Dr Marco Macagnano Smart Real Estate Leader for Deloitte Consulting in South Africa and Africa, which caters to the design and delivery of connected buildings and cities, IoT integration, digital transformation and strategy, and intelligent asset management. Marco is a professional architect with 14 years of experience in professional practice, a Director of the Green Building Council of South Africa, and a Smart Buildings and Cities specialist. In 2018 he was named a winner in Building Design and Construction’s global 40 Under 40 for 2018, and has completed his PhD in Architecture with a focus on Smart and Sustainable built environments in the Information Age.

Tayo Odunsi is a Chartered Surveyor with over 10 years of professional real estate experience. He holds an undergraduate degree in Estate Management from the University of Lagos, an M.Sc. Real Estate Finance and Investment degree from the Henley Business School, University of Reading UK, as well as an MBA from the Imperial College in London. Some of his previous roles were at FBN Capital, GTHomes and ARM Investment Managers. He is a Fellow of RICS, a member of PMI, the NESG and the African Real Estate Society. He also serves as a Director at Ventures Park.

Simon Ardonceau joined the JLL Sub-Saharan Africa Strategic Consulting team in 2016 to develop the substantial potential for customised real estate consulting advice across the continent. He currently has strategic input in a wide range of assignments, and has been involved on several high profile and complex developments across Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Gulf Corporation Council. His decade in the real estate industry has shaped his niche expertise in property related market assessments, development advisory as well as financial and investment analyses. Simon holds a Master in Management from EDHEC Business School, France and a Master in Real Estate from the European Business School, Germany.

Kevin Teeroovengadum has an MBA and M.Sc. in Finance. He worked for KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young in corporate finance and business consultancy before moving to Loita Capital Partners Group. Kevin joined Actis as a Director as part of their Africa real estate team. At Actis, he led the origination of a number of new developments and assisted in fund raising for Actis’ 2 nd real estate fund. He also led the sale of 2 major assets i.e. Accra Mall in Ghana and Capital Properties in Tanzania to offshore buyers and setting the pricing benchmark for investment grade properties in Africa

Genevieve has 18 years’ experience in the property industry. She recently returned to Nedbank after honing her skills at Standard Bank CIB where she was Executive Head: Real Estate Credit
Risk for South Africa and Rest of Africa. In this position, she was also responsible for the Project Management and Commercial Property Valuations divisions, building a credit and project
platform across geographies in Africa. She has a BSc (Hons) in quantity surveying from the University of Natal and a BCom in risk management from UNISA. She serves on the SA market
advisory panel of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and was national chairperson of the Women’s Property Network in 2015-2016. She returned to Nedbank in 2018 to setup the
Property Finance Africa division and in her current role focuses on digitisation and proptech.

Barry founded Auria Senior Living in 2016, after realising that the over-70s in South Africa were faced with limited choices regarding their later living and care options. Auria Senior Living develops, owns and operates continuing care retirement communities across South Africa. Barry is a Chartered Accountant (SA), with extensive experience in Corporate Finance in South Africa and the UK, as well as 15 years in Property Finance, Development and Management. In 2009, Barry co-founded South Africa’s largest off-campus Student Housing provider, which was subsequently acquired by one of SA’s largest listed REITs.

Henning Rasmuss founded Datascape Architects Africa in October 2021, as a specialised design business dedicated to the fast-growing Data Centre industry on the African continent. This follows 24 years of professional architectural practice, with various partners, in the Paragon Group of companies (www.paragon.co.za). Henning’s professional activities have led to project engagements in 23 countries, completed projects in 18 countries, and built work in 13 countries since 2001. Henning is passionate about implementing projects in limited and less diversified economies on the African continent. In these markets, he often works in turnkey teams, as part of multi-disciplinary engineering teams, and increasingly engages in Design-Construct constellations led by Building Contractors.

Jess leads Broll’s businesses across Africa (excluding SA), as well as the Valuations and Intel divisions. Since joining Broll in 2013, Jess has held Divisional Director: Strategy & Consulting within Occupier Services, then Group Managing Director: East Africa & Indian Ocean. Before Broll she was Research Director at IPD (MSCI), working in London, Australia and South Africa. Jess holds an MBA majoring in International Business, a Master of Property and a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering. She is an active industry speaker, has served on numerous boards and committees, was a 2020 API Award for Women in Africa Real Estate finalist, and in 2018 won Professional of the Year – Private Sector (Gauteng) at the SA Women in Property Awards. She is a Fellow of the Mauritius Institute of Directors and achieved Certified Business Advisor from the Institute of Business Advisors of Southern Africa.

