ALUMNI NETWORKING BREAKFAST - THE FUTURE OF THE PROPERTY SECTOR
WEDNESDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2021, 8.00AM - 9.00AM VIA ZOOM
A PANEL OF SIX ALUMNI SPEAKERS WILL LEAD THE DISCUSSIONS AT THIS VIRTUAL NETWORKING BREAKFAST FOR BOLTON SCHOOL ALUMNI.
At the event, Tim Corner, QC (Class of 1976) – Barrister; Lorna Cruice (née Jackson, Class of 1977) - Director, Appletons; Sian Kilner (Class of 1977) - Director, Kilner Planning; Bob Ogilvie (Class of 1977) - Director, AECOM; Business Unit Leader, London Project Management; David Seddon (Class of 1971) - Investment Surveyor and Roger Smith (Class of 1979) - Director (Planning), Savills will share their thoughts on the challenges posed to the sector by climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit and the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, and the opportunities each challenge presents. This will be followed by virtual breakout sessions in which all attending alumni will be encouraged to have their say and network virtually amongst themselves. This event will be of interest to all Alumni working, or with an interest in, the property sector, and particularly to younger Alumni starting to build their careers and looking to expand their professional networks.
Full biographies of all six panellists can be read below. To register for this event, which is free of charge, email [email protected] by Friday 17 September 2021.
Speakers’ Biographies
Tim Corner, QC (Class of 1976) – Barrister
Tim left Bolton School in 1976, and read Law at Magdalen College, Oxford. Tim is a barrister specialising in planning, compulsory purchase and public law. His planning work includes housing, heritage, retail, office and mining projects. A recent example is the Southbank Place development now being constructed behind the London Eye.
Tim also sits part-time as a judge, in the High Court and the Criminal courts (including the Old Bailey). He is a past chairman of the Planning and Environment Bar Association and of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Panel on Standards for the Planning Inspectorate.
Much as he loves the law, he would rather have been a great opera singer, but not everyone can be Luciano Pavarotti.
Lorna Cruice (née Jackson, Class of 1977) - Director, Appletons (Landscape Architects and Environmental Consultants)
Lorna has spent over 35 years working as a professional chartered landscape architect and arboriculturalist. After leaving Bolton School in 1977, she read Landscape Architecture at Leeds Beckett University, followed by a two year post graduate sandwich course at the same university. After a short stint in local government, she gained her final professional exam to achieve chartered status and moved into private practice in Bolton, where she has remained since.
During her career, Lorna has had responsibility for the design and implementation of a broad range of urban and rural developments for both public and private sector clients, including work on urban regeneration and on projects including new village settlements, leisure, residential, commercial, industrial and mental healthcare related developments. She has considerable experience in Environmental Impact Assessment and Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments, acts as an expert witness in Planning Inquiries and advises a wide range of clients in matters of environmental legislation and planning. She is particularly interested in projects involving sensitive ecological habitats and protected species and with mitigation and conservation management requirements, and has expanded the practice to encompass ecology services. She has also trained as an arboriculturalist, and enjoys nothing better than being out in the field carrying out assessments and assisting with bat surveys!
Sian Kilner (Class of 1977) - Director, Kilner Planning
Sian was at Bolton School from 1970 to 1977. After leaving School, she studied Geography at Oxford University and then went to UCL to do an MPhil in town planning.
Sian is a chartered surveyor and planner who has worked in both the public and private sectors. After starting her career in local government with local planning authorities in Oxfordshire, she worked in London, where she qualified as a chartered surveyor through the College of Estate Management, subsequently becoming a partner in Strategic Property Consultancy with GVA Grimley (now part of Avison Young). She moved to become Head of Planning and Development at Smith Woolley (now part of Savills) before setting up Kilner Planning nearly 20 years ago, which focuses on strategic property advice, space planning and space management, primarily in the education sector.
Outside work, a grant from the Scott Trust in the Upper Sixth enabled Sian to join a Brathay expedition to Iceland in the final school summer holiday and led to a lifelong love of travel, especially to remote places. Sian lives in Oxford and is married with a grown up son and daughter.
Bob Ogilvie (Class of 1977) - Director, AECOM; Business Unit Leader, London Project Management
Bob left Bolton School in 1977 to read Civil Engineering at Imperial College, London. He became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1984, immediately afterwards taking the opportunity to work overseas in the United Arab Emirates.
Apart from 5 years working as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse, he has spent his career in the property and construction industry. He has been employed as a client, a consultant and a contractor so has a rounded insight into the workings of the industry.
The project which has given him the most satisfaction and pride is the redevelopment of Broadcasting House in London for the BBC. He worked directly for the BBC to manage their prestigious new HQ building from a concept through to the opening of the first phase by Her Majesty The Queen.
Currently, Bob works with AECOM (a global multi-disciplinary consultancy company) leading the London Project Management team of 100 project managers. His clients come from the residential, office, healthcare, occupier and education sectors and include the Government Property Agency, Union Bank of Switzerland, British Land, City of London and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
David Seddon (Class of 1971) – Investment Surveyor
David left Bolton School in 1971 as School Captain and qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1979 after 5 years at the Bolton District Valuation Office, part of the Inland Revenue.
He joined Jones Lang Wootton, international property advisers, (later in 1999 Jones Lang LaSalle) in 1981 in Germany where he worked as a valuation surveyor in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf until 1986 when he returned to JLW in the UK. Since then he has worked as an investment surveyor based in London but operating in continental Europe with cross border private and institutional investors, founding the property industry’s first pan European advisory network with JLW in 1990.
After leaving JLL in 2005 where he was an international director of the firm, David was European Chief Investment Officer and main board member with the Teesland iOG group, the UK’s only publicly quoted fund manager at the time. He set up institutional property funds in Scandinavia and Germany, and was appointed their fund manager.
In 2009, David set up his own European consultancy business and finally retired in 2015.
At JLL, David ran a program of professional development workshops over many years for young surveyors across Europe, and later he developed his mentoring skills further by working with a London based charity for single parents. Since 2017, David has run the Old Boltonians’ mentoring program (FYP) with Peter Acton, a contemporary at Bolton School.
Roger Smith (Class of 1979) - Director (Planning), Savills
Roger was at Bolton School between 1972 and 1979. He lived in Westhoughton and after school he studied Town and Country Planning at Manchester University. He has worked as a town planner for over 37 years in local government, housebuilding and in consultancy. Roger is a Planning Director for Savills in Oxford where he has worked since 2007. He lives in Swindon with his wife Zoe. They have three children, a daughter who works in London, a son who works in Israel and his twin brother who is studying at university in London. Outside work, Roger is a local Borough Councillor and Parish Councillor. He is also involved in the work of his local Parish Church.
