assets. Following on from one of these projects, he presented a co-location case study to the Public Sector Property & Estates Conference held in Glasgow and published a paper on the West Lothian Civic Centre in the Asset Management Journal.

In 2011, with the announcement of Police Reform in Scotland, he was selected to lead the initial work on designing the estates service for the new Police Service of Scotland. This work cumulated in proposals to radically reform the Estates function within the Police Service. Lately, he has assumed responsibility for the Estates, Fleet and Procurement workstreams of Police Reform and is now driving forward the implementation plan for the new service, which commences on 1 April 2013.

Richard Baker, Head of Estates Services: Welsh Government

Richard is Head of Estates within Property Division at the Welsh Government. He is a General Practice Chartered Surveyor by profession and has been with the Welsh Government for 10 years. He was previously employed by the Valuation Office (Executive Agency of the Inland Revenue) as a Senior Valuer.

As Head of Estates within Property Division he has responsibility for leading a team that delivers professional property advice on all aspects of property estate management in respect of the Welsh Government Administrative estate and other departments in respect of all property related matters. He is also a member of the National Assets Working Group and has lead on the establishment of an All-Wales Public Sector Property database (ePIMS Lite) and the development of the Land Transfer Protocol, a best practice guide for the transfer of assets between public bodies in Wales.

Scott Wilson, Head of Asset Management Unit: Strategic Investment Board NI

Scott joined as Head of Asset Management Unit (AMU) in September 2011. AMU was established by the Northern Ireland Executive with the responsibility to help departments deliver additional value through more efficient management of public assets. The AMU’s remit is broad and extends beyond land and accommodation assets to include specialist assets such as housing. Prior to taking up this role, he worked for Quintain Estates and Development PLC as a Fund Manager in their Asset Management business and was tasked with helping them grow their funds under management from £1bn to £2bn within 3 years. From 2006 to 2010, Scott was a Strategic Adviser within the SIB providing advice to Ministers in areas such as asset management, regeneration, housing investment and private finance initiatives. Before joining SIB, Scott spent 15 years in the development, investment and construction sectors both in the UK and overseas. Scott is originally from Liverpool and moved to Northern Ireland in 2003.

Jonathan Fearn, Head of Corporate Property: Carmarthenshire County Council, and Chair of Welsh Branch: ACES

Jonathan has been Head of Corporate Property at Carmarthenshire County Council for nine years. He is an RICS Registered Valuer and has been a Chartered Planning & Development Surveyor for over twenty years. He was previously Property Manager for the Church in Wales, Planning & Development Surveyor for Jones Lang Wootton and started his career at Berkshire County Council.
Jonathan has been Chairman of the Welsh Branch of ACES and Convenor of the Estates and Asset Management Group of the Consortium of Local Authorities in Wales (CLAW) for five years. He is also a member of the Welsh Government’s National Assets Working Group and is leading a workstream seeking to procure or develop a single property management database for the Welsh public sector.
Jonathan leads a 50-strong estates, asset management and facilities team at Carmarthenshire County Council and has recently overseen a strategic review of the Council’s estate in partnership with other public and third sector organisations in the county.

Brian Ablett MRICS CENV MPWI, Property Consultant: Leeds City Council

After qualifying, Brian worked as an estate manager for government property. All property types were encountered... agricultural land and farms, distribution depots, airfields and defence establishments but especially offices, and in large numbers. Working in a team, the holdings in whole towns and cities were reviewed and systematic strategies were developed and implemented. Later Brian was head hunted to work on regeneration and to bring a property aspect into government policy development: housing, the regional economy, crime prevention and rural development were covered. Moving to Leeds City Council, he focussed on the 1m sq ft Eastgate retail scheme, particularly developing the CPO. Brian now works as an in-house consultant, integrating property with economic development. The last year has seen him developing and leading the joint work with Bradford Council on "smart cities".

Work Session Speakers

Stephen Armitage, Head of Public Sector Services: Lambert Smith Hampton
Stephen is the Head of Public Sector Services at Lambert Smith Hampton and specialises in advising clients in respect of the viability and delivery of occupational and development property vehicles and public/private partnerships. He led team who won the Westminster Council contract to manage the investment portfolio, the first London property services outsourcing; this was extended to include the corporate portfolio. Further contracts were awarded from the councils of Wandsworth, Lambeth, Ealing and Hammersmith & Fulham. During this period Stephen managed the professional team and specifically dealt with asset strategy, major disposals and advising in respect of development partnerships.

