Aileen is the Communications Manager at Houseful where she is responsible for B2B PR activity at Houseful brands Zoopla, Alto and Hometrack. Aileen has been at Houseful for over three years and has also worked on award-winning consumer PR campaigns for Zoopla.

www.zoopla.co.uk

Since taking the helm as CEO at Butterfield Mortgages in 2017, Alpa Bhakta has been responsible for consolidating the firm’s position as a stand-alone provider of prime property mortgages across London and the south of England for HNW clients, both UK-based and overseas. Those clients tend to be HNWs and UHNWs seeking a minimum loan of £1 million for finance against residential property.

Bhakta began her career at NatWest, where she worked from the very early age of 16. ‘It was one of the best decisions that I've made. It’s where I learned the fundamentals of banking and customer services – despite the views of my parents, who were not so keen about me leaving school.

www.butterfieldgroup.com/en-gb

An established property PR professional since 2005, André has worked across global client portfolios for London’s premier PR agencies. This has equipped him with invaluable knowledge of the property markets and media landscape. With a degree in Business Management, he has a comprehensive understanding of his clients’ objectives, enabling him to create PR campaigns that complement short- and long-term business plans. In 2019, André set up Viking PR to support his clients with a PR service that is more bespoke, more personal and more result-driven. His clients include UK and international businesses such as property developers, estate agents, architects, buying agents and property service companies.

www.vikingpr.co.uk

Andrew started in the mortgage industry in 1994 at John Charcol before joining Cobalt Capital in 2001, where he was Head of PR and Marketing. In 2009 Andrew was one of the main founders of Coreco where he is the Director responsible for Brand, Marketing and Communications, as well as looking after all lender liaison.

As Coreco’s Media Spokesperson Andrew can often be seen or heard on BBC TV & Radio or Sky News as well as regularly commenting in the national, local and trade press. More commonly known as "Monty" he is the author of a highly acclaimed Mortgage Blog and writes the Market Watch column in Mortgage Strategy. Winner of several industry awards himself, Andrew is also a proud Board Member of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries and continues to work at the coal face, writing mortgage business and advising clients.

www.corecogroup.co.uk

Ben Beadle is the Chief Executive of the NRLA, the membership body that represents over 95,000 landlords across England and Wales. A landlord for 20 years, Ben has had a lengthy career in housing holding senior roles at Places for People and TDS and is a familiar face in the sector and in the media.

The Association was founded in 2020 and helps landlords – big or small – navigate the many challenges of the private rented sector, providing first class support, advice, learning resources and services as well as a powerful research and campaigning.

www.nrla.org.uk

Gareth joined Hodge from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in January 2015 after nine years in corporate finance and real estate finance roles. As a senior director in corporate real estate finance for the South of England and South Wales, he managed a £900 million property portfolio.

During his time as a relationship manager, he oversaw multiple development and investment deals across the country, including significant portfolios in Bath and Bristol as well as introducing developments in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Newcastle. Since then, Gareth became head of development finance and is now head of business development for Commercial Lending at Hodge.

A qualified accountant and Fellow member of Chartered Certified Accountants, Gareth spent his early career in audit and corporate finance roles with Grant Thornton and Baker Tilly in London, before joining RBS in 2007 and subsequently Hodge in 2015.

hodgebank.co.uk/

For over ten years, Giles has been heading up the marketing for one of London’s oldest, largest and most respected estate agency brands, Chestertons. Here, he has overseen hundreds of campaigns, initiatives and innovations and is still heavily involved in the company’s PR and media relations.

www.chestertons.co.uk/en-gb

Jo began her career with Dawsons Estate Agents, Swansea in 2003, coming from a background in property sales management spanning 20 years since joining a local competitor at the age of 17 and next year celebrates a total of 40 years in the property sales industry!

Jo's career with Dawsons began in the Swansea branch Auction Dept’ and was then promoted to manage their highly successful Gorseinon Branch in 2007. During her time at Dawsons, Jo has further added to her vast experience in property sales and was delighted to be offered the position of Director of Sales in 2015.

Now as the Director of Sales Jo’s day to day tasks are similar to our Lettings Director Ricky: overseeing the sales arm of the business, together with recruitment and training. Both Jo and Ricky work closely with the partners of the business to ensure the client experience and customer service received across all departments of ‘All Things Property’ reflects the core values of the brand as we are known within our local community. Whilst not in Dawsons you will find Jo enjoying family time and travel.

dawsonsproperty.co.uk

Jodi is the Director of Customer Marketing at Houseful where she is responsible for driving B2B marketing efforts at Houseful brands including Zoopla, Alto and Hometrack. Jodi has been at Houseful for over four years and has over 15 years of experience at high-growth, well-known tech brands including Microsoft, Nokia and Skype.

www.zoopla.co.uk

After being a landlord over 10 years Jonathan jumped out of the corporate rat race to concentrate on property full time. Whilst entering into the world of property development and focusing on the PRS Jonathan discovered the opportunities that exist within letting and estate agency, all of which begin with the customer relationship.

