Plenary & Panel Speakers
Mark Chivers
Government Chief Property Officer, Cabinet Office
Mark joined the Cabinet Office as Government Chief Property Officer in January 2022, where he is responsible for providing senior, strategic leadership for the whole cross-government property function. He works with a wide range of senior stakeholders within government and in the wider public sector promoting the intelligent use of property to deliver better public services at lower cost to the taxpayer.
Mark provides strategic leadership for the Government Property Function, and holds senior leaders accountable to the Government Functional Standard. He leads on major change programmes, supporting the delivery of better and more integrated public services, overseeing – among others – the Places for Growth programme and supporting the regional growth agenda.
Mark has 20 years experience at Board level in both the private and public sectors, most recently as Director of Estates Engineering and Energy at Boots UK, but has led teams across Property, Marketing, Procurement, Operations and Transformation in Walgreens Boots Alliance businesses. He is also a Non-Executive Director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Claudia Kenyatta CBE
Co-CEO of Historic England
Claudia became Co-CEO of Historic England in a job-share with Emma Squire in November 2025.
Claudia joined Historic England in September 2018 as Director of Regions which became a job-share with Emma Squire from December 2023. Prior to that, Claudia spent 15 years at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, where she specialised in heritage and culture policy, strategy and delivery. Her last role at DCMS before joining Historic England was as Director of Corporate Strategy. Before joining DCMS, Claudia worked in a variety of roles in the Cabinet Office and the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Claudia is Chair of the Board of Trustees at Battersea Arts Centre and member of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Leadership Board.
Lynda Rawsthorne
Government Head of Property Profession, Cabinet Office
Lynda is head of the Government Property Profession, the community of property professionals across government. She provides professional leadership across a diverse range of government departments and arms-length bodies which deliver the government’s property ambitions.
Lynda is responsible for the Government Property Strategy and the Government Property Functional Standard. The strategy sets out the government’s plans for a public sector estate for public benefit, ensuring it enables the best possible public services, is efficient and sustainable and supports the government’s levelling up ambitions. The Functional Standard sets expectations for how government property is acquired, managed and disposed of.
Lynda has over 25 years’ professional experience across the property lifecycle including valuation, managing estates as well as delivering transformational and construction-based programmes. A Fellow of both the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Association of Project Management, Lynda is a graduate of the Major Project Leadership Academy at the University of Oxford.
Rebecca Jones
Infrastructure Strategy and Policy, Ministry of Defence
Rebecca leads on infrastructure strategy and policy in the Ministry of Defence. Her team has responsibilities for any policy that impacts Defence’s infrastructure and property–whether that policy is to do with Defence’s people, the environment, energy, or the use of land. She also works with NATO on infrastructure–both the NATO Security Investment Programme and the development of resilience concepts. Rebecca joined Defence after a decade in industry, including with Procter & Gamble and Amazon.
Liberty Howson
Cabinet Office Fast Stream
Session Speakers
Heather Coombs
Strategic Manager - Buildings & FM, Wigan Council
Mike Diskin
PFI Expiry Programme Manager, Leeds City Council
Colin Dingwall
SRO for the National Biosecurity Centre Programme, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Sam Evans
Head of Natural Environment, Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA)
Sam is Head of Natural Environment at GMCA, leading the Combined Authority’s work to improve the city region’s natural environment through developing strategy and policy, delivering key projects and working with a range of partners. This includes developing and delivering on the Greater Manchester Local Nature Recovery Strategy, Integrated Water Management Plan and Climate Adaptation Strategy.
Sam joined GMCA in October 2018 on secondment from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs where most recently he was Head of Strategy. Before that, Sam held various roles in the civil service across several UK government departments.
Dave Hallam
Senior Director, Arcadis
Dave is an accomplished built environment professional and senior leader in Arcadis with over 25 years’ experience as a Chartered Building Surveyor providing Project and Strategic Asset Management expertise on major programmes of work and complex real estate portfolios worldwide. Dave is a member of the Senior Leadership Team within the Arcadis Asset Optimisation practice. In this role, he leads the delivery of advisory services to public sector clients, private sector investors and other stakeholders, with a focus on asset optimisation including FM consultancy and delivery of propositions associated with the future of PPP as well as PFI hand back services.
