Steering Group

Rob Short
Langham Hall
Rob Short is Managing Partner and founder of Langham Hall. Previously he was an Executive Director of Goldman Sachs in London and New York. At Goldman Sachs Rob led the European real estate fund administration team administering the Whitehall funds, controlling financial information and reporting on $12bn of funds with operating partners in a dozen countries. Rob was also involved with deploying the Whitehall administration in Tokyo. Before founding Langham Hall, Rob spent three years on the board of a global fund administration business where he was responsible for setting up their London and New York fund offices. In addition he led the expansion of funds under administration from $14bn in 2002 to $80bn in 2005.
Clive Swillman
CMS

Clive Swillman is head of the Real Estate Finance team at CMS. He advises lenders and sponsors on a wide range of transactions both domestic and international including structured real estate financing; development financing; acquisition financing; and restructurings. During a career of more than 25 years he has advised on all asset classes and across the whole capital stack.

Tim Sharpen
KPMG
Tim is a Deal Advisory specialist whose area of focus is largely around financial due diligence and advice on SPAs and the price adjustment mechanism. His projects include: Buy side advice on over 100 corporate SPV deals in the UK and Europe including office buildings, shopping centres, mixed use, logistics portfolios and redevelopment. Advice on various hotel transactions including portfolios (e.g. QHotels, Jurys Inn, Principal Hayley) and single hotel deals (both sales and acquisitions). Residential developers including CALA, Countryside and Be Living. Other operating real estate including student accommodation, leisure and serviced offices
Peter Cosmetatos
CREFC EUROPE
Peter Cosmetatos is chief executive of the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) Europe, the trade association for the European CRE lending industry, which organises industry events, training and working groups, and conducts policy advocacy work on behalf of its members. Peter was a member of the independent Real Estate Finance Group and authored its May 2014 report, “A Vision for Real Estate Finance in the UK”, making recommendations for a safer CRE lending market. He remains closely involved in the development of a long-term value metric and a loan-level database. Before joining CREFC Europe in 2013, Peter spent five years at the British Property Federation, leading its work on tax, financial regulation and capital flows. Earlier, he spent ten years at Freshfields, specialising in real estate and real estate finance tax. He read Russian and Italian at Oxford and has a Masters in Soviet studies.
Sally Doyle-Linden
CFO Clearbell Capital LLP

Sally is a partner and the CFO of Clearbell Capital LLP, a UK private equity fund management and advisory business with 3 value-add/opportunistic funds focussed on UK real estate. In addition to overall responsibility for financial reporting, financing and structuring, she is the Compliance Officer and also a member of the Investment Committee. With over 30 years of experience in the real estate sector, she has strong technical and commercial expertise in all areas of treasury, taxation, finance and reporting. As well as in-depth knowledge of UK practices, she has broad experience of European and international markets. Prior to Clearbell, Sally was Group Projects Director at Grosvenor Group Limited, where she was Finance Director of a listed entity in Luxembourg and provided financial consultancy and support to the international management teams. Before Grosvenor, Sally worked at Wates City of London Properties plc, where she was responsible for all financial and treasury matters and raising in excess of £1 billion from banks, rights issues and joint venture partners. Sally began her career at Deloitte Haskins & Sells in London in 1982. She has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales since 1985. She holds a BA (Hons) in Chemistry from Wadham College, Oxford University.

Steven Cowins
Greenberg Traurig
Steven Cowins focuses his practice on private equity and fund formation with a concentration in the real estate sector. He regularly advises clients in establishing real estate funds and joint ventures, structured acquisitions and dispositions of real estate, and investment in alternative asset classes. His clients include fund managers, funds, family offices and financial institutions on high-profile matters across Europe and in London.