Peter Cummings, Global Retail Director: Turner & Townsend
Peter leads our work with retail and financial organisations to reduce costs and deliver more for less. Peter's client list includes Tesco, Sainsburys, Barclays Bank, Co-op and more. His experience of revenue and capital cost reduction in the private sector is now being used with our clients in the public sector.

Clive Daniels LLB BA MCMI MRICS, Head of Central Government Sector: DVS

Clive has over 30 years experience within public sector property dealing with commercial, residential, agricultural and development opportunities and estates. He has provided expert advice to Ministers to the Welsh Assembly and provided valuation and estate management advice to numerous local authority and central government departments. He is currently Head of Central Government within DVS, the property arm of the VOA and Head of Local and Devolved Government in Wales. Over 125 Chartered Surveyors are at his disposal to meet client needs. During the course of this year alone he will be responsible for signing off valuations that in total exceed tens of billions. He was previously Chief Valuer, Wales with oversight of business rates and council tax throughout the Principality. He has experience in, and provided valuation and estate management advice to numerous local authority and central government departments across a broad range of property types and for a diverse variety of purposes from asset valuations to statutory compensation and compulsory purchase, and pretty much everything in between.

Angela Gibbins, Head of Global Estates: British Council

Kuljeet Gill, Partner: Eversheds LLP
Kuljeet leads nationally in the delivery of innovative partnership and joint venture arrangements and is ideally placed to lead the structures elements of your major projects.
In relation to public private joint ventures Kuljeet has been involved in most property based partnerships/LABVs delivered in the last 10 years. She led on the delivery of the first local asset backed vehicle to be established in the local authority market for LB Croydon. This was launched in November 2008 with a circa £450m development value.
She led the team on the public private joint venture partnership/LABV for the Daresbury Science & Innovation Campus (completed 14 December 2010). This involved advising three public sector partners (NWDA, the Science and Technology Facilities Council and Halton Borough Council) and project managing delivery of the transaction alongside property and financial consultants.
She also took a lead role in advising Morgan Sindall Investments Limited on their local asset backed vehicle with Bournemouth Borough Council (completed February 2011).
Kuljeet has recently advised Oxford City Council in relation to the procurement of a private sector co-investment partner (Grosvenor Developments) to bring forward a circa 100 acre housing project, developing an innovative solution to the procurement for the Council to ensure accelerated delivery.
Kuljeet is currently advising Hammersmith & Fulham on the procurement and delivery of a private sector partner for the Council’s major residential development portfolio and is advising Manchester Airport on the procurement of a co-investment and development partner(s) for the delivery of Airport City (within Manchester’s Enterprise Zone). She is also advising on the joint venture partnership structure for the redevelopment of Earls Court as between TfL and Capital & Counties.

Kit Gillibrand, Associate: AECOM

Kit is an Associate in the AECOM Energy Team. His focus is on creating a robust business case for energy efficiency and carbon management, by focussing on the cost reduction, revenue generation and risk mitigation. Kit is Davis Langdon’s lead on the Blue Sky Peterborough Energy Performance Contract (EnPC), providing technical and commercial advice on procurement and delivery of this contract, and leveraging third party investment to deliver energy reductions.

Kit has also developed Davis Langdon’s energy efficiency due diligence offering, working with investors to ensure that deals are correctly structured to minimise risk, and maximise returns.

John Harrison, Executive Director Strategic Resources: Peterborough City Council (Blue Sky Peterborough)

John has been a corporate director and Section 151 Officer for 16 years at 4 different councils. He joined Peterborough City Council as Executive Director Strategic Resources in 2005. His key strengths include: Financial management and strategy; Corporate working; partnership working; income generation (through trading services); and exploring new forms of funding.

At Peterborough City Council John has overall responsibility for Finance, Performance Management, Property, Internal Audit, Customer Services, Business Transformation, Procurement, Waste Management, Transactional Services, Outsourcing, ICT and the strategic partnerships in place with Serco and Enterprise Peterborough. John is also the Council lead on the delivery of the Culture and Leisure Trust, Vivacity. He is a Deputy Returning officer for both local and general elections. John has also been responsible for the setting up of Blue Sky Peterborough Limited, an Energy Services Company (ESCO) wholly owned by PCC which will hopefully put Peterborough one step closer to becoming an ‘Environment Capital’.

