John Blackwood has worked in the private rented sector for nearly 30 years and is widely recognised as one of the leading voices in the Scottish private rented sector. He represents SAL on a number of Scottish Government committees working to inform and influence housing policy. John is chief executive of the Scottish Association of Landlords (SAL), managing director of Gladstones Property Investment Managers and chairman of Scotland’s national accreditation scheme for private landlords and letting agents, Landlord Accreditation Scotland (LAS). John also holds a judicial appointment as a member of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (Housing & Property Chamber) and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.  

Robin Fieth joined the Building Societies Association (BSA) as Chief Executive in December 2013. Previously he was Executive Director, Members and Operations at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). Robin originally joined the ICAEW in 2002 as Director of Finance. During his career, he has also held a number of other senior positions in the corporate sector, including Group Finance Director and Company Secretary at AIM listed Transacsys plc. He spent the first 10 years of his career with PwC. 

The BSA is the voice of building societies in the UK, speaking out on issues relevant to building societies and their members (savers and borrowers). Together, building societies serve over 25 million customers across the UK; have total assets of over £500 billion and have a 23% market share of the residential mortgage market, and 19% share of the savings market. 

Robin is a fellow of the ICAEW, a non-executive director of Co-operatives UK and a member of the General Assembly of the European Association of Co-operative Banks.  He is married with three grown-up children. 

After 15 years working for the UK government and the EU on housing policy, Paula launched the HomeOwners Alliance. Now in its 11th year, HomeOwners Alliance exists to restore trust in home ownership by lobbying for policies and industry practices to get a better deal for homeowners. 

With almost 5 million unique visitors a year, her website offers practical help to homeowners facing some of the biggest and most complex decisions of their lives.  

Paula is a respected commentator and advocate for homeowners and is regularly quoted in the media and appears on radio and TV. 

With over a decade of experience in the financial services sector, starting her career as a mortgage advisor, Rachael has held multiple positions across the finance landscape including business development, national accounts and new build.  Rachael is passionate about the role finance plays in creating sustainable, positive social and environmental outcomes for all. Joining the Green Finance Institute in early 2023, Rachael lead the GFI’s Green Mortgage campaign as part of the flagship Built Environment programme and in February 2024 progressed to Associate Director for Built Environment. Rachael is responsible for driving growth, scale and impact across the green home finance market, working with stakeholders from across the public and private sectors.

Vic Jannels was appointed CEO of the Association of Short Term Lenders (ASTL) in January 2020. He is also Chairman of Impact Specialist Finance Ltd, a multi award winning company operating in the mortgage intermediary sector.

Some of Vic’s previous roles include Chair of the Professional Mortgage Packagers Alliance (PMPA), Director of specialist mortgage lender Unity Home Loans and was a co-opted board member of The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI).

Throughout his career, Vic’s priority has always been to champion the customer and he had used this approach to help steer key boardroom decisions at a number of organisations. He has played an instrumental role in the launch of the Certified Practitioner in Specialist Property Finance (CPSP) and was most recently named in the 2023 Global Mortgage 100, which included the most influential industry professionals across the planet.

Dr Muhammed Bolomope is a Lecturer in Real Estate at the University of Aberdeen Business School. He obtained his PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand and has previously lectured at Massey University and Lincoln University, both in New Zealand. Based on his multi-disciplinary background, Muhammed has worked professionally in various property appraisal, development and management roles. He has published articles in reputable journals and his research interests are in property market disruptions, decision-making, sustainability, procurement and urban policy. 

Charles is Director of Mortgages at UK Finance, the trade body for the banking and finance industry, with nearly 120 mortgage lenders in its membership. Charles and his team are responsible for responding to government and regulatory policy requests on behalf of the UK ‘s mortgage lending industry. In addition to his role at UK Finance, Charles is a non-executive of Stonebridge Mortgage Solutions, and chairs its Risk Committee.

With over 25 years in the finance industry, Charles’ career encompasses all parts of the mortgage sector, including an Executive Director and Chief Risk Officer at a top 10 building society,  a director in the financial services practice at a Grant Thornton,  and 11 years regulatory and compliance experience at the FCA.  Whilst at the FCA, Charles, was Head of Department for the mortgage sector, where he oversaw the implementation of both the Mortgage Market Review and the Mortgage Credit Directive.

Robert helped establish the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) as an independent entity on 1 February 2012. Robert joined the former parent trade body, AIFA, in October 2006, initially looking after the Association of Finance Brokers and since 2008, AMI. He lobbies government, regulators and other policy-makers, liaising with fellow trade bodies and briefing the national and trade press.

He brings a wealth of industry experience to the trade body having held a number of front line sales roles in personal, private and corporate banking combined with experience in marketing, training and internal audit with both HSBC and Santander.

Robert served five years as a non-executive director of the Buckinghamshire Building Society, is now a non-executive director of the Darlington Building Society and advises the Bank of England as a member of the Residential Property Forum.

Chloe is a Senior Policy Adviser at the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries specialising in Green and ESG policy, Consumer Duty, the Later Life sector and UK mortgage market regulation. She previously oversaw the launch of AMI’s award-winning ‘Working in Mortgages’ Diversity and Inclusion initiative, and in 2020 she published a book on the UK housing crisis. She also speaks on national radio (BBC R4, BBC R5 Live, LBC and Tonight with Andrew Marr) about issues affecting renters and first-time buyers.

Dr Yi Wu is a Lecturer in Real Estate Economics, specialising in housing economics and corporate finance. Dr Wu joined Henley Business School from Cass Business School as Lecturer in Real Estate. Dr Wu spent time as a visiting scholar at the University of San Diego and the National University of Singapore and worked for Yuexiu, a Hong Kong based real estate investment trust and CHER AMI Investment Group, a Guangzhou based private fund. 

Dr Wu was appointed the chair of the Society of Property Researchers (SPR) and chair of Red Foundation Data Research & Academia Steering Group in 2023. Her publications appear in various top-tier academic journals. She has led many research funding projects, such as a UKRI Accelerated Knowledge Transfer to Innovate (AKT2I) grant. She has good connections with the real estate industry, including Knight Frank, Co-Star, CBRE, JLL, MSCI, and BNP Paribas Real Estate. She works with various business organizations in shaping big data strategies in business decision. 

Dr. Yuan Zhao is an Associate Professor of Real Estate Finance at the University of Reading. Before joining Henley Business School, Yuan worked as an Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Aberdeen where she gained her PhD in Real Estate Finance. 

Dr. Yuan’s research areas cover a wide range of finance and real estate subjects, including mutual funds; portfolio optimisation; behavioural finance; risk management; crypto assets from finance fields, and housing valuation; real estate finance; sustainability; leasehold relativity from real estate areas. 

Dr. Yuan has built her research portfolio in real estate and finance with both ABS-ranked 3*/4* journal papers and institution-funded research projects. She has published and served as a referee in several peer-reviewed journals such as European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Journal of Real Estate Research, International Review of Financial Analysis, and International Journal of Finance & Economics. She has worked as a co-investigator in several funded research projects, including the IPF project on the investigation of hurdle rates in the real estate investment process and the consultancy project on London leasehold relativity. Yuan is currently working on research projects on portfolio homogenous subsets, investor sentiment, herding, tokenised real estate, and fund family competition. She is also involved in a Property Research Trust-funded project on occupier profile and the ESG agenda in commercial real estate with the University of Aberdeen.