Meet the Team

Paul is the CEO of AREF.  Before joining AREF in 2020, Paul was Head of the European Real Estate Boutique within Mercer’s investment consulting business for almost 10 years, previously he was Head of Indirect Real Estate Investment and Global Managed Accounts at LaSalle Investment Management, where he was responsible for managing global portfolios of unlisted real estate funds for clients from Europe and Asia Pacific.

He has over 25 years of real estate experience in investment, corporate finance and research, and has advised investors, occupiers and venture capital companies on property portfolio strategy and on financial structuring, including PFI, senior and mezzanine debt and joint venture arrangements. His employers have included LaSalle Investment Management, Cushman & Wakefield and Henderson Investors.

Before coming into the world of real estate, Paul worked in marketing and market research. He originally studied Physiological Sciences at Lincoln College, Oxford and has a Master of Science in Real Estate from City University Business School, London, now Cass Business School.

Clare is responsible for all aspects of the planning, development and execution of the marketing strategy for AREF. 

Clare leads on event management, liaising with committees and members to schedule, plan and deliver an effective events calendar for the association.  She also has overall responsibility for brand, as well as the design, development and production of marketing across both digital and offline channels, including the website.  

Jacqui provides policy guidance and secretariat services to AREF’s Board and Management Committee as well as many of AREF's committees and working groups.

Jacqui joined AREF in 2014 after working for over 25 years in fund compliance, client relationships and administration in the trustee and depositary sector.

Mel helps with the administrative side of AREF. 

Rachel is responsible for working with a number of AREF committees, including the Research, Corporate Governance and ESG & Impact Investing Committees.

Previous to joining, Rachel worked as an independent investment management professional in real estate and prior to this she spent 11 years at Aviva Investors in the Real Estate Team as a Strategist and six years at Henderson Global Investors. 

Rachel has taken on a number of projects for AREF over the last few years, including the End of Fund Life Project, the Fund Structures Report, the History of AREF and also worked on the Open Ended Fund Pricing Project, in conjunction with INREV.

Ed consults for and acts on behalf of AREF on several Board initiatives around communications, strategy and business development. Before founding consulting firm Parkview Capital Ltd in Feb 2017, he had senior franchise and business management roles at M&G Investments and M&G Real Estate. He has also been Head of Research at a boutique broker and, previously, was an award-winning pan-European equities fund manager at Aberdeen Asset Management.