John Hicks, Director, Head for Government & Public: AECOM

John leads AECOM’s work across the Government & Public sector.
Since he qualified in 1981 and became a partner in 1992, he has worked overseas having practised in the USA, the Middle East and Far East. His project experience includes project finance/PPP for publicly procured capital projects, and also project management/project co-ordination for capital projects across the public sector, including health, defence, central and local government and education. He has contributed to a number of papers and publications addressing current practice in procurement, the structure and funding of projects and governance, in addition to technical topics around capital expenditure for specific public sector building programmes. John sits on the Professional & Business Services Council, a joint public-private advisory group of top leaders with the Department of Business Innovation and Skills, who last year produced the report Seizing the Opportunities for Growth, a key publication into national economic growth.

Hilary Jeffrey, Associate Director, Strategy+: AECOM

Hilary joined DEGW in 2005 and is part of the Strategy team. Hilary, alongside Nicola Gillen, manages the R&D and Pharmaceutical sector team in the UK and is the account manager for 2 of Strategy Plus’ key accounts.

As well as client account management, Hilary has a particular interest in developing Strategy Plus’s methodologies for assessing workplace performance and for analysing the use of space over time.

David Mathieson, Managing Director: Mouchel Property & Assets

Terry Pitt MSC FRICS MIAM, Product Manager: Atrium Software
Terry is a chartered surveyor and has an MSc in Construction Economics and Management. He designed one of the very first computerised asset management systems in 1983 and in 1994 he was part of the team that authored the first RICS Stock Condition Survey Guidance. He then spent 4 years at the the UWE managing an asset management research project, followed by 10 years as a management consultant. In 2008 he re-joined the company he co-founded some 20 years earlier, becoming Product Manager for Atrium's Enterprise Asset Management solution.

Andy Pack, Director: GVA Financial Consulting

Andy is a Director with GVA Financial Consulting with more than fifteen years knowledge and practice of public sector advisory and accounting services. He spent almost three years working in Local Government followed by twelve years working in the professional services world. During this time he has specialised in services to government and the public sector, with specific expertise in local government and housing.

Andy has specialised in the development of innovative models for infrastructure, housing and mixed use development. This has included the development of infrastructure funding mechanisms such as CIL, s106, Rolling infrastructure funds, TIF and the development of, and challenge to, the strategic infrastructure needs of local authorities as varied as Fife Council, North Yorkshire County Council, LB Barking and Dagenham and Greater Norwich Development Partnership. In addition Andy has specialised in developing and implementing strategies to plug funding gaps in authority development programmes. This has included the development of 100% owned subsidiary vehicles, the first Local Housing Companies in the UK, mixed use JVs including student accommodation, housing and commercial uses and strategic and financial advice in the development of the first local authority asset backed vehicle joint venture with the private sector for Croydon Council.

David Pike, Associate Director: IPD Occupiers

David has extensive experience of work in Central Government, Local Government and the Education sector working to improve and raise the value of data to support strategic decision making in estates. A real estate analyst with over 15 years experience in private and public sector, David has worked with a large number of public sector organisations to develop fact driven analysis to support strategic decision making and raise the value of real estate and FM data. Since 2007, David has led IPDs service to deliver pan Civil Estate office benchmarking and has worked with several Central Government departments to improve the accuracy and value of their estates data. David is currently working with the Western Cape govt in South Africa to help implement a framework for property performance measurement, while closer to home has recently been working with a local authority to help develop performance data.

Jon Poore, Director: Turner & Townsend
Jon works across the private and public sectors to help organisations transform operations, deliver efficiencies and save money from how property is managed, built and maintained to deliver overall business strategy. He has been a local authority Strategic Director and fully understands the need to deliver more for less in education, social services and beyond. Recent experence also includes helping global financial institutions to reduce expenditure from long term capital rogrammes and he is using this knowledge to support the public sector to do the same.

Chris Sharp ACA, Director: DVS (District Valuer Services)
Chris is Director of DVS Property Services at the Valuation Office Agency (VOA).

