Julian Worricker - Conference Moderator

Julian Worricker is currently a presenter for the BBC News Channel’s rolling news and the BBC World Service’s Weekend World Today programme.

He has been a familiar voice on BBC radio since 1985 presenting on various programmes across BBC Radio 4, including Any Answers?, You & Yours and Last Word.   

Over the years he has reported from around the world on breaking international news stories, covered UK general elections, commentated on Royal events, and announced Ryder Cup and Ashes victories.

Julian was entertainingly ‘photobombed’ by the Queen, live on BBC News, when she visited the BBC news room. 

Over the years he has won several broadcasting and journalism awards.

Daniel Barea - Rightmove

Daniel Barea is a leading behavioural analyst who has been working with Rightmove for the last four years, helping to shape their understanding of their vast consumer base.

This places him in a privileged position, having access to unique insights into home-mover behaviours, their decision-making process, and what their interaction with property is like.

With a keen interest in consumer psychology, his research has captured the attention of professionals across the industry.

Paul Chapman - Countrywide

Paul joined the Countrywide group in 2011 and under the role of Group Professional Services Director has held business line responsibility for Valuation and Surveying, Conveyancing, Estate & Asset Management, Residential Development and Auctions.

Paul joined the Exec team in August 2017 as Managing Director, Business to Business (B2B) before taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) in the Autumn of 2018.

As COO, Paul's responsibilities include Lettings and Sales Operations, as well as the group's commercial business Lambert Smith Hampton.

With over 20 years of experience in the property industry, Paul is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and holds an MA in Business & Management from Durham Business School.

Prior to joining Countrywide Paul previously held senior management posts at Halifax Intermediaries and Colleys Surveyors within Lloyds Banking Group (LBG).

Paul lives in Derby, and is married to Clair; he is a keen sportsman although now spends more time on the side-lines watching his sons Stanley and Walt than he does playing!

David Cox - ARLA Managing Director

David Cox is Chief Executive of ARLA Propertymark.

He joined ARLA, Association of Residential Letting Agents, in January 2014 bringing a sharply focused policy and stakeholder engagement perspective.

David has worked alongside a diverse board of experienced practitioners from across the industry to transform ARLA into ARLA Propertymark, an organisation which protects consumers through measures including Client Money Protection, campaigning for mandatory regulation of the lettings industry and raising professional standards.

David has held senior policy roles at the National Landlords Association (NLA) and the International Union of Property Owners (UIPI); a trained barrister, David has also acted as Parliamentary Advisor to a well-known backbench MP.

Jennie Fojtik - Tipi

Jennie helped to launch Quintain’s first residential lettings business, before heading up leasing when Quintain moved into the BtR market in 2016 with the launch of Tipi.

As Head of Leasing, Jennie has gained experience working across all aspects of the business but her current focus is on new business channels, partnerships and helping bring new developments to life.

Having always strived to improve the rental experience, Jennie is passionate about the core of the Tipi offering: providing residents with their ideal home with effortless, quality living and exceptional customer service.

Tim Harford - Keynote Speaker

Tim Harford is a world-renowned behavioural economist, an award-winning Financial Times columnist, and a BBC broadcaster.

Described as ‘Britain’s Malcolm Gladwell,’ and by the New Statesman as ‘perhaps the best popular economics writer in the world’ he brings storytelling, humour and intelligence to an oft-maligned discipline.

With a knack for finding fascinating explanations for everyday numbers, Tim’s first two books, The Logic of Life and The Undercover Economist, have been translated into 30 languages and sold well over a million copies. His Radio 4 show More or Less looks at the truth behind dubious statistics and manipulated figures.

Whilst he’s a ‘serious’ economist with a career spanning Oxford, Shell and the World Bank, Tim’s FT columns dwell on the economics of daily life and offer tongue-in-cheek solutions to readers’ problems. His first book built on these themes and The Undercover Economist was likened to Freakonomics in its examination and explanation of the workings of everything from coffee shops to organised crime to development aid.

Tim’s other titles include: The Logic of Life which applies economic theory to the world to explain how rational (or otherwise) our decisions are; Adapt: Why Success Always Starts With Failure shows how challenges of all types and sizes can't be solved with simple ready-made solutions - we must learn to improvise and account for the necessity of failure; and Messy: How to Be Creative and Resilient in a Tidy-Minded World which considers why tidiness, organisation and predictability aren’t always the best environments to foster creativity, innovation and achievement.

A regular TED speaker, Tim also looks at why it’s so hard yet so important to learn from mistakes, how to deal with uncertainty, how forecasting works and what to do when it doesn’t, and what innovation really means and why the wrong sort of innovation can be a distraction. Taking in everything from the military to game shows, aviation to ballet, global catastrophes to finding the right socks he questions received wisdom, common sense and statistical certainty. Tim’s accessible, easy style provides entertaining, thought-provoking insights relevant to every person and organisation.

