Propertyshe Podcast

John was appointed as Chairman of Related Argent on 1 May 2025. This follows his appointment as a Strategic Advisor to the board in May 2024 to advise on and support the continued expansion and reach of the business. 

He is also Chairman of Innovo Real Estate Development, the development arm of international construction company Innovo. 

John is a renowned senior global executive and accomplished CEO, most recently Group CEO and President at Cushman and Wakefield, where he led the business for more than a decade.  

Prior to that, he was Group CEO at DTZ before it merged with Cushman & Wakefield in 2015. 

John brings a wealth of experience that spans all aspects of property investment, development and management.  

Over a 35-year career he has worked on some of the most high-profile projects both in the UK and globally. He has also worked closely with Related Argent colleagues during Cushman & Wakefield’s 15-year tenure as office leasing agent for the King’s Cross estate. 

John is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and past President of the British Council for Offices (2016-17).  

Elliott Sparsis is the founder and CEO of TOGETHER, a human-first meetings, events, and venue brand in London. 

Elliott is a property entrepreneur and hospitality specialist whose career has spanned investment, real estate, flexible workspace and events. 

Elliott began his career in property and investment, including a period at Blackstone, before moving into the rapidly evolving world of hospitality led work and event space. 

He played a key role in bringing New York based Convene to London and went on to become CEO of Cavendish Venues. 

Elliott has now embarked on his latest venture, TOGETHER — a new hospitality-led meetings and events business that aims to rethink how people come together in the workplace and how landlords can create more valuable, experience-led buildings. 

James Burchell is Co-Founder and Partner of Tellon Capital, a real estate investment company he established with Ben Hamburger in 2014. Since its formation, Tellon Capital has invested more than £300 million in Central London office and retail assets. 

James has 40 years’ experience in real estate. He began his career at Hirshfield’s in 1986, specialising in auctions and investment, before becoming a founding member of niche commercial investment agency Lewis and Partners in 1994. 

In 2000, he established Faircroft Real Estate in partnership with Arrowcroft, completing transactions with a value exceeding £100 million. During the global financial crisis, he helped create a substantial asset management business dealing with distressed assets on behalf of a range of financial institutions. He subsequently became Chief Executive Officer of Arrowcroft following its acquisition of Faircroft in 2012. 

James left Arrowcroft in 2013 to establish Phoenix Real Estate, a multi-family real estate investment vehicle. 

Throughout his career, James has led office refurbishment and redevelopment projects across the UK’s major cities. His work is now focused primarily on London. 

He is a qualified chartered surveyor.

Thomasin Renshaw is Managing Director – UK Development and leads the Greystar UK Development and Construction teams. She is responsible for leading their UK development strategy across build to rent (BTR) and purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA). 

She joined from Pocket Living, where she served as Chief Development Officer overseeing its entire pipeline of major London schemes including the award-winning Sheepcote Road in Harrow and Atlas Wharf in Old Oak.  

Her earlier roles at Grosvenor and Muse Developments established a strong track record in regeneration and public–private partnership, working with local authorities and institutional stakeholders to unlock major development opportunities, including the two-acre South Molton Triangle in Mayfair.  

She has over 20 years of experience leading complex residential and mixed-use regeneration projects across London and the UK. 

Will is the co-founder and CEO of Orbital, a legal AI platform built for the real estate industry. 

Founded in 2018, Orbital sits at the centre of property transactions, automating the legal work that has traditionally been slow and manual and connecting the parties who depend on it.  

It now handles over 200,000 transactions a year for some of the UK's top law firms including Mishcon de Reya and works directly with the real estate businesses behind those deals: the developers, owner-operators, investors and REITs shaping the built environment.  

By bringing law firms and their clients onto a single platform, Orbital is building the infrastructure for how real estate gets bought, sold and financed.  

It opened a New York office in 2025 and, in January, raised a $60 million Series B to scale further across the US. 

Anette Simpson is Director of Developments and Partnerships at L&G's Affordable Homes Division one of the UK’s leading registered providers, delivering high-quality, tenure-diverse communities at scale through long-term institutional investment.