DVS provides a broad range of property-related services, including strategic asset management, which are shared across Government and the wider public sector. They operate from a network of over 70 offices, covering the whole of England, Wales and Scotland. Specialist sector teams provide extensive experience across central government, local & devolved government and the NHS.
Chris initially qualified as a Chartered Accountant and has held senior positions across the private sector including the chemical & plastics, automotive and insurance industries. He has extensive experience of investment appraisal and delivering efficiency programmes. His article on increasing the embedded value of organisations was published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He moved to the public sector in 2005 with the Export Credits Guarantee Department and joined the VOA (an executive agency of HM Revenue & Customs) in 2009. Chris has worked with his fellow directors on the VOA’s transformation programme. Efficiency savings realised to date have included a reduction in the Agency’s own floor-space by approximately 35% over the last 3 years.

Peter Skelton, Director: Lambert Smith Hampton
Peter is a Director of Strategic Development at the Manchester office of Lambert Smith Hampton. he has extensive experience in providing advice to land owners, developers and corporations on land disposal, acquisition and development.
Over the last couple of years he has been involved in the relocation of the BBC to Salford and subsequent sale of the Oxford Road site, the sale of land and buildings to Greater Manchester Police at Central Park, Manchester and the recent sale of the Lancaster Moor Hospital and land for HCA through a formal OJEU process. Peter has a wealth of experience dealing with private sector developers, banks and investors including Co-Operative Bank, MUSE Developments, Bruntwood, Orbit and Barratts and this knowledge is paramount to understanding and dealing with the current economic downturn and difficulties in securing best value for land and assets.

Stephen Sorrell, Senior Partner for Real Estate: Eversheds LLP

Stephen acts for the public sector and developers and investors in establishing and delivering major regeneration and development schemes and also partnership structures between public agencies and developers/investors and PPP arrangements.
Stephen has considerable experience advising on bespoke partnership structures for surplus assets and to promote organisational and services efficiency particularly in the local authority sector to enable public agencies to participate in the development and investment in their development/investment portfolios in “off balance sheet” partnership vehicles alongside private sector developers/investors.
Projects in which Stephen has had a lead involvement include:
•   UK Regeneration – establishment and acquisition programme for a unique Fund to provide a structured approach to delivering private rent homes working alongside public agencies and available public owned sites for development;
•   Advising developers/investors including John Laing, Kier, Morgan Sindall and Lucent on PPP and LABV structures for the development and investment of publically owned assets across the UK;
•   the regeneration of Kings Waterfront to provide a 10,000 capacity arena, conference centre and mixed use scheme in Liverpool and the proposed redevelopment of the Earls Court area for TfL in partnership with Capital & Counties;
•   Leading on the 16 site LABV for Morgan Sindall, as Bournemouth Council’s delivery partner; and
•   the establishment of a innovative co-investment partnership vehicle between Oxford City Council and Grosvenor to enable the delivery of a new urban community and 100 acre site at Barton in Oxford.

Chris Statham, Head of Data Service and e-PIMS: Government Property Unit, Cabinet Office

Chris is Head of Data Service and e-PIMS within the Cabinet Office, Government Property Unit with primary responsibility for delivering e-PIMS across Central Government, Devolved Governments and the Wider Public Sector. He also heads a team of data analysts and modellers.

Chris is an IT certified professional and a member of the BCS. He has extensive experience of government IT and Estates projects.

Carol Summers FRICS, Regional Director of Property: Capita Symonds

Carol is the Regional Director of Property for Capita Symonds. During her 34 year career, she has delivered numerous property management solutions, and has a profound understanding of the issues now facing local government,.

Currently, Carol is undertaking an exciting and challenging role developing the property service for Capita Symonds in partnership with North Tyneside Council.

Looking at new, innovative ways of managing the Local Authority property portfolio in conjunction with other public sector organisations to identify savings and make efficiencies in the way property is managed, and in particular starting to work more closely with Central Government.

Carol also works throughout the country with Capita Symonds property teams looking to add value and innovation to the way they deliver property services in their public sector partnerships.

Carol developed her skills extensively in the public sector, where she has improved business processes, driven out waste, and created more effective and responsive property related services. A key strength has been Carol’s ability to work with clients, evaluating their requirements, understanding their service needs and ensuring that they receive an excellent property service delivering value for money.

