Andrew Round

Assistant Director
Birmingham City Council

Neil Rami

Chief Executive
West Midlands Growth Company

Neil oversees the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), formerly Marketing Birmingham, which was established in April 2017 to create new jobs, expand existing businesses and attract new investment and visitors to the region, aligned to the ambitions set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Strategic Economic Plan.

Under Neil’s leadership of Marketing Birmingham, the city secured the highest number of foreign direct investment projects on record, attracting significant new investments from companies such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Jaguar Land Rover and ASOS. The city’s visitor economy has also grown significantly in recent years, with Birmingham enjoying the largest growth in international visitors of any UK city outside London and the tourism sector now contributing £6.5 billion to the local economy, a 22% increase (£1.16bn) since 2013.

Previously, Neil held similar roles in Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a member of the British Tourism Industry Group; Chair of the Midlands Trade and Investment Group and is a former Governor and Board Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Neil is also a Board member of Creative England

James Howarth

Founding Director
Sterling Property Ventures Ltd

James Howarth has over 18 years' experience in land and property, specialising in the planning, remediation and delivery of complex development sites, through careful asset selection and re-positioning.  James co-founded Abstract Land Limited in 2004, which has been responsible for various developments such as Colmore Plaza, Birmingham and various land assembly deals in the south east.

Sterling Property Ventures was established in 2013 and projects include 55 Colmore Row with Kames Capital, Lumina with M&G Real Estate and the development of Great Charles Square in joint venture with Birmingham City Council.  

Prior to this, he worked extensively in the West Midlands and is known for the development of 5 St Philips Place and for Spectrum in Birmingham. In addition to the acquisition and subsequent funding and development of the former IMI Headquarters, Birmingham (90 Acres) and the former TRW Headquarters in Solihull (55 Acres).

Nicolas Guérin

Managing Director
Linkcity

Nicolas has almost 20 years’ experience in Property Development and was appointed Managing Director of Bouygues Development (now called Linkcity) in 2012.  Prior to that he was head of Bouygues Development’s London Region for 4 years and also worked with Sodearif, the property arm of the Bouygues Group in France.  He leads a team of 45 professionals developing mixed-use schemes such as Canning Town, one of the biggest urban regeneration schemes in the UK as well as residential and commercial projects.  Linkcity is generating c. £200m sales per year.

Nicolas is also the Chairman of Uliving, one of the UK’s leading investors and providers of student accommodation on University campuses with a large portfolio of 6,000 units including 3,000 units for Hertfordshire University and 1,500 for Essex University.

Nicolas’s experience ranges from high rise office buildings in Paris’s La Défense district to mixed-used projects including the development of numerous residential units, retail space and student housing units in France and in the UK.

Liz Peace CBE

Chair
Curzon Urban Regeneration Company

Liz is a well-known figure in the property industry, having served as Chief Executive of the British Property Federation for thirteen years until her retirement at the end of 2014. During that time, she managed to change the Government’s perception of the commercial property industry, to establish it as a key voice in policy debate, to dissuade the Government from legislating on commercial leases, to win innumerable changes to planning and tax legislation and, working as part of a pan-industry alliance, to persuade the Government to introduce real estate investment trusts (REITs).  

Previously, she was a civil servant in the MOD, eventually becoming a key player in the team that created QinetiQ plc.