Jonathan’s primary focus is “adding value” to everything he does and it was this focus that led him to launching proptech platform VABOO. Vaboo is the official Rewards Partner to the Property Sector, building Customer Reward & Engagement platforms for Letting & Estate Agents, Property Management companies and Accommodation Providers to help grow their business and provide a better service to their customers.

With access to exclusive offers, national discounts and regular prize draws, Vaboo helps agents build trust, stand out and collect important data around customer/consumer wants and needs and customer satisfaction.

Agents use Vaboo to differentiate themselves from the competition and as a tool to win new business and improve retention.

With most agents sitting on vastly untapped customer bases huge opportunity exists within the sector. Today Vaboo work with hundreds of letting & estate agents and accommodation providers across the UK and almost 200,000 renters, landlords, vendors and buyers are being helped with the cost of living.

www.vaboo.co.uk

Chief Executive Officer and founder of Connect Mortgages and Connect for Intermediaries, Liz has been providing mortgage and financial advice for over 20 years. Liz and her team over of 50 staff arrange all types of mortgages and protection with a particular strength in the specialist markets.

In 2012 Liz set up the specialist mortgage network that now supports over 200 mortgage brokers who to operate not only in the mainstream market, but also provide advice in specialist areas such as complex buy-to-let, commercial and bridging.

Liz spends a large part of her time delivering training to brokers that focus on the brokers perspective of the market and the lender's criteria and requirements, and regularly writes articles that feature in the trade press.

connectmortgages.co.uk

Matt Cottle is a property investor and portfolio landlord. He held the position of co-founder and CEO at national brokerage Y3S for 19 years, before exiting in 2020.

Matt helps new and existing investors navigate the rental property market through private consultation.

Michael has over 20 years’ experience in specialist finance. He has lead departments across the customer journey as well as business change and colleague training. Michael held a number of varied roles at HBOS and Together before coming to Roma where he began as Operations Director. The success of the business has enabled Michael to take on a larger role as Commercial Director, leading the charge on Roma’s business goals. Michael is passionate about improving the customer, partner and colleague journey through change leadership.

romafinance.co.uk

Nathan is the CEO of Propertymark - The UK's foremost professional and regulatory membership body for sales, letting and commercial agents with over 12000 offices and 18000 professional members.

A highly experienced multi practice industry practitioner with over 27 years operating at Partner level within a professional multi practice estate agency practice environment, Nathan has considerable insight to the working practices of the property industry and consumer journeys.

Nathan was previously a proactive National Advisory Council member for Relocation Agent Network for over 10 years and in addition he also sat as the East Midlands Regional Chairman. Nathan works alongside both estate and letting agents and also with Proptech start-ups.

www.propertymark.co.uk

Neil Cobbold is the Managing Director of PayProp UK. Prior to that, he was involved in housing reform and social housing, culminating in him running a large housing association and software development firm.

He is a member of The Lettings Industry Council and is frequently consulted by the property media and government. Neil has sat on investor panels, and is a regular fixture on the PropTech speaking circuit, with appearances on Sky's Property TV channel and at conferences hosted by safeagent, Propertymark and others.

uk.payprop.com

Paul Shamplina, Founder of Landlord Action, Chief Commercial Officer of Hamilton Fraser and star of Channel 5’s Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords.

Paul Shamplina has spent over 28 years in the legal field helping landlords with problem tenants, with previous experience working as a clerk, private investigator, debt collector and certified bailiff.

In 1999, he set up Landlord Action to put this expertise to good use, specialising in fixed-fee property recovery and tenant eviction in England and Wales. He has acquired a reputation as “The Landlord’s Friend” having co-written two books with fellow property expert, Kate Faulkner, to help landlords manage their properties.

Paul is a down to earth Londoner with a great sense of humour who has helped thousands of landlords. He travels the country speaking, giving advice and carrying out regular seminars to landlords and letting agents. Landlord Action has won numerous industry accolades, and recently Paul has also achieved the title of ‘Best Seminar Speaker 2019’ at The National Landlord Investment Show Awards, after receiving nearly 40 percent of the overall votes, and ‘Spokesperson of the Year’ at the Property Reporter Awards 2020. Landlord Action also won Best Landlord Legal Services Provider at the 2022 Property Reporter Awards.

Paul believes passionately in the rights of landlords (and tenants where necessary), and campaigns tirelessly to improve standards throughout the private rented sector. Paul was invited to give evidence to a cross-party Parliamentary Group on the private rented sector in relation to retaliation evictions as part of The Deregulation Act 2015.

As part of the ‘Fair Possessions Coalition’, he has also been an active participant in government consultations on the topic of speeding up the eviction process, abolishing Section 21 evictions and housing court reforms and is also on the advisory council for the Property Investors Bureau to regulate the property education sector. Paul was particularly instrumental in the law which made squatting a criminal offence from September 2012.

