Propertyshe Podcast

Founder and CEO of Hilltop Capital Partners. Paul has been at the forefront of starting successful real estate businesses; an investment professional with a core expertise and 30-year track record in property development, asset management and financial structuring; transacting as an independent over £1 billion in the UK and Continental European real estate markets. 
 
Paul’s career spans working as a floor trader on Wall Street in the 1980s to building one of the preeminent fully integrated property firms across CEE. In 1991 he took a trip to Eastern Europe where he ended up building the credit department of a major eastern European bank. In 1993 he built his first apartment; that single transaction grew to be one the largest fully integrated real estate advisory and investment businesses in Central and Eastern Europe called Ober-Haus working across 7 countries with a team of 350 professionals. Until 2010, he was Chairman of Hauser-Oberschneider; a developer and operating partner working with international and private equity real estate firms building housing, grocery anchored retail centres and a boutique hotel chain across CEE. Paul was famously known for selling his real estate portfolios and business pre GFC in 2008. 

Coming out of retirement, Paul founded Hilltop Capital Partners in the UK four years ago, a private markets specialist residential development financing partner for established residential developers and house builders across the U.K. Paul has also recently founded Hilltop Property Partners with Michela Hancock, former Greystar MD to deliver new build attainable multifamily housing across the UK and Europe. 

Nick is Chief Executive of NLA, which he co-founded with Peter Murray in 2005. 

Nick leads the NLA’s culture and values; fostering key relationships; developing new business areas & partnerships. He leads on the annual London Real Estate Forum and is Co-chair of the Opportunity London Partnership.

Chief Executive Officer at Thriving Investments Team 

Cath joined in January 2023 to lead on increasing funds under management alongside the delivery of social impact, augmenting the existing fund management platform across high-quality affordable housing, private-rented residential and urban regeneration strategies. She was previously Executive Director for Strategy and Investment at property development and investment specialist Quintain. Cath has 30 years of real estate experience across private equity, fund management and investment banking. She has an MBA from INSEAD and is a Member of the BPF’s Living Council, a Member of the RICS and Trustee (and former Co-Chair) for the Creative Land Trust. 

Sherin has very recently become became the Ministry of Defence's first director of Growth and Missions, implementing the Government’s Plan for Change, ensuring the uplift in Defence spending is driving growth across the UK and setting the direction for investment in Defence. 

Prior to that she was the MOD's first Director of Infrastructure, responsible for the strategic oversight of both global and domestic infrastructure and the Defence Estate Optimisation Portfolio worth over £5bn.  

She is also the MOD Race Champion, where her aim is to promote and champion ethnic diversity in the department, supporting colleagues from different backgrounds.  

Sherin's previous roles include Head of Commercial Office business at Lendlease, where she was responsible for a range of regeneration projects, in Stratford, Silvertown and Euston, with a gross development value of over £5bn.  

In Whitehall, she held the dual role of Head of Government Property Unit and Head of Property Profession and Function for the Civil Service.  

She is an architect by background and has led large scale infrastructure and regeneration projects around the globe.  

Sherin is also a trustee of the Imperial War Museum and won the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in the inaugural Real Estate, Infrastructure and Construction Category.  

Recently she was awarded an honorary doctorate from UCEM for contributions to the built environment.  

When she is not working in Defence she enjoys drawing. 

Ian Rickwood, Founder & CEO of Henley Group 

Ian Rickwood is a seasoned investor and serial entrepreneur with experience across geography and markets. He founded and became CEO of Henley in 2006 growing the business into the broad Investment business it is today creating many new successful ventures in that time. Prior to Henley he managed and grew two retail companies, one complete start up between 1996 and 2006 along with a private real estate company and a consultancy business, providing strategic advice and insight to large consumer good companies globally. Ian has a degree in economics and started life in the corporate world with Procter and Gamble, later moving to PepsiCo where he was the European Sales Marketing Director. 

Bishoy has been with Innovo from its inception and is the driving force behind Innovo’s core principle of harnessing the smartest technology and innovative sustainability practices to create positive disruption across the traditional construction and real estate sectors. 

