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 Streamer
Session Speakers
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.
Speakers, agenda and times may be subject to change