Paul regularly appears in the national press, radio and television. He has appeared in numerous productions including: BBC’s Breakfast, War at the Door, Meet the Landlords, Inside Out and The One Show, ITV’s Tenants From Hell and Channel 4 News. Most recently, Paul and his team at Landlord Action have featured regularly in Channel Five’s hit series ‘Nightmare Tenants, Slum Landlords’ (2015 - present). Paul has also co-hosted the ‘The Property Hour’ with Clive Bull on LBC Radio, and regularly contributes his expert guidance on BBC Radio London’s Drivetime with Eddie Nestor.

Paul has featured in The Times, Daily Telegraph, Independent, Guardian and Daily Mail, as well as numerous other national, regional and local newspapers, offering expert advice and highlighting the plights and success stories within his field. Reported success stories include Paul’s recovery of £90,000 rent arrears in a single case and seeing notorious serial subletting scammer, Rose Chimuka, brought to justice.

www.landlordaction.co.uk

Ricky Purdy is currently the Director of Lettings in Dawsons Estate Agents Swansea. Ricky is also a member of the Property Academy and sits within many charity boards in our region. Ricky began his career in Dawsons as a few weeks holiday cover back in 2000, and obviously found his calling which was lucky for Dawsons as he quickly moved up the ranks to where he sits now as the Director of Lettings.

Ricky oversees the lettings arm of the business managing over 40 staff within our 5 lettings offices, with customer service and experience at the heart of the department’s agenda. Ricky is a lively hands-on character spending much time within the offices, looking at ways to make the working day of all staff as enjoyable and rewarding as possible, whilst looking at continuously enhancing the clients experience. When he is not at work (which is a rarity) Ricky very much enjoys spending time with his family, traveling with his family and all things outdoors.

Ricky also manages the training arm of Dawsons: Dawsons Training Wales (DTW).

DTW is an award winning training provider having been listed in the 2023 Best Agent Guide, after receiving Silver within the medium supplier category at the 2022 Best Agent Awards. DTW are Rent Smart Wales Approved and offer a 24/7 online course for both landlord and agents managing property in Wales and needing to either apply for an initial license or renew their current license.

dawsonsproperty.co.uk
dawsonstrainingwales.co.uk/

Ritchie Clapson CEng MIStructE is a veteran property developer of almost 40 years and co-founder of propertyCEO, a nationwide property development training company that helps people create a successful property development business in their spare time.

It makes use of students’ existing life skills while teaching them the property, business, and mindset knowledge they need to undertake small scale developments successfully, with the emphasis on utilising existing permitted development rights to minimize risk and maximize returns.

propertyceo.co.uk

Prior to joining Blend Network, Roxana was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley responsible for the design and implementation of fundamental-based and tactical trade ideas. Before that, she advised institutional commodity investors at Barclays.

Most recently, she founded leading UK mobile beauty tech platform Zeebba, dubbed the 'Uber of Beauty' by the Daily Mail, which she successfully exited after 18 months. Roxana holds an MSc in Financial Economics and Econometrics and a BSc in Quantitative Economics.

blendnetwork.com

Russell is a seasoned property expert who regularly appears on radio, TV and in the press discussing the housing market and a little bit of politics here and there too. He is an occasional presenter on TalkTV - the Piers Morgan of property, as he was once described.

Famously opinionated and straight-talking, in his own words he is ’never knowingly under-quoted’.

properpr.co.uk

With over 10 years industry experience, Scott has been a core member of the Market Financial Solutions (MFS) senior management team for over 7 years, where he is Head of Underwriting for Direct Brokers & Clients.

During this time, Scott has built up an extensive network of contacts. He specialises in complex cases and large loans, dealing with high-net-worth individuals and longstanding clients. Day-today, he prioritises communication for his clients, while providing new and innovative solutions for their bridging requirements.

In 2011, Scott started as a letting’s negotiator, before moving to The Loans Engine in 2021, working as a second charge mortgage underwriter. He then moved into the specialist finance sector when he joined MFS in 2016, contributing greatly to the bridging underwriting department, where he now manages a growing team of 11 Underwriters.

www.mfsuk.com

Sean Hooker is the Head of Redress for the Property Redress Scheme (PRS). He is a Qualified Adjudicator (ACIArb), CEDR Accredited Mediator and has a Professional Award in Ombudsman and Complaints Handling Practice (Queen Margaret University and Ombudsman Association). Following a long career in the insurance industry, Sean set up and ran the dispute resolution and adjudication service for an authorised tenancy deposit scheme before moving and setting up the ombudsman office at the Property Redress Scheme. A Government approved scheme, backed by legislation, the Property Redress Scheme is one of only two organisations that property agents must join to deal with their unresolved complaints.

The Property Redress Scheme is a consumer redress scheme authorised by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) and by the National Trading Standards Estate Agency Team to offer redress to consumers of lettings, property management and estate agents. It is also open to other property professionals to show they are committed to providing excellent customer service.

www.theprs.co.uk