Michael Shields joined ING in May 2004 and has 25-year experience in real estate lending, asset management and restructuring. Based in London, he is currently responsible for ING REF’s EMEA lending platform – lending assets totaling over EUR 12Bio. He is also leading coverage of Real Estate clients active globally.  Prior to his current role, he led ING REF’s highly successful U.S. lending platform which he helped grow from USD 200 million to over USD 7.5 billion at its peak in 2008. Before ING, Michael was an originator in BHF Capital’s U.S real estate lending team and was one of the original members of Helaba’s CRE finance team in the U.S. Michael started his banking career in Chemical Bank’s real estate group in Manhattan.

As Head of Asia Research, Tim leads the continued development of Hines’ research framework that supports business and investment opportunities across Asia and for its Asia-focused strategies. Based in Hong Kong, he brings more than 20 years of experience in the real estate research and investment industry, of which almost 15 have been with a focus on Asian property markets. He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees from King’s College London and holds a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction in Financial Strategy from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

As Co-CEO, Claus co-leads Urban Partners and oversees all efforts within strategy, partnerships, capital, and business development, and is part of the Executive Leadership Council and Investment Committee. Claus joined the company in 2008 and became CEO in 2018. He is a firm believer in the constructive role that private capital can play in addressing urban challenges. Under Claus’ leadership, the company has grown from Nrep’s €4bn AuM in real estate, into the multi-asset manager Urban Partners with €21bn AuM and investments in 15 countries across credit, venture, private equity, and real estate. The company has two decades of track record with a 18% net IRR since inception (avg) and is a recognized leader in urban decarbonization. Claus was previously with JP Morgan in London and later with Boston Consulting Group, working on growth strategy and operational excellence for large infrastructure clients in airport, energy, telecoms, retail, pharmaceutical and postal service sectors. He was recently nominated as global Industry Figure of the Year by PERE.

Gareth is a Director in the PwC Real Estate Corporate Finance team and has over 20 years multi-disciplined experience across the UK, European and global real estate sector. He leads PwC’s real estate thought leadership and research on behalf of the European firm, including PwC/ULI Emerging Trends in Real Estate European and Global reports. Having started his career as a real estate advisor in London and New York, he spent a number of years as an industry representative for the British Property Federation (BPF), European Public Real Association (EPRA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI). During his 5 years at EPRA, he represented the European REIT sector in their engagements with governments, regulators and global investors. At PwC, Gareth specialises in real estate M&A and helps clients in the development and execution of their real estate strategy/operations and drives PwC’s knowledge and insight relevant to real estate businesses.

As chief executive of ULI Europe, Lisette van Doorn is responsible for the development of the Institute’s activities across the region, including its renowned pan-European conferences and over 250 local meetings and events across 14 countries. She is responsible for working with ULI’s staff both locally and globally to deliver more high-profile content and reports; coordinating Advisory Services panels and Urban Plan; and expanding the Institute’s thought leadership across Europe. Van Doorn joined ULI in January 2015 from LIRE, her own consultancy business, which advises international institutional real estate investors and fund managers on strategy, organisational optimisation and portfolio structuring. Prior to this, van Doorn was country manager for CBRE Global Investors where she managed a €1.6bn portfolio of assets in Italy and fund manager of two shopping centre funds (€ 1.3 billion) with assets in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Before joining CBRE Global Investors, van Doorn was founding chief executive for INREV, the European association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles for four and a half years. Van Doorn started her career at ING Investment Management, where she held account manager and assistant controller positions before being made managing director of research & strategy for ING Real Estate Investment Management Europe.