Stephen Ryan is a research associate at Didobi (www.didobi.com), specialist advisers to the real estate industry. Stephen has worked in the real estate and wider financial services industry since 1988. Most recently he worked with INREV in Amsterdam, concentrating on real estate research, corporate governance and liquidity. Prior to INREV, Stephen was an investment consultant in Mercer where he advised institutional investors on real estate and on defined contribution investments.

René Buck (1959) is CEO of Buck Consultants International, a company he founded in April 1985. More than 35 years later Buck Consultants International is one of the world’s leading independent location strategy/site selection and R&D/manufacturing footprint optimization consulting companies in the world. In March 2020 BCI was recognized once again by Forbes Magazine as one of America’s Best Management Consulting Firms. Buck Consultants International has experienced teams and offices in Europe in Nijmegen and The Hague (the Netherlands), Frankfurt and London; in the US in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley; and in Asia in Singapore and Shanghai. Buck Consultants International works for a wide range of international companies in various industries: biopharma; medical technology; high tech; industrial equipment & products; automotive; food & beverage; FMCG; chemicals; fashion & apparel; logistics. BCI assists more than 1,000 clients in 50 countries, including life sciences companies like Abbott, Abbvie, Aimmune, Amgen, Astra Zeneca, Baxter, BD, Boston Scientific, Cipla, Ferring, Heamonetics, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Pfizer, Santen, St. Jude Medical, Teva. Buck Consultants International advises science parks, campuses, innovation districts and innovation hubs on strategy development, feasibility & market analyses and successful marketing plans. Innovation areas in for example Belgium, the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands have benefitted from the experiences and concrete advises of Buck Consultants International. René Buck is a leading consultant in the areas where BCI is active and he is a prominent speaker at conferences throughout the world. He is seen by international news media as a leading expert. In November 2019, René Buck was named Best CEO in the Management Consulting Industry by Business Worldwide Magazine.

Faaiza is the Director of Planning and Development at Precis Advisory where she oversees a new residential-led mixed use build to rent portfolio in Outer London representing 2,500 homes and 1 million sqft of workspace and storage. She also leads on the company’s life sciences projects, the first of which is located in the heart of the King’s Cross Knowledge Quarter and Innovation District. Faaiza sits on the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board, the Urban Land Institute’s European Life Science and Healthcare as well UK Residential Councils, the New London Architecture Expert Panel member for the Science, Tech & Innovation programme, the British Property Foundation’s Residential Build to Rent Committee, and the Young Camden Foundation Trustee Board.

Whether addressing healthcare, education, S&T, or residential briefs, and increasingly the hybridisation of some or all of these, he always seeks to challenge orthodoxies, think creatively, and speak frankly to the realities of both commercial imperatives and lived experiences. Mark’s projects consistently explore how, through design, we can build beautiful places, deliver value in its widest sense, and minimise our collective impact on the planet, to that end recently qualifying as an accredited Passivhaus Designer. Keen to share his broad experience and knowledge, Mark teaches, reviews, and currently chairs the NLA Expert Panel for Healthcare. Away from the practice, he holds a number of Non-Exec positions, including with Reach2 Multi Academy Trust and Freightliners City Farm, reflecting his deep interest in the issues of education, community engagement and social mobility.