Mark Tailby, Head of Local Government Property Consulting: Turner & Townsend

Mark joined Turner & Townsend after working at Oxfordshire County Council as Head of Property and Asset Management where he led the introduction of a new way of delivering property services. This resulted in the largest local government outsourcing of its kind. Mark now leads the local government property consulting team and is currently working with the London Boroughs of Ealing and Waltham Forest, and Buckinghamshire County Council.

Please note speakers are subject to change

Chair: Professor Duane Passman, Director of 3Ts: Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust Duane, originally an Astrophysicist, has worked on major investment programmes and projects in the NHS for almost 25 years utilising public funding and PFI. He has worked on some of the largest projects in the NHS, being directly involved in well over £1 billion of investment to date. He joined Brighton & Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust in August 2008 as the Programme Director for the development of teaching, trauma and tertiary services (“3Ts”) which will result in a £400m+ redevelopment. In September 2009 he assumed responsibility for the Estates and Facilities Management portfolios across the Trust. He is a Visiting Professor in the School of the Built Environment at the University of Salford, which is a 6* rated research institute and has recently been made the Chair of the Steering Committee of the Salford Centre for Research and Innovation. He has published and presented widely on healthcare planning and capital investment in the UK and internationally.
Stuart Ladds, Head of National Property Controls: Government Property Unit Stuart Ladds is a career civil servant whose travels have taken him from the DWP, HMCS, MoJ, OGC, the Shareholder Executive in BIS and currently leads the Cabinet Office Efficiency Reform Group spending controls team delivering property savings. Last year, he was the SRO for government’s property benchmarking service (the largest of its kind in the world), the SRO for the 2010 parliamentary report “The State of the Estate” and remains SRO for government’s residual estate He's a jointly Chartered Institute of Building/College of Estate Management certified Construction Project Sponsor and a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors and has spent the last five years prior to his current appointment, leading the government relocation programme which arose from the Sir Michael Lyons report on the location of civil servants. He has been a part-time speaker on construction and change management issues for the National School for Government and was on the review group of the OGC/APM P3O product. He has extensive experience of consulting for overseas governments, including Japan, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Western Cape (SA) and South Korea. He is a regular contributor to the Parliamentary Report “The State of the Estate” 2008-11 and is currently an advisor to the Megaproject Research Group, School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.
Thomas Fleming DipSurv MRICS, Property Manager: ACCESS LLP and President: ACES
Anna Hutchings, Head of Client Development: DVS Anna has worked for the VOA for over 35 year developing a wealth of experience and knowledge in public property in all aspects of valuation. Specialising in DVS services from 1995, Anna served as District Valuer South East for seven years up to 2008.With a team of over 100 staff providing a wide range of property services and advice to central and local government, transport and infrastructure and the NHS. Currently appointed as Head of Client Development and working in the London Chief Executives office. Responsibilities include supporting delivery of DVS national property services across the UK, and liaising with major departments in Whitehall, and the devolved governments in Scotland and Wales for efficient and effective property advice / delivery in support of government property policy. Anna takes the lead on DVS contract and framework submissions, as well as service level agreements with central government departments seeking cost reductions and efficiencies required of government initiatives against the background political and economic climate. Contributes and speaks at many public events and public sector property forums, including conferences led by the GPU and ACES. Since 2010, Anna has been a member of the RICS public sector executive group that produces advice and guidance on emerging policy for publicly owned property e.g., strategic asset management, collaboration, asset backed vehicles.
Colin Proctor, Director of Asset Management: Scottish Futures Trust Colin is a Director at SFT and leads their Scotland-wide public sector programme on property asset management. SFT's remit, set by Scottish Government, is to champion a strategic approach and take forward a programme of change supporting and challenging public bodies to deliver a step change in improved property asset management. Part of this is to facilitate collaborative planning and property rationalisation between different public bodies. Colin is a Chartered Surveyor with more than 25 years experience in property and construction.
