Tuesday 17th March 2020

Myles O'Brien

Aitchison Raffety

Myles is Head of our Business Rating division and is responsible for the co-ordination of business rate appeal strategy.  This includes organising liability budgets, reviewing opportunities to   mitigate liability and negotiating with the Valuation Office Agency.

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A Chartered Surveyor with over 25 years’ experience, Myles deals with a wide range of property types in both the residential and commercial sectors.  As well as leading Aitchison Raffety’s Business Rates Division, Myles currently provides a focal point for the tracking and monitoring of changes to rating legislation in England and Wales, and advising accordingly. With expertise in specialist property, he is able to provide articulate, measured and reasoned rating advice to our clients. 

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Myles will be discussing Business Rates during his presentation

Tuesday 21st April 2020

Francis West

Cyber Security

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Tuesday 12th May 2020

Raed Hanna

Mutual Finance

Raed Hanna graduated from City University, London and has a BSc and MSc Degree.

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In 1984, Raed Hanna established a financial services group, City Financial, with eight other people. The business quickly grew with offices opening throughout the United Kingdom. By the time the business was sold in 1999, it had nearly 2000 people under employment.

In 1998, Raed Hanna established Mutual Finance, another financial services group, to cater to high-net-worth individuals. Mutual Finance has quickly become one of the largest property finance intermediary in the sector, with drawn down funds of more than £1bn per annum and gained respect within the banking community.  It is typically involved in the financing of the most high profile properties in the United Kingdom and Internationally along with project finance and infrastructure projects again, in the UK and Internationally.  Mutual Finance has countless contacts in these industries

Thursday 18th June 2020

Paul Joseph

Strettons 

Paul works in the Receivership Department at Strettons. He is a professional member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, RICS Registered Valuer and an Associate Director of Strettons, having joined the company in 2013.

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He specialises in the valuation of a wide variety of commercial and residential property types and has valued a number of residential-led development schemes for both private developers and housing associations.  Paul also specialises in the valuation of affordable housing. Paul also takes appointments as a Fixed Charge Law of Property Act Receiver.

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Prior to joining Strettons, Paul worked at Welbeck Investment Management where he advised a number of high net worth clients on the acquisition of high value residential properties in Central London. During this time, he also worked with a leading developer on a feasibility of a scheme comprising 500 units in east London and other regeneration schemes in north London.

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In his spare time, Paul serves on an advisory board of Langdon, a charity specialising in helping those with learning disabilities. He also enjoys going to the theatre, going to the many restaurants in London, swimming and skiing.

Tuesday 14th July 2020

Speaker Required

Please email if you would like to speak

Thursday 17th September 2020

Ian Marcus

Senior Advisor, Eastdil Secured

Ian graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1981 with a degree in Land Economy. Ian was in the banking industry for over 32 years having previously worked for Bank of America, UBS, NatWest and Bankers Trust/Deutsche, always focusing on the real estate industry. Ian joined Credit Suisse First Boston in 1999 to establish the Real Estate Group, and became Managing Director and Chairman of the European Real Estate Investment Banking.

Ian is a Trustee of the Prince’s Foundation, a Crown Estate Commissioner, a member of Redevco’s Advisory Board, the Senior Independent Director for both Secure Income REIT and Shurgard Self Storage, and a Non Executive Director for Town Centre Securities Plc. He was appointed as a Senior Consultant to Eastdil Secured in 2013. He is also President of the Cambridge University Land Society and a Senior Advisor to the two new Businesses, Work Life and Elysian Residences. Ian is also a past President of the British Property Federation, past Chairman of the Investment Property Forum and for 10 years chaired the Bank of England Commercial Property Forum.

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Tuesday 20th October 2020

Alan Hecht

The Businees Train Ltd

Alan Hecht is the Managing Director of The Business Train Ltd (TBT). Having been in the computer industry for over 40 years he not only has a grasp of IT systems and is able to give advice as how to proceed for the future, he provides excellent customer service. When GDPR was being introduced, he set about helping companies become compliant without taking advantage of huge fees being charged by some consultants. TBT now supports various clients with their GDPR obligations and assists should there be any breaches. It is very important that compliance is kept up to date in the form of policy updates and training of new and existing staff.

Thursday 19th November 2020

David Tomback

Historic England

David qualified as a chartered surveyor in 1974 spending a number of years with various firms of chartered surveyors carrying out a wide range of professional work, particularly in connection with development projects.  He later joined a firm of private developers and then became the in-house property adviser to an American bank.  In 1987 he joined a Swiss owned property development and investment company and helped to run the company until 1991 when he formed his own practice. 

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In April 1993 he joined English Heritage, now Historic England, where he has a wide remit.  This includes providing in-house commercial property advice to the organisation; advice on levels of grants; listed building consents, especially in respect of enabling development situations and re-use of redundant historic buildings and the economics of conservation.  He has given expert evidence at public inquires including Smithfield and Greenside.  He has been involved in three significant economic studies, namely “The Investment Performance of Listed Buildings”, “The Listing of Buildings - the effect on value” and “The Value of Conservation”.  Recently David was responsible for “Heritage Works – The use of historic buildings in regeneration”. 

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David instigated the English Heritage Policy on Enabling Development and more recently chaired the working group involved in producing Historic England’s Good Practice Advice Note (4) on Enabling Development.  He was a member of the National Audit Office panel of expert valuers reporting on the disposal of NHS Estate properties, he is currently a member of the RICS International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board Task Force on Accounting for Heritage.  David is a dissertation tutor and visiting lecturer at the College of Estate Management and Bath, Bristol, Oxford Brookes and Birmingham City universities.

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David is married with two grown up children and two grandchildren.  His interests are fishing, British military and naval history and arms and armour.  He still manages to swim competitively!

Thursday 10th December 2020

Yair Daren

Security Risk Specialists

Security Risk Specialists was founded in 2016 by Yair Daren.

Yair has over 20 years of security experience, both in the public and private sectors. With operational expertise in protecting physical facilities – from warehouses and multi-use office buildings to residential buildings and private homes – events security, counter-terrorism, and protecting diplomatic staff and high-profile organisations, combining close co-operation with the police where warranted.

Prior to arriving in the UK, Yair was a lieutenant in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), where he was responsible for commanding many front-line operations.

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Security Risk Specialists offers a broad range of services, including:

• protection of high-profile institutions

• close protection for individuals and groups

• security for hotels

• dog security

• residential security

• security for conferences & major events

• protection of schools and high-profile organisations

• protection for luxury brands and high-end retailers

• office and property protection, including concierge services

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Yair is a dual British and Israeli national, and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics & Social Policy from the University of London. Yair’s intelligent approach to security ensures the delivery of excellent, bespoke service to every client.