Real Estate: Annual 2025 Conference

Hans Vrensen

European Head of Research and Strategy

AEW

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-vrensen-5495b810/

Hans Vrensen, is a managing director heading AEW’s award-winning European Research & Strategy team and a member of the European Executive Committee and Investment Committees. He has 30 years of international commercial real estate capital markets experience and previously worked at Green Street, DTZ/C&W, Barclays, Moody’s, LaSalle IM and C&L/PwC. 

Matthieu LeFort

Director - European Real Estate Debt

Barings

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthieu-lefort-598a268a/

Matthieu Lefort is a Director in Barings Alternative Investments, a global real estate, private equity and real assets platform. Matthieu works within the European Real Estate Debt team and is responsible for the origination, underwriting and closing of new debt investments, including senior loans, whole loans and development finance. He has 7 years of international commercial real estate lending experience and previously worked at BNP Paribas and LaSalle IM.

Henri Vuong

Head of Debt Investment Research

PGIM

https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrivuong/

Henri Vuong is an Executive Director and Head of Debt Investment Research at PGIM Real Estate, where she is responsible for leading and developing global real estate debt investment research and providing strategic insights to advance the industry. She has held previous roles with INREV, Royal Bank of Scotland (now Natwest) and PRUPIM (now M&G Real Estate), and is currently the Chair of the DEI Committee for CREFC Europe.

Mohamed Ali

Director - Strategic Insights and Research

Nuveen

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-ali-720/

Mohamed is a director within the Strategic Insights and Research team at Nuveen Real Estate, with a particular focus on providing quantitative research across all sectors and debt. Mohamed is responsible for developing market intelligence and quantitative tools that provide the team with insight on market, asset, and regional trends. He is also responsible for the production of thought pieces and whitepapers to inform internal and external stakeholders.

Prior to this, Mohamed lead the global real estate debt research at DRC SIM, producing research to support company expansion into multiple regions and strategies as well as providing investors with regular market updates. Mohamed’s expertise spans all debt strategies across corporate, real estate and infrastructure.

Mohamed holds a PhD in Astro-particle physics from the University of Leeds and an MSc in Astrophysics from the University of Bristol.

Kieran Farrelly

Head of Real Estate Global Solutions

Schroders

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieran-farrelly-166a5418/?originalSubdomain=uk

James Cooke

Investment Director

Global Holdings

https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-cooke-47812637/

With 15 years of experience at top global investment management platforms like Standard Life Investments and M&G Real Estate, I now play a pivotal role at a major single-family office that boasts a burgeoning global real estate portfolio worth over £6 billion. I've personally handled over £5 billion in commercial real estate transactions throughout my career across the UK, with a strong focus on Central London. 

As the Investment Director at Global Holdings, I oversee a £2 billion Central London real estate portfolio, scout for strategic investment opportunities with value-add or development potential, craft investment strategies, and explore new investment theses. Additionally, I mentor a ‘growing’ and dynamic team of ambitious real estate professionals and will be seeking a summer intern for 2025!” 

Robin Perrault

Head of Growth & Strategy

Built AI

https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinperrault/

Robin is Head of Growth & Strategy at Built AI, where he helps institutional investors leverage AI to enhance investment decisions. Prior to joining Built AI, Robin was a real estate investment professional (Moor Park Capital Partners, The Langham Estate), having analysed over £8bn in transactions across Europe. 



As an active early-stage investor (e.g. Revolut, Dataform), Robin brings together deep industry expertise and a strong understanding of technology, bridging the gap between traditional investment practices and next-generation technology. 

Edward Fray

Director - Occupier Sustainability

Turner and townsend

https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-fray/

Ed is a Director at Turner & Townsend who leads our Occupier Sustainability Team, as well as our Global Account for a major oil and gas client. 

 Having studied civil engineering, Ed started his career as a graduate project manager at Turner & Townsend in 2012 and since then has worked on major programmes and portfolios for large multi-national clients based in the UK and Middle East across all areas of the asset lifecycle. 

 Ed’s areas of interest include strategy, transformation and the application of systems thinking to complex problems – and there is no better example of this than designing and setting up programmes to help organisations meet their net zero and sustainability goals. 

 Some career highlights include standing at the very top of the Shard, being rescued from a tower crane at Chelsea Barracks, and being seconded to HM Treasury for a year in the Infrastructure UK Performance Team. 

Steve Lang

Director of Research

Savills

https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-lang-uk/

I joined Savills, within the UK commercial research team, in 2002 and have been working in the commercial real estate sector, as an analyst, since the mid-1990s. I’ve seen a few cycles! 

My research has helped to identify the future customer/tenant highlighting key global emerging trends that will impact the commercial real estate sector in a big way. This helps underwrite new and existing commercial real estate developments in London and across the UK. 

 

I also create market leading research in science and technology - sectors that I have been analysing for over 20 years.. 

Day-to-day, I’m dealing with queries coming from across the globe as well as running a team of four analysts. I have completed a wide variety of data and research consultancy projects, involving all real estate sectors, but primarily offices for investors, developers, owners and occupiers. 

Zafar Bhunnoo

CEO / Founder

Limitless Endeavours

https://www.linkedin.com/in/zafarb/