Mark was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of The Government Property Agency in October 2024, heading up a 400-strong team that aims to transform how the civil service works and what its real estate portfolio looks like.

He is an established corporate leader with over 30 years of strategic and operational real estate experience across asset management, investment, development and operations. 

Mark was previously Managing Director UK and Ireland at Hammerson plc, Executive Director at Capital & Regional plc and Interim Corporate Director City Development at Liverpool City Council. 

He studied Industrial Economics at Nottingham University and began his career in Audit at KPMG.

Allan Lockhart is Chief Executive of NewRiver REIT. 

He has over 35 years’ experience in the UK retail real estate market. 

Having started his career with Strutt & Parker in 1988 advising major property companies and institutions on retail leasing, investment and development, in 2002, Allan was appointed Retail Director of Halladale Plc focusing on acquiring value add opportunities in UK retail real estate.  

Following the successful sale of Halladale Plc in early 2007, Allan co-founded NewRiver and served as Property Director from its IPO until being appointed CEO in 2018. 

Samantha McClary, Former editor Estates Gazette, Chief Executive of the British Council for Offices 

Until recently Editor of Estates Gazette, Sam's new role is as Chief Executive of the British Council for Offices. 

Sam McClary has more than two decades of experience in the UK real estate sector. She spent the first 24 years of her career as a journalist and editor, with an introduction to the property sector through a specialism in hotel and leisure reporting. In 2004 she took up a role as a rookie reporter at Estates Gazette, first covering the retail and leisure sector. Over the following 20 years she moved her way up through the ranks of EG, building connections with key players across the real estate sector and broadening her coverage to include the key issues facing the industry and the core ways the sector contributes to the UK’s economy and prosperity. She took over as editor of EG in 2019 and held the position until January 2025 when the business was sold to family-owned publishing house Mark Allen Group. 

Sam is best known in the industry for being a fierce champion and challenger to the real estate sector, utilising her platform to help showcase the good that real estate can and does do for people, planet and UK PLC while poking the sector to continue to improve in key areas such as diversity and inclusion, environmental and societal impact and technological advancement. 

Sam is a particularly vocal supporter of ED&I in the industry and of unlocking and attracting talent from places the industry may not have traditionally gone looking. Among her proudest achievements is the launch and development of the Future Leaders programme, which gave powerful voices to underrepresented groups in the built environment, enabling them to tell stories of the true impact that real estate has on all of our lives. 

In early 2025, Sam was appointed as chief executive of the British Council for Offices, a key industry body representing the workplace sector and the diverse set of players that bring this vital element of the UK built and business environment to life. She takes up the role from 6 May and plans to continue to be both champion and challenger for the sector as it continues through this most transformative period. 

Sam also sits on the advisory board of Black Women in Real Estate. 

CEO of HUB, Robert Sloss, has been an entrepreneur in property and development for over 25 years. During this time, Robert has created a series of real estate investment and development platforms, primarily in the residential and office sectors. Robert has a passion for vibrant urban living and the need for the built environment to reflect changing human demand. As a result, HUB was one of the first developers to recognise that changing UK work practices would drive the need to repurpose redundant office buildings, for living uses. 

Robert co-founded HUB in 2012, and over time it has become a leading UK BTR-led residential developer, with more than 9,600 homes completed or under development across the UK. A pioneer of both BTR and co-living in the UK, HUB continues to deliver industry-leading developments, including the award-winning Queen’s Quarter in Croydon; One Maidenhead, a major mixed-use regeneration scheme in Maidenhead town centre; and the Yardhouse co-living scheme at Wood Lane. 

HUB’s adaptive reuse strategy, in line with its commitment to urban regeneration and sustainability, continues to bear fruit. As well as Cornerstone in the Barbican, the first co-living planning consent in the City of London, HUB has Assemblies in Minories, which it hopes will be the City’s second co-living consent. HUB believes that co-living is particularly well suited to the City, with its long working hours and significant transitory, international workforce.