Nigel Herbert
Head of Practice - Asset Optimisation, Arcadis
Nigel has over 30 years’ experience of leading real estate / FM consultancies and providing value adding strategic advice across the public and private sectors. A degree qualified mechanical engineer and MBA, he is a recognised thought leader, having authored several technical articles in the FM / PFI arena. He has significant experience through advising on numerous large and complex schemes, as well as being at the forefront of property and asset optimisation thinking including the development of policies and standardised approaches for a range of government bodies.
Patrick Heron
Senior Property Sustainability Advisor, Estates Resilience and Sustainability, Office of Government Property
A sustainability specialist with over a decade of experience across the public and private sectors, specialising in construction and energy projects. Prior to 2023, served within Local Authorities, overseeing the delivery of energy projects, carbon sequestration studies, renewable energy installations, and community projects.
Since joining the Office of Government Property in 2023, provided strategic advisory support across the government property function to ensure the embedding and delivery of sustainability objectives. I particularly welcome assisting smaller government organisations in achieving sustainability enhancements across their respective property portfolios.
Fallon Horan-Swords
Deputy Director, Workplace Project Delivery, GPA
As Deputy Director, Workplace Projects, Fallon leads the team responsible for Lifecycle Replacement, Net Zero and client requested programmes of work at the Government Property Agency.
She is an experienced Programme delivery manager with nearly 20 years’ experience in project and programme management, leading teams to improve portfolios, programmes and projects.
Working alongside established professional services and construction teams, Fallon strives to deliver investment into our managed estate, ensuring value for money from long-term holdings where possible and consolidating estates where they no longer meet standards.
Henry Mahalski
Principal Associate, Mills & Reeve LLP
Henry specialises in commercial property disputes. He advises across a broad range of landlord and tenant issues, working closely with transactional colleagues to deliver clear, pragmatic solutions aligned to client objectives.
Henry has extensive experience supporting public sector and higher education clients on end-of-lease matters, including dilapidations, break options and reinstatement obligations, as well as disputes arising from development and estate strategy. His approach focuses on helping organisations manage risk, maintain flexibility and protect value across complex property portfolios, often in high-value and strategically significant contexts.
Peter O’Dowd
Programme Director, National Biosecurity Centre Programme
John Piercy Holroyd
Associate Partner, Purcell
Dr Ben Smith
Associate Director, Sustainable Futures, AtkinsRéalis
Dr Ben Smith is a senior climate adaptation expert with 18 years’ experience working on climate risk management and strategy for a range of clients including UK local authorities, IFIs, UK Government Departments, and Infrastructure providers. He has particular expertise in climate risk assessment and supporting organisations to develop adaptation strategies, and has supported local authorities including Gloucestershire, Surrey, WECA an WMCA on climate adaptation, and major cities including Cairo, Alexandria and Addis Ababa to identify adaptation investments.
Ben led the development of the Estates Adaptation Framework for the Cabinet Office, which provides comprehensive guidance on climate risk assessment and adaptation planning to ensure consistency in departmental estates adaptation strategies. He has subsequently led the development of climate adaptation strategies for the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and The Pensions Regulator.
Andy Temple
Executive MD, Property & Buildings
WSP
Stephanie Walters
Client Director, Central Government Sector Lead, AtkinsRéalis
Stephanie is a Central Government Client Director at AtkinsRéalis, with 19 years’ experience helping public sector organisations deliver estate, infrastructure and transformation programmes. She leads AtkinsRéalis’ engagement across central government, working with departments and public sector organisations to align estate strategy, property investment and programme delivery with organisational objectives and wider government priorities.
A Chartered Building Surveyor (MRICS) by background, Stephanie combines technical expertise with extensive experience in strategic client leadership, major programme delivery and multidisciplinary collaboration. She is recognised for bringing together diverse teams to address complex estate challenges, unlock value and support the delivery of sustainable, resilient and future-ready public estates.
Dave Williams
WSP Programme Director for NBC Programme/ Director, Building Services, WSP
Speakers, agenda and times may be subject to change