Gillian Kent - Howsy

Gillian Kent is Chairman of Howsy, the UK’s leading digital property management marketplace.

Gillian started her career in marketing becoming MD of MSN UK at Microsoft over a fifteen year stint, then CEO of Propertyfinder.com (sold to Zoopla).

Her expertise is in digital disruption and transformation, consumer marketing and scaling high growth businesses.

She is also a non-executive director on the board of businesses including Mothercare, Ascential plc, and NAHL Group plc and sits on the Expert Advisory Group for the 4th National Lottery.

Richard Lambert - CEO, National Landlords Association

Richard Lambert joined the National Landlords Association as Chief Executive Officer in October 2011.

He began his career as a parliamentary civil servant in the House of Commons, where over 10 years he worked on Select Committees, various aspects of the legislative process and interparliamentary affairs.

Following a brief spell in commercial lobbying, he moved into trade associations, spending five years as the Policy Director covering residential issues at the British Property Federation, then becoming Chief Executive of the British Woodworking Federation in 2002.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a former Chairman of the National Training Organisation, Housing Potential.

Polly Neate - Shelter

Polly Neate became Shelter’s CEO in August 2017, having been the high profile CEO of Women’s Aid and, before that, leading all external activities, strategy development and organisational change as Executive Director at Action for Children.

She has always worked for social justice, previously as an award-winning journalist.

Twitter: @pollyn1

John Paul - Castledene Group

John Paul is owner and Managing Director of the Castledene Group, a 7 branch agency based in the North East of England which manages over 2000 properties.

A huge advocate of social media marketing, John is a familiar face on the various groups and forums. 

Gina Peters - Dutton Gregory

As a litigator with over 20 years’ experience, Gina has a wealth of expertise particularly in the residential landlord and tenant field.

Her workload is a mixture of possession and block management cases, and she has built up an excellent reputation for her knowledge in both of these areas of law.

Dutton Gregory's Landlord & Tenant department has enjoyed extensive growth under Gina’s supervision, and is now highly regarded as the provider of the bespoke and esteemed ARLA telephone helpline service for ARLA members, in addition to their own helpline service for non-ARLA members.

Dr Julie Rugg

Dr Julie Rugg is Senior Research Fellow at the University of York's Centre for Housing Policy.

She has a research interest in all aspects of the private rented sector, and in housing benefit, and young people and housing. In recent years, Dr Rugg has completed research projects that have addressed the cost of temporary accommodation in London, and longitudinal study of the experiences of housing association tenants in the capital.

In 2018, Dr Rugg and colleague David Rhodes completed The Evolving Private Rented Sector: Its Contribution and Potential. This research, funded by the Nationwide Foundation, comprised a comprehensive overview of demand and supply characteristics of the PRS, and considered a wide range of associated policy interventions.

Sir Robin Wales

Robin was Chair of London Councils from 2000-2006, a Committee Member of London 2012 and a Director of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

As Chair of the stakeholder Committee representing the six Olympic Boroughs he led the successful campaign to secure a local legacy benefits from the Games.

As Leader (1996 – 2002) and later executive Mayor (2002 – May 2018) of Newham he was the first to provide free school meals for all primary children, introduced the first Borough wide private sector licensing scheme, set up new housing companies to deliver social, affordable and market rent properties and pioneered an innovative, ethical, commercial approach to the ownership and management of Council services to challenge traditional in-house and outsourcing models.

Working with large private sector employers he created a hugely successful jobs brokerage, matching local residents looking for work to employer needs with the result that unemployment rates in Newham saw the largest decrease in the UK.

During the most financially challenging time for local government in living memory there were no cuts to front line services and Council Tax was frozen for 10 years.

He was awarded a knighthood in 2000 for services to local government.

Robin is currently a Senior Policy Advisor at Policy Exchange.

Theresa Wallace - Savills

Theresa has extensive lettings knowledge having worked at Savills since 2002.

Prior to joining Savills she ran her own letting and management business for 9 years. In 2009 she sat on the Divisional Council Board for ARLA Propertymark having been the South East regional chair for six years.

Theresa is the head of Savills lettings customer relations team who manage the division’s compliance and customer service. She and her team support all front office and centrally based teams in any lettings matter – from strategy, ways of working, legislative changes to supporting all offices in customer liaison. She also sits on the lettings strategy and executive boards.

In 2013 Theresa co-founded The Lettings Industry Council (TLIC), a group which now includes 154 professional industry stakeholders across 103 organisations, TLIC is an opportunity for them to come together as one voice. She is passionate about her job and the lettings industry. Theresa Wallace FNAEA FARLA CRLM

Mrs Heather Wheeler MP

Mrs Heather Wheeler MP is the current Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Minister for Housing and Homelessness.

Heather has previously worked as an Assistant Government Whip and Lord Commissioner of the Treasury.

She also served as a local councillor before being elected as a Member of Parliament for South Derbyshire in 2010.