Sector Lead – Insurance

Emma launched WIRP in 2017 and has worked closely with the real estate industry for almost 15 years.  Emma believes that effective collaboration between all those involved in residential property from house builders through to estate agents and onto suppliers is vital to improving the consumer experience of the sector and to resolving some of the long-standing challenges the sector faces.  Emma is also a very firm believer in the importance of professional support networks which WIRP aims to help women develop.

Sector Lead – Build to Rent 

An agile innovator, motivator and leader with over five years of senior management experience working across two of the UK’s best loved retail brands, John Lewis and Waitrose.
Working at Group level, I am responsible for strategy and implementation across multiple disciplines including real estate management, legal compliance, sustainability and capital planning of a £3 billion portfolio of retail, distribution and residential property.
I enjoy working for a business that has a strong social purpose and where I can make a direct difference to my team, our customers and the wider community.
I’m very interested in the role of businesses in society and how business can be a force for good. As such I am currently immersed in the Build to Rent sector and the potential impact on raising the property rental standards in the UK.

Sector Lead – Finance

Jemma Phillips, Group Finance Director at the Leaders Romans Group – one of the UK’s largest property services groups.

LRG have a network of over 245 branches across the country and employ 3,000 people.

Jemma is an ACA qualified Group Finance Director with 15+ years of experience across both statutory reporting and commercial finance, as well as involvement with the procurement function, finance transformations and acquisitions.

Jemma’s core experience has been gained across a range of industries currently working within Property & Real Estate, but with previous experience within FMCG and Manufacturing. She has experience working within complex group structures, PLCs and Private Equity, including exposure within M&A and acquisition integrations.

Sector Lead – Estate Agency

Alice Bullard is Managing Director at Nested, one of the UK’s leading self-employed estate agencies. Her journey with Nested commenced in 2017 when she joined as a Sales Associate, following five years of experience at Countrywide. Demonstrating her exceptional dedication and leadership skills, Alice ascended to the role of Managing Director in 2022. 

Within the estate agency sector, female leadership is notably underrepresented. Alice is deeply committed to changing this and wants to see more opportunities opening up for women who are eager to build successful careers in the property industry.

Sector Lead – People Engagement

Q: What’s Agency Development?
A: People, Process, Systems and Change.

I don’t have one clearly defined role. I have one clearly defined goal. To make us better.
Every day I aim to bring positive, impactful change to our people, clients and our business.

Sector Lead – Later Living

Susan has been a senior leader in corporate, independent and start-up estate agencies for 15 years. She completed an MSc in People & Organisational Development in 2021 with a focus on organisational structures, strategy, purpose and leadership development.  She is now an industry consultant as well as the Founder of Turners Oak – an estate agency and consultancy specifically supporting older homeowners and their families as they navigate the uniqueness of a move in later life.

Susan has been vocal with her constructive criticism of the gender pay gap in estate agency, specifically in the upper quartile of our organisations, and champions the research that suggests it is a symptom of systemic issues that need to be addressed in order to make significant progress.

Sector Lead – Later Living Operations

Lucy is a passionate Sales Manager within the later living sector. Working with Elysian Residences, a London based luxury retirement living provider, Lucy works on developments throughout London and the Home Counties.

Specialising in ‘off -plan’ sales, Lucy and her team provide customers with the option to plan ahead by reserving a property prior to practical completion. This practice helps sure up the wider business by guaranteeing income upon build completion, reducing void costs, increasing cash flow and reducing the lifespan of the sales operation on site, hence reducing cost.

The skill of off-plan selling is unique, it involves key relationship building and trust to provide homeowners who may not of moved for 40+ years to feel ready to make that big move they have been putting off. It requires enhanced marketing tools, the ability to read and explain detailed working drawings and work alongside construction  to deliver the homeowners specified product.

Lucy started her career in property 12 years ago as a trainee and has since worked in various parts of the sector, building on her skills and experience. Working in a regional role and managing a team of property professionals, often in a very male dominated environment, Lucy is eager for others to start their own journey in property.

Sector Lead – New Homes

Sector Lead – Block Management

Sector Lead – Block Management (North)

Regional Representative – London Estate Agency 

Ellie studied Illustration & Fine Art and exhibited internationally, receiving residencies and awards, including a Jerwood prize. She also worked in opera and lectured at Chelsea art school for many years.

A chance meeting with Rex when viewing a house changed her path, and they soon began investigating how they could combine their skills to create a new type of estate agency.

These days, Ellie brings her entrepreneurial spirit to her role as Director of New Business, overseeing valuations. Her passion for gender politics and equality within the industry is currently playing out in a campaign called Dear Sirs – a move to eradicate the commonplace salutation within the legal and property professions.

Married to Rex, Ellie lives with their two girls in a ramshackle bungalow in rural Wiltshire

Sector Lead – New Homes Plot Sales

Jade has a range of experience advising on residential development sites for a number of regional housebuilder clients, registered providers, care and retirement and later living providers, and boutique luxury developers. Her expertise includes advising clients on all aspects of the technical site set up of residential developments and preparing the site for plot sales. She has experience of large volume sales to bespoke conversions and small-scale developments. Jade is passionate about championing women in the industry, and is currently the Vice Chair of Women in Property Solent branch.

Sector Lead – PropTech

Equality in the workplace is everyone’s problem, not just those asking for it. I’m really excited to learn from this group of amazing people. As the (on-paper) antithesis of diversity, being in this forum is the perfect place to expand my narrow experince of our tiny proportion of the world.

Ambassador – Proptech

“…Research showed that if a start-up has even just one more woman on their founding team, they are less likely to get funding in comparison to a company with a male-dominated team.”

Proptech is critically under represented by women, particularly in founder or senior positions, lets fix that today!

A bit about me… I am a product leader with over 15 years of experience spanning marketplaces, proptech, and helping bring to life many data-centric products that are today used by millions. Originally starting out ‘client side’ with the brilliant team at Connells (Sequence) in what feels like a million years ago now! I have since had some fantastic years working with property portal and proptech businesses both in the UK and internationally, including Zoopla, Propertyfinder, and Hometrack.

Today, at Addland a UK proptech start-up focused on data accessibility, I spearhead the entire cross-functional production team, overseeing all aspects of Product Engineering, Platform and Infrastructure, Data Engineering, Product Delivery, Research, and Product Design. Never far from the production line, my role is to drive this amazing team toward greater innovation and excellence in every aspect of their work, propelling the business towards growth and success in the UK’s fast-paced proptech landscape. Passionate about supporting all areas of the industry and how to encourage more women coming into the sector, in every type and level of role.

Who says girls can’t code 😉

Sector Lead – Land

Maisie is currently Senior Land Manager at residential developer, Quantum Homes, overseeing the land acquisitions and planning operations of the business. Having worked previously for a housing association and in land agency, Maisie has a wide understanding of land, planning and development.  Within construction and more specifically within Land teams, women are hugely underrepresented and Maisie is keen to encourage more women to pursue a career in Land and experience how rewarding it can be.