The first episode features Reza Merchant, CEO and Founder, The Collective, who speaks about his entrepreneurial journey, creating cultural destinations with a positive local impact, and his insights into personal growth.

The second episode features Tania Azad, Partner, Bohill Partners. She speaks about what she is doing to influence the progress of much-needed diversity in the real estate industry when advising her clients and how she is now beginning to see the issue being at the forefront of the business agenda. She highlights the differences in approach between public and private companies, and also what practical steps can be implemented to improve diversity across the industry where it is lagging behind.

The third episode features Jonathan Willén, CEO, Europi Property Group. He describes how five years at Blackstone combined with grad school experience at Harvard University gave him the confidence to immerse himself into more entrepreneurial ventures and launch Europi Property Group with Brunswick Real Estate. He explains how important exposure to large institutional practices were for his development, and ascribes his career path to date as key to his ability to leverage and transfer investor visions into the pan-European real estate sector.

The fourth episode features Alice Lamb, deputy CEO, LandAid. Alice embodies all that is good about the real estate industry. LandAid’s mission to end youth homelessness and their new strategy of positioning themselves as the S in ESG is making them an increasingly important partner for achieving impact and social change in the property sector. All Alice ever wanted to do was make a difference. She certainly has!

The fifth episode features Adam Targowski, MRICS, environmental director, Skanska. In this insightful podcast, he discusses the importance of a strong business case when it comes to innovation in the “risk averse” real estate sector. He has recognised that cooperation between industries is key to finding more creative solutions to achieve environmental, sustainability and net zero goals, and has identified supply chains as an area of great interest.

The sixth episode is available now and features Marion Waller, advisor to the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo. This podcast demonstrates what the concept of “15-minute cities” entails and reveals how improvements to a Parisian’s quality of life, locally, will enable the city to move away from car-centric planning approaches. While Marion highlights how important cooperation with the private sector is to achieve the mayor’s environmental and social goals, she is adamant that their main focus should be on inspiring people and projects, not political ideologies.

The seventh episode features Franz de Waal, co-founder at Freiraum, a retail as a service provider that enables online brands to access physical retail space in Berlin. This podcast provides many insights into changing consumer behaviour and explains why the traditional marketplace model of wholesale procurement will face even stronger headwinds in the near future. Franz emphasises how invaluable his time at Tishman Speyer was, and explains how the entrepreneurial spirit promoted within its ranks, as well as the lessons learned there, have helped him set up a business that provides online operators with a whole new dimension.

The eighth episode features Ines Miro-Sans, co-founder of Hotel Casa Bonay, a trendy community-orientated boutique hotel in the heart of Barcelona. This podcast reveals how Inés has tapped into the zeitgeist of working people with greater expectations of how they want to spend their free time. She emphasises how cultural aspects and community interactions are becoming increasingly more important. Something her competitors have learnt the hard way during the pandemic. A great hotel design is no longer enough, and listening to Inés’s business acumen, her passion for Barcelona and her previous experiences in the hotel industry you can see how her time at the Ace Hotel / Atelier Ace group, an MBA at Esade and a love for making people happy has culminated in the creation of what could be a new brand of hotels. Watch this space!

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