Ruth Hynes

Global and EMEA Project and Development Services Research Lead
JLL

Adam Scott

Co-Founder
The Experience Foundation

Sowgol Zarinchang

Managing Director
Way of Life

Sowgol is the Managing Director of Way of Life, a top 3 National Built-to-Rent (BTR) platform providing bespoke residential lettings and management to a portfolio of over 2,400 homes across the UK. Sowgol ensures that Way of Life delivers and manages not just homes but communities – spaces designed for modern urban living, shaped by exceptional design, community engagement and superior customer service.

Denz Ibrahim

Head of Futuring & Placemaking
Legal & General

Denz Ibrahim joined Legal & General (L&G) in 2019 as Head of Futuring and Placemaking. With a creative background in design and urbanism, he brings extensive experience in retail, placemaking, and re‑imagining the urban environment for the future. A graduate of the London School of Economics Cities Programme, Denz previously served as Head of Special Projects at Appear Here and later as Head of Placemaking for BNP Paribas Real Estate. At L&G, Denz leads the reinvention of how the business approaches retail - spatially, culturally, and commercially. He champions a cross‑sector, consumer‑centric approach to placemaking, curating environments that reconnect people with places and brands. His work guides the organization's understanding of cultural shifts in how people live, work, and play across its consumer‑facing environments, ensuring the delivery of places that are truly future‑ready. Denz is a member of the L&G Real Estate Equity Senior Leadership Team, a regular contributor to industry journals and media, and a board member of Foundry, the co‑working and business‑support incubator co‑founded by L&G in 2022.

Michelle Laramy

Director, Customer Experience
Canary Wharf Group

Lourdes Madigasekera-Elliott

Public Health Strategic Lead
East Sussex County Council

Howard Dawber OBE

Deputy Mayor, Business & Growth
Greater London Authority

Howard was appointed Deputy Mayor for Business and Chair of London and Partners in December 2023.
 
Before joining the Mayor’s team, Howard worked in business for thirty years, spending 17 years as Managing Director for Strategy of the Canary Wharf Group. At Canary Wharf, Howard was involved in the development of the Elizabeth Line and supporting the 2012 Olympic Bid and Olympic Legacy as well as commercial inward investment projects in tech, health and life sciences, and financial services.
 
He has been an active member of business organisations including Business LDN, London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, TheCityUK and the London Property Alliance. 
 
He is a trustee of “The Line” art walk along the River Lea. Formerly Chair of the East End Community Foundation (2013-2022) he is now a patron of the charity, and a patron and former Vice-President of UK Youth. 
 
Howard was Chair of the Business Advisory Board for the University of East London School of Business and Law and has been a visiting lecturer at the School.
 
Howard was a Parliamentary Candidate for the Labour Party and is the Chair of Labour Friends of Bangladesh and Labour Friends of USA.
 
He lives in London and is married with a daughter. 

Lucy Thomas

Marketing Director
Landsec

With nearly two decades of experience in the real estate industry, Lucy Thomas has built a career at the intersection of development, operations and place‑based marketing. She has held key roles across some of the sector’s most influential organisations, including Westfield, British Land, Lendlease and HB Reavis, working across major retail, mixed‑use and workplace destinations.

Lucy is now B2B Marketing Director at Landsec, where she leads all Central London marketing activity. Her work focuses on creating meaningful, resonant connections between people and the places they interact with every day - shaping how businesses experience the city and how Landsec’s portfolio comes to life for its customers.

Passionate and endlessly curious about cities, urban culture and the emotional, physical and nostalgic bonds people form with place, Lucy is driven by a desire to elevate daily moments into memorable ones. She brings a strategic yet human‑centred perspective to understanding the touchpoints that influence enjoyment, belonging and the texture of everyday life.

Phil Ryan

Director – City Futures, Global Insight
JLL

Phil Ryan is a director of JLL’s Global Insight platform with a focus on the group’s City Futures program based out of London. In his role, he focuses on the structural changes underway with respect to urban development, best practices in large-scale regeneration, identifying innovation hot-spots and analysing commercial real estate performance in both emerging and mature growth clusters. In his previous role, Phil was the director of JLL’s U.S. Office Research platform in New York, where he focused on both national and local trends in the office market across more than 50 metro areas, with an emphasis on integrating economic and demographic data into real estate analysis, outlooks and decision-making as well as contributing to JLL’s quarterly office report suite and industry-specific reporting.