By The Urban Land Institute (ULI) has appointed Sarah Musgrove as its new UK executive director.
Musgrove joins ULI, the world’s oldest and largest network for real estate experts with over 45,000 members worldwide, from the build-to-rent developer and operator Greystar, where she worked as a senior director.
ULI UK is the global education and research institute’s largest national council in Europe with over 1,100 members from the private and public sectors, representing all disciplines within the commercial and residential property market.
Sarah Musgrove said: “I am thrilled to be joining ULI and furthering its mission to make a positive and lasting difference to communities across the world.
“Now, more than ever, it will be important to focus on how we ‘build back better’ following the Covid-19 crisis and be at the forefront of the property industry’s efforts to promote responsible and sustainable ways of living and working.
“Providing affordable housing in areas that people want to live has never been more important than now.”
As executive director, Musgrove said she aimed to leverage the breadth of expertise that ULI has to be at the forefront of ongoing debates around the challenges facing towns and cities, and to further its work supporting communities through its ULI Advisory Services programme.
Musgrove also outlined her commitment to ensuring ULI UK continued to serve all generations of real estate professionals, supporting them at every stage of their career through mentoring, training and support.
ULI UK runs events for property professionals at all stages of their career, supporting ‘young leaders’ aged under 35, as well as those who have reached, or are transitioning into, senior leadership positions.
As part of the multi-generational focus, Sarah outlined plans to digitise the ULI’s educational work with young people, UrbanPlan, so that the programme could be delivered online as well as face-to-face in schools.
UrbanPlan is a global initiative that teaches children aged 15–18 about the fundamental factors that impact urban regeneration and has so far reached 3,500 pupils, many from disadvantaged backgrounds, in the UK.
Sarah stressed: “It will be key to highlight and support initiatives that increase diversity within the industry and to ensure we play our part through our mentoring programmes, and in schools through our successful UrbanPlan programme.
“One of the things that ULI does best is to provide an inclusive environment for members to network, and to ‘give back’ by creating learning opportunities for young people. I look forward to working with our leadership and wider membership base to demonstrate the value of being part of ULI’s global network.”
Vanessa Hale, chair of ULI UK and head of insights and residential research at BNP Paribas Real Estate UK, added: “Our towns and cities face significant challenges as they adapt to new ways of living and working, and the need to respond to the climate crisis.
“Sarah’s extensive experience across both public and private sectors will be key as we leverage the tremendous breadth and depth of experience in ULI’s membership to support the advisory services that we provide to communities in need.”
Lisette van Doorn, CEO ULI Europe, said: “Sarah’s knowledge of the industry will be incredibly valuable as ULI UK continues to develop ways to enhance member engagement and further grow and diversify its membership base.
“The broader and more representative the member base, the better suited ULI will be to contribute to the major themes we are facing as a society, for example, related to housing affordability, city resilience for climate change and pandemics, and digitalisation.
“I look forward to seeing ULI UK go from strength to strength and expand on the excellent progress it has made over the past few years.”
Musgrove joins ULI UK with over 14 years’ experience in real estate, having worked across a wide range of development projects across the country within regeneration, mixed-use and education for both the public and private sectors.
This includes working for English Partnerships, Mace Group and as director of estates and projects at the Harris Federation, a multi-academy trust of 48 schools in and around London.
Sarah joined ULI from Greystar, the international real estate developer and manager where she led on estates and capital delivery for the London office.
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