David Seath, Head of Central Services: Lothian and Borders Police David Seath joined the public sector from industry in 1995 when he was appointed by Lothian and Borders Police as Head of Central Services Department. This post is responsible for managing the physical assets of the organisation. In turn, the department is organised through three branches (Estates, Fleet and Procurement). Within a few years he established a forum for property professionals across the Scottish Police Service to meet and discuss relevant property-related matters. Since its inauguration, David has been the Chair of the Estates Management Forum. David also represents the interests of the Scottish Police Service on the National Police Estates Group, which covers all forces across the UK and Northern Ireland. During his employment with the police David has acted as the Programme Manager for several large construction projects, which have resulted in major changes in working practices. These projects have unlocked the door to modern methods of working and given the stimulus to seeking better performance from our physical assets. Following on from one of these projects, he presented a co-location case study to the Public Sector Property & Estates Conference held in Glasgow and published a paper on the West Lothian Civic Centre in the Asset Management Journal. In 2011, with the announcement of Police Reform in Scotland, he was selected to lead the initial work on designing the estates service for the new Police Service of Scotland. This work cumulated in proposals to radically reform the Estates function within the Police Service. Lately, he has assumed responsibility for the Estates, Fleet and Procurement workstreams of Police Reform and is now driving forward the implementation plan for the new service, which commences on 1 April 2013.
Richard Baker, Head of Estates Services: Welsh Government Richard is Head of Estates within Property Division at the Welsh Government. He is a General Practice Chartered Surveyor by profession and has been with the Welsh Government for 10 years. He was previously employed by the Valuation Office (Executive Agency of the Inland Revenue) as a Senior Valuer. As Head of Estates within Property Division he has responsibility for leading a team that delivers professional property advice on all aspects of property estate management in respect of the Welsh Government Administrative estate and other departments in respect of all property related matters. He is also a member of the National Assets Working Group and has lead on the establishment of an All-Wales Public Sector Property database (ePIMS Lite) and the development of the Land Transfer Protocol, a best practice guide for the transfer of assets between public bodies in Wales.
Scott Wilson, Head of Asset Management Unit: Strategic Investment Board NI Scott joined as Head of Asset Management Unit (AMU) in September 2011. AMU was established by the Northern Ireland Executive with the responsibility to help departments deliver additional value through more efficient management of public assets. The AMU’s remit is broad and extends beyond land and accommodation assets to include specialist assets such as housing. Prior to taking up this role, he worked for Quintain Estates and Development PLC as a Fund Manager in their Asset Management business and was tasked with helping them grow their funds under management from £1bn to £2bn within 3 years. From 2006 to 2010, Scott was a Strategic Adviser within the SIB providing advice to Ministers in areas such as asset management, regeneration, housing investment and private finance initiatives. Before joining SIB, Scott spent 15 years in the development, investment and construction sectors both in the UK and overseas. Scott is originally from Liverpool and moved to Northern Ireland in 2003.
Jonathan Fearn, Head of Corporate Property: Carmarthenshire County Council, and Chair of Welsh Branch: ACES Jonathan has been Head of Corporate Property at Carmarthenshire County Council for nine years. He is an RICS Registered Valuer and has been a Chartered Planning & Development Surveyor for over twenty years. He was previously Property Manager for the Church in Wales, Planning & Development Surveyor for Jones Lang Wootton and started his career at Berkshire County Council. Jonathan has been Chairman of the Welsh Branch of ACES and Convenor of the Estates and Asset Management Group of the Consortium of Local Authorities in Wales (CLAW) for five years. He is also a member of the Welsh Government’s National Assets Working Group and is leading a workstream seeking to procure or develop a single property management database for the Welsh public sector. Jonathan leads a 50-strong estates, asset management and facilities team at Carmarthenshire County Council and has recently overseen a strategic review of the Council’s estate in partnership with other public and third sector organisations in the county.
Brian Ablett MRICS CENV MPWI, Property Consultant: Leeds City Council After qualifying, Brian worked as an estate manager for government property. All property types were encountered... agricultural land and farms, distribution depots, airfields and defence establishments but especially offices, and in large numbers. Working in a team, the holdings in whole towns and cities were reviewed and systematic strategies were developed and implemented. Later Brian was head hunted to work on regeneration and to bring a property aspect into government policy development: housing, the regional economy, crime prevention and rural development were covered. Moving to Leeds City Council, he focussed on the 1m sq ft Eastgate retail scheme, particularly developing the CPO. Brian now works as an in-house consultant, integrating property with economic development. The last year has seen him developing and leading the joint work with Bradford Council on "smart cities".