Steffen Eric Friedlein was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1968 and started his career at Kriegbaum Unternehmensgruppe in Böblingen, where he last held the position of Head of Leasing. He joined ECE in April 1999 as Leasing Manager. In 2008 he was appointed Regional Director and became Senior Director Leasing for North Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy at the beginning of 2013. Since 2014, he has been responsible for the leasing activities of all centers in Germany, before he became Managing Director Leasing and Member of the Board of ECE in 2018.

Edgar Breed (1966, Dutch national) has 27 years of experience in European retail real estate, as an investor, developer, investment and asset manager and working for a leading European retailer. He is widely regarded as a specialist on retail real estate. Edgar currently is Group Head of Real Estate Operations (excl. GER) at MediaMarktSaturn Retail Group and based in Germany. As founder and owner of Greppon Retail Parks, he build up a fund focusing on retail parks in the Netherlands with a private investor and was fee developer for retail park developments. Prior to this he was a Partner in Hurdle Investments and Director Real Estate BENELUX at Media Markt & Saturn and based in Germany. Before Media Saturn he headed the consultancy department at Stable International in the Netherlands and was employed as a consultant at the predecessor of Cushman & Wakefield in Amsterdam, where he set up their Retail Warehouse Department. As a student (Economics, University of Amsterdam), he co-founded a courier service, which was sold to a (current) subsidiary of TNT. Edgar is fluent in Dutch, English and German. He is married, 3 children.

Chris Igwe is one of the world’s leading authorities on global retail and highly sought after for his passionate views, deep knowledge and great insights. Based in Paris, he is special advisor to global brands, owners and investors on strategic matters at his own consultancy firm, Chris Igwe International. He is also Managing Partner at More Or Less, a company which represents exclusively tenants in their portfolio and lease-related problems. Chris is Co-Chair of the ULI Europe Retail and Entertainment Council and a member of the European leadership of ULI. From 2007 to 2015 he was Senior Director EMEA and Head of Retail, France at CBRE, and before that, Head of Real Estate Europe at Gap, and prior to that Head of Real Estate Europe at Foot Locker Europe. Chris was also Managing Director Europe for ICSC. Retail clients have included 7 For All Mankind, Aesop, Costco, Disney, Farrow & Ball, Fossil, Hard Rock Café, Michael Kors, Nike, Sunglass Hut, Swarovski, TUMI, Vapiano. Landlord clients have included AEW, Apsys, Deutsche Bank, Eurodisney, FREO, Grosvenor, Inter Ikea, Value Retail, Unibail Rodamco. Chris is an international speaker, former Jury Member for ICSC, RLI, CNCC, and a long-standing Steering Committee Member and Conference Master of Ceremony (2011 – 2019) for MAPIC. He has also lectured for ICSC, UK’s Bayfield Training, EFAP MBA in Paris and Abu Dhabi Paris Sorbonne University. He is a Chartered Civil Engineer, holds a BSc in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Geotechnical Engineering. Chris was recognised by his peers as a recipient of the “2014 ICSC Award for Outstanding Service to the Research Community”. Chris is multi-lingual and enjoys being a coach and mentor to young professionals. Chris was honoured by being appointed to become a Global Governing Trustee of ULI in June 2020.