Plenary & Panel Speakers
Mark Chivers
Government Chief Property Officer, Cabinet Office
Mark joined the Cabinet Office as Government Chief Property Officer in January 2022.
Mark 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.
Saurabh Bhandari
Director, Property Delivery and Transformation, Office of Government Property (Cabinet Office)
Saurabh Bhandari was appointed Director, Property Delivery and Transformation, within the Office of Government Property (Cabinet Office), in May 2024.
Saurabh leads strategic initiatives to modernise and optimise the Government Property Portfolio, with a particular focus on transforming property investments and assets into catalysts for innovation & growth, that create public value.
Saurabh leads the drive to improve the condition of the government estate. He is responsible for the ongoing improvement of facilities management in government buildings, including modernising infrastructure to enhance safety, energy efficiency and operational effectiveness across the public sector. As a precursor to transforming assets and investments, he will also provide leadership in using data and analytics to enable decisions across the government estate.
Having trained as a Chartered Architect and a Programme manager he brings multi-sector experience across real estate, social and economic infrastructure. Saurabh has extensive experience at senior positions on high-profile, national and international property programmes in a career spanning across multiple market sectors and both public and private investment led development programmes.
He is a Fellow of the Association of Project Management and a graduate of the Major Project Leadership Academy at Oxford University.
A keen reader and amateur runner, Saurabh lives in Manchester with his wife and two children.
Lynda Rawsthorne
Government Head of Property Profession, Cabinet Office
Lynda Rawsthorne was appointed Government Head of Property Profession and Director, Property Capability, Sponsorship & Standards, in August 2023.
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.
Lynda joined the Cabinet Office from the Department of Transport where she was Director of Programme Integration within High Speed Rail Group, leading the land and property interface. Her previous roles include Prison Infrastructure Director at Ministry of Justice, leading delivery of the 15,000 additional places construction and transformation programme, and Programme Director of the £4.4bn Priority School Building Programme at the Department for Education. Starting her career in Local Government, she then worked predominantly in the Valuation Office Agency which she joined on the graduate programme, serving as a Valuation Officer, Head of Customer Services and Chief of Staff.
Lynda grew up in Milton Keynes but as a military wife has travelled extensively, with married quarters in four countries. She juggled three children and a variety of working patterns while continuing her career.
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.
Session Speakers
Speaker TBC
Job Title TBC
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Speakers, agenda and times may be subject to change
