The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has announced the winners in the fifth annual ULI European Leadership Awards, which recognise individuals whose exceptional contributions to the industry in Europe and to civic, social endeavours, exemplify the spirit and mission of ULI.

The winners include:

• Ahmed Aboutaleb, the Mayor of Rotterdam, who has been awarded the ULI European Leader Award.
• Ali Ingram, Head of ESG, Capital Markets at JLL, who won the ULI European Talent Award.
• Andrea Carpenter, the Co-Founder, Diversity Talks Real Estate, who was awarded the ULI European Trish Barrigan Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

The awards were announced during the flagship 2023 ULI Europe Conference in Madrid.

Celebrating the significance of the initiative, Lisette van Doorn, CEO of ULI Europe, said:

“These awards provide a unique platform for ULI to recognise and celebrate the achievements of some of the most remarkable leaders in European real estate. They are individuals who have made significant, impactful contributions to our industry, and in the community in Europe, during their careers. They are truly exemplars of everything that ULI stands for.”

The ULI European Leader Award celebrates a senior leader whose lifetime achievements exemplify personal and professional contributions to the industry and the community. ULI European Leadership Awards Chairman Karim Habra, Head of Europe and Co-Head of Asia-Pacific at Ivanhoé Cambridge, comments:

“Ahmed Aboutaleb is one of Europe’s longest serving and most respected mayors, having led Rotterdam since 2009. He leads his city with a vigorous commitment to significant issues such as climate adaption, resilience, future proofing, diversity, inclusion, and education.”

“Mayor Aboutaleb has made an impressive contribution to the community, and commitment to future proofing cities and to climate action. He has demonstrated that successful city development is about people, and he has taken an integrated approach to successfully develop Rotterdam, by not only focusing on economic development, resilience, climate adaptation and regeneration but doing all of this while putting the residents at the centre, ensuring that Rotterdam is a balanced, liveable city for all. He exemplifies everything that this award represents and is a most deserving winner.”

The ULI European Talent Award Celebrates the professional, personal, and civic commitments to the real estate industry, and to the community, by someone of 40 years or younger.

ULI Europe Chairman Lars Huber comments:

“Ali Ingram is undoubtedly an eco-warrior and a rising star. Her enthusiasm to drive change in sustainable investment and embed ESG across JLL’s capital markets business has ensured that both environmental and social values are at the heart of everything. However, beyond her day-to-day role she is an educator, training fund manager and investment teams on the fast-moving ESG landscape, and inspiring younger champions to take on sustainability. Her determination to ensure that our industry leaves an environmentally conscious legacy makes her a true inspiration for our industry.”

Finally, the ULI European Trish Barrigan Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion recognises the leadership and contribution of an individual in advancing and promoting DEI in the real estate industry and the broader community.

Lisette van Doorn comments:

“Andrea’s impact on the European built environment industry, in raising the visibility of underrepresented groups, particularly women and ethnic minority professionals, and advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, is extraordinary. It perfectly reflects everything that this award represents. Andrea has dedicated herself to promoting the visibility of under-represented groups, starting off with the Women Talk Real Estate platform that subsequently evolved into Diversity Talks Real Estate, anticipating a similar evolution in the real estate industry.”

“In providing a dedicated speaker database, and training, she helps to make the voices of those who are underrepresented better heard, while encouraging the real estate industry to find more diverse voices to participate in speaking engagements. She is a thoroughly deserving winner.”

This year’s outstanding winners were carefully selected following exhaustive evaluation of all nominations made by the ULI European Leadership Awards Jury consisting of diverse backgrounds and a geographical spread of ULI Europe Executive Committee members, Governing Trustees, Trustees, ULI NEXT and Young Leaders, as well as a few other senior industry leaders.

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For more information email [email protected]

For further information on the ULI European Leadership Awards, visit:

https://europe.uli.org/leadershipawards/

Notes to Editors:

About the Urban Land Institute:

• The Urban Land Institute is a non-profit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to shape the future of the built environment for transformative impact in communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the institute has over 48,000 members worldwide representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines.

• ULI has almost 5,500 members in Europe across 15 National Council country networks. For more information, please visituli.org, follow us on Twitter or follow our LinkedIn page.

About this year’s award winners:

Ali Ingram took on the role as Head of Sustainability at JLL within EMEA capital markets team at the start of 2022. Within her new role, she is sector agnostic and is focused helping clients integrate ESG into processes to maximise value and liquidity. Her main role is to embed ESG across JLL’s Capital Markets business and ensuring that both environmental and social values are at the heart of client strategies.

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Ms Ingram joined JLL’s Asia Pacific capital markets team based out of Hong Kong in 2013 and has since worked in numerous locations including Shanghai, Tokyo and now Europe. Since joining the International Capital Markets Offices team in 2017, she has centred on the European Office and Life Sciences Market. Recent transactions include the acquisition of Kadans Science Partners on behalf of AXA from Oaktree in 2020.

Andrea Carpenter is Co-Founder and Director of Diversity Talks Real Estate, and a writer and communications consultant in the property industry. As a Director of Diversity Talks Real Estate, Andrea helps raise the visibility of under-represented groups in the industry through the stage and media. This includes training and other female-led initiatives through DTRE’s Women Talk Real Estate community. On the writing side, her book about the history of the modern European property industry, High Rise and Fall, was published by Routledge in September 2018.

Andrea began her career as a journalist at Property Week before moving on to be editor of EuroProperty for seven years. Following this she worked for various industry bodies including the Urban Land Institute, INREV in Amsterdam, and its sister organisation ANREV in Hong Kong. On returning to the UK, she worked as Head of Marketing and Communications EMEA at CBRE Global Investors.

Ahmed Aboutaleb (born 1961 in Beni Sidel, Morocco) has been Mayor of Rotterdam since 2009. Previously, he represented the PvdA (Labor Party) as State Secretary for the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment in the fourth Balkenende cabinet (2007-2008) and as an alderman in Amsterdam (2004-2007). At the age of fifteen, Aboutaleb came to the Netherlands for family reunification. The family resided in The Hague, where Aboutaleb successively attended Junior Technical School, Intermediate Technical School and Technical College, graduating in Telecommunications in 1987. Ahmed Aboutaleb is a poetry enthusiast.

In the mid-1980s, Aboutaleb started his career in journalism. He was a discussion leader for RVU Television, made programs for Radio Stad Amsterdam and Radio Noord-Holland, and reported for Veronica Radio, NOS Radio and RTL News. In 1991, he moved to public services, holding positions with the Ministry of Welfare, Health and Culture, the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) and Statistics Netherlands (CBS). In 1998 he became an administrator for the Forum institute for multicultural development, and in 2002 he became director of the City of Amsterdam’s sector of Social, Economic and Cultural Development (MEC).

Mayor Aboutaleb strongly advocates the values enshrined in the Dutch Constitution: freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the principle of non-discrimination. In his view, obtaining Dutch citizenship entails a responsibility to respect and uphold those values and to take part in building the We Society. The more people take part in which, the stronger and more resilient that society will be, both in good and bad times. He’ll regularly take neighbourhood strolls throughout Rotterdam to have talks with residents about what concerns them.