She leads the development and delivery of L&G's growing national portfolio, overseeing developments from concept to completion, and plays a key role in shaping places that support thriving communities.

Anette also leads on sustainability, driving L&G's ambition to deliver net zero carbon homes in operation by 2030. A chartered urban planner with extensive experience in complex residential developments, Anette is passionate about creating well-designed, sustainable homes that leave a lasting positive impact

Faisal Butt is the Founder & Managing Partner of Pi Labs, one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms focused on AI and technology transforming real estate and the built world. Since founding the firm in 2014, he has led investments in ~100 companies across 17+ countries, achieving 20+ exits, and backing founders redefining how real estate and real assets are designed, built and operated.

He is also the Founder of Spire Ventures, his principal investment platform focused on scaling and aggregating real asset–backed operating businesses across sectors including property services, infrastructure and asset management.

With a background spanning venture capital, private equity and entrepreneurship, Faisal has built, scaled and exited businesses while investing across both high-growth technology and traditional real assets. His work sits at the intersection of AI, infrastructure and real estate, with a focus on backing category-defining companies and platforms globally.

He holds an MBA with Distinction from the University of Oxford and a degree in Business Economics and Computer Science from UCLA.

James is the Group Director of Strategy and Planning at leading Master Developer, Urban & Civic.  

The company was specifically created 15 years ago to disrupt the established approach to the promotion and delivery of large scale residential led Strategic Sites. 

James qualified as a barrister before advising the Government on planning issues and cross-qualifying as a solicitor.  

Prior to being one of the founder members of Urban&Civic, James was part of the senior executive team of Lend Lease Europe with responsibility for town planning and risk management.  

Within Urban&Civic, James heads up strategy, planning and communications.  

Having previously served as a non-executive director of East Thames Housing association and sat on the Development Committee of L&Q, James is currently a senior advisor to Dorrington PLC and a non-executive of Natural England. 

Jessica has worked in real estate investment for over 20 years – starting out her career at BNP Paribas, before joining Deutsche Bank’s real estate funds business in 2004. She enjoyed a successful, varied career with Deutsche Bank and DWS; first leading transaction teams culminating in €12bn of transactions, and subsequently running European fund management for international investors.

Jessica was a pioneer and trusted portfolio manager for the wave of inward capital flows from Asian institutional clients from 2011. She built a multi-billion assets under management (AuM) business for Deutsche Bank, utilising her skills in business building, leadership and investment solutions. In 2023, she became the CEO of DWS UK, overseeing 500 staff and over €200bn AuM across Global Alternatives and Passive public market strategies.

As CEO and Co-Founder of Aboria Capital, her ambition is to create an innovative, leading vertically integrated partner for investors in the European Living sector market. In July 2024, Jessica became the President of the British Property Federation (BPF) and joined the board of INREV.

Marc is co-founder of Pocket Living, where he was CEO for 20 years and is now Chair.  

In 2017 Marc was awarded an OBE for services to housing delivery.  

Pocket was London’s first private developer of affordable starter homes. The company has delivered some 2000 homes with another 1000+ in the pipeline. Pocket’s innovation lies in combining purposeful and affordable high-quality design for single and couple households with a policy and brand approach that allows it to tap into both public and private finance.  

In 2016 the US real estate major Related Companies became its major shareholder. 

Prior to Pocket, Marc worked in the media and entertainment sectors as CEO of Crescent Entertainment, owners of theatres and cinemas. He also produced and wrote a number of award-winning feature films.  

He started his career at County NatWest, where he became an assistant director in corporate finance with responsibility for corporate work in the Benelux and in the media sectors. 

Marc also chairs ProVen Growth & Income VCT, one of the UK’s largest VCTs and is Senior Partner at Namier Capital, a London-based advisory firm that leverages its investment and corporate finance expertise across businesses in Energy Transition, Healthcare and the Creative Industries. 

Marc maintains his sanity by playing the saxophone (jazz).