Moritz Wellensiek is the founder of Blackbrick, a new co-living concept focussed on the live-work-remote trend rolling out in South Africa, the USA and Europe. Blackbrick is a live-work residential community, having opened it’s doors with the first property in Johannesburg South Africa on 1 November 2020 and now has a further 3 locations under development. Blackbrick sells its’ apartments as condos to individual investors and it’s first development sold out 90% of it’s 208 apartments within 35 days of launching in 2019. On the back of that success, Moritz and his team have launched a further 3 locations in December 2020 totaling 1,183 apartments. The next target is to secure a further 11 locations by the end of 2022 including LA, Austin, New York and Lisbon. Blackbrick aims to have 50 locations by 2030 with 50,000 members. Moritz grew up between Germany, Italy and South Africa, exposing him to a nomadic lifestyle at an early age and so his mission is to build a network of living communities which empowers people to live freely between cities and to become the best version of themselves. Moritz has been an entrepreneur for 14 years, starting an online student social network at the age of 21 and in recent years focusing on the hospitality and property development industries.

Andrzej is responsible for IWG’s growth across the Middle East & Africa and new countries. He has been with IWG for over 6 years and has a strong understanding of the real estate sector in Africa as well as the structural changes in the market towards flexible working and co-working. During his time he has expanded the business to a further 20 countries building strong partnerships with both landlords and franchise partners. IWG is the world’s largest flexible workspace provider operating in more than 120 countries. Across Africa, the network expands to more than 175 locations across 25 countries, operating under the Regus & Spaces brands.

Paul Mack is the Group Managing Director of The Latitude Hotels Group focussing on group strategy and international business development – www.latitudehotels.com. Latitude is an award-winning group that is building a series of boutique hotels across sub-Saharan Africa that cater to business & tourist travellers, corporate, NGO and local visitors alike, with a strong CSR and community-led ethos. Latitude has focussed on a work-stay-play concept including members’ clubs, co-working spaces, bars/restaurants and relaxation/spa services. Hotels have been built in Lilongwe, Malawi, Lusaka, Zambia and Kampala, Uganda. Latitude also has a strong pipeline including Ethiopia, Mauritius, Kenya, and other key sub-Saharan African countries. Paul has been with Latitude since its early days of development and travels extensively in Africa. He has lived in the US and Hong Kong and currently resides in London.

Ivan Cornet has more than twenty years of real estate experience in Europe and Africa as a lawyer, an investor and a financier. Ivan is Managing Partner – Real Estate and Infrastructure of Latitude Five, a pan-African investment and advisory firm. He assists international and local investors and operators with growth strategies, providing market intelligence, identifying off-market opportunities and structuring and implementing complex commercial and financial transactions. Ivan is a Chartered Surveyor (MRICS) registered with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (UK). Ivan holds senior executive positions with several African real estate companies.

Paul is co-founder and ceo of Workshop17, an award winning flexible workspace company that designs, builds and manages co-working and innovation spaces across South Africa. At the moment, Workshop17 operates 6 locations with over 1500 members and more than 250 companies from various backgrounds and in various professions. Workshop17 is set to double in size in the coming 2 years. Paul’s work in Workshop17 builds on the experience he gained in Maliebaan45, the first high-end, boutique co-working space in the Netherlands, with opened in 2008. In 2018, a second location opened in Driebergen. Early 2021 a third location opened in Amsterdam. In 1996, Paul co-founded Kessels & Smit, The Learning Company, an international consulting group of over 50 professionals. Key theme’s throughout Paul’s work are: learning, innovation and entrepreneurship.

When Marc was five years old he told a school teacher that he wanted to be a businessman, and not a fire fighter like some of his peers.  At just 40 years old, he can tick that box.  As the MD and owner of this disruptive group, he is a humble guy with great vision.  Since its inception in 2008, the group has achieved outstanding success, as a leading supplier at the forefront of the apart-hotel industry. With over 1 800 rooms and an owner operator model, The Capital’s steep growth trajectory has gone from strength to strength.

Adrian Maguire, CEO of FATTi, has 25 years of experience in telecommunications. FATTI, which started out by providing the next generation Wi-Fi networks to shopping centers, has now expanded worldwide and its solutions are deployed on luxury ocean liners, theaters, soccer stadiums and schools in addition to malls. Maguire started out doing telecom solutions in dealer-rooms and call centers. He them moved into the open access networks where he deployed some of the first open access fiber and PLC networks in the country.

Vicus looks after retail developments in Sub-Saharan Africa with the scope of his work involving finding tenants, securing of new retail projects in new and existing locations, budgets and management of staff. He was involved in the leasing of West Hills Mall and the Junction in Ghana which opened in 2014. Vicus is currently leasing retail projects in Angola, Ghana, Mozambique and Zambia. Vicus has accumulated many years of experience in the retail operational sector, having spent time with the likes of Mr. Price and Topics in their internal real estate departments.

Dewaldt is a Director within CBRE Excellerate’s Advisory and Transactional Services Business. He is responsible for advising Global Occupier Clients on the effective management and de-risking of their Real Estate portfolios and Investments across Sub-Saharan Africa. With over 12 years commercial property experience in Africa, Dewaldt has built up a comprehensive understanding of the African market place, culture, business environment and investment climate as well as associated risks and the mitigation thereof. He uses this experience in the successful implementation of standardised Real Estate Strategies across fundamentally different markets across Africa.

Akintola Adesanmi is the Co-Founder of Spleet, a startup that provides access to premium residential solutions, with options of daily, monthly, and quarterly subscriptions. Akintola has an extensive background in the banking and fintech space as a product manager, building and managing products, most notably for GTBank and eTranzact. Spleet provides easier living in Africa for renters looking for spare bedrooms, shared spaces and for homeowners looking to maximise the yield from their property. The interplay of supply and demand makes rents in cities like Lagos astronomically high and Spleet’s selling point is finding a solution to this hike in price for renters.

Hannah Clifford is the Director of Nairobi Garage, Africa’s largest co-working space. Hannah has run the Garage since its inception in 2012, building it up to house Nairobi’s largest co-working community of innovative businesses, with spaces in Westlands and Ngong Road. Hannah has lived and worked in Kenya for 7 years, starting out in the development sector; with a background in political science, Hannah has since found her passion in supporting private sector development through supporting the growth of startups, SMEs and tech-powered businesses.

Johan drives the student accommodation strategic initiative at Eris Property Group, that started with much research in 2017. He leads the Student Accommodation Development team and backs up the Student Accommodation Investment and Property Management Teams at Eris. He has 16 years of experience in the property industry and a Masters Degree in Real Estate. He is passionate about property, student accommodation, prop tech and fishing. Through the student accommodation initiative we hope to deliver beds to where it is needed most in South Africa and hopefully across Africa in the future.

Alexandria Procter was born in the Eastern Cape, and started DigsConnect.com during her undergrad at the University of Cape Town while she was a member of the Students Representative Council. The platform has grown to become Africa’s largest student accommodation marketplace, listing tens of thousands of beds across South Africa since its launch in January 2018. DigsConnect completed its seed round of funding in March 2019, raising R12 million for a minority stake in the company, in one of the largest seed rounds in South Africa to date. Other than work on DigsConnect.com, Alexandria is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers, Mensa and is pursuing a private pilot’s licence at Stellenbosch Flying Club. She ran a programme called “Libraries for Entrepreneurship” in the Cape Flats, running computer literacy and entrepreneurship workshops on Saturdays for a year. She has travelled to 35 countries, trekked to Everest Base Camp and submitted Kilimanjaro.

Greg is the Founder & CEO of AfricaWorks, a pioneering and innovative workplace solution provider in Africa. AfricaWorks provides Design & Build services as well as Flexible Workplaces solutions to Global Corporates in 12+ countries through 9 offices on the continent. After 7 years in Kenya, Greg recently relocated back to his home-town – Paris. Greg is also the Co Founder of the French African Foundation as well as the French Chamber of Commerce in Kenya.

Wayne leads hotel advisory at JLL’s Hotels & Hospitality Group in Sub-Saharan Africa. Wayne has spent the past 11 years in the hospitality real estate sector. Wayne has completed assignments across 35 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, specialising in feasibility studies, hotel management company and asset valuations, buy-side advisory for hotels and hospitality platforms, market entry strategies, operator selection and management contract negotiation. Wayne completed an undergraduate degree in Tourism Development at the University of Johannesburg, before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration (PDBA) at Wits Business School and an MSc Property Studies at the University of Cape Town

Raghav Gandhi is an emerging markets specialist with over a decade’s experience in the real estate industry across South Asia, UK and the Middle East and Africa. Raghav is the CEO of RedBird & Partners – a real estate consultancy specializing in development and investment mandates. He has overseen the development of more than 2.5mn sq.ft of real estate across different asset classes, raised $550 million for a developer in India and was also part of the founding management team of a commercial real estate venture for a leading conglomerate. Currently, he is leading the implementation of the REITs for Acorn Holdings Limited, which are to be launched in late 2020/early 2021.

Sean is an experienced, independent and youthful property consultant operating through his company, Divercity Property Solutions in Africa and the United Kingdom. He is also a member of the executive committee of the South African Chamber of Commerce. It is this role, as well as his years of experience in all sectors of the property industry, that has made him an invaluable property consultant and the perfect mentor for the aspiring real estate leader.

Isaac Kamau is the CEO & Co-founder of The Vlage, a marketplace platform that helps professionals book medium to long term Coliving spaces in Kenya. He is also Kenyan & Africa Co-Liv Ambassador where he organizes events that helps Coliving industry players network and share information in creating better Coliving spaces, improved community building and tech
driven operations. He has a professional background in accounting and business development. His journey in real estate started 5 years ago when he decide to help his landlord in Nairobi with marketing his property. The Landlord was struggling with tenant acquisition.