OUR TEAM
Senior Management
PAUL OLIVER
CEO
Paul founded Curlew in 2011 to focus on the emerging alternative sector of real estate investment. He has over 40 years’ experience in development and investment management in both the UK and Europe. He has been at the forefront of the establishment of collective investment schemes, mainly unlisted funds, since 1988.
During the 1980s he led commercial real estate development teams in predominantly shopping centre schemes, following which he moved to head up Dusco alongside Chairman Dik Dusseldorp, founder of Lend Lease PLC. Paul then established Equity Partnerships Ltd, promoting and managing non-listed real estate vehicles, which merged with Teesland Group in 2000. In 2002 he launched Teesland PLC on the London Stock Exchange, growing funds under management to €6.5 billion before sale to Valad in June 2007.
BRETT ROBINSON
CFO
Brett is Chief Investment Officer of Curlew Capital. Brett has over 35 years of institutional investment experience. Before joining Curlew, Brett founded Seven Dials, a property research and consulting company. Prior to that Brett worked at AXA Investment Management where he was Director of Quantitative and Structured Products.
He joined AXA IM following the takeover of his previous employer Guardian Royal Exchange, where he was a Director of Guardian Asset Management with responsibility for £7bn of Life Fund assets, including £700m of property.
CHARLIE OLIVER
Managing Director
Charlie joined Curlew in the summer of 2018 and is leading the acquisitions function across the Curlew Capital and Communities teams.
Charlie is a qualified Chartered Surveyor with over 9 years’ experience in Real Estate, the majority of which has been focused on the UK Residential sector. More recently he has specialised in Residential Capital Markets at JLL since 2016 and prior to that BNP Paribas Real Estate.
He has been involved in over £800m of Residential land, forward commitment and investment transactions, covering a broad range of schemes totalling over 3,700 units across the UK.
IAN SCOTT
Head of Investment
Management
Ian is Fund Manager for the Curlew Student Trust and a strategic adviser to Curlew Communities.
He launched the iQ student platform for Quintain PLC in 2005 where he ran that award winning business until its sale in 2014. Before that he worked in both property and equity markets for Prudential, M&G, as well as the Unite Group PLC in corporate development. He has lectured in both the UK and China on property and equity investment.
JIM SUTHERLAND
Head of Development
Jim joined Curlew in early 2015 to head up the development team.
He brings some forty years of experience in direct and indirect development across all sectors of the UK commercial property market, specialising more recently in the branded hotel sector. As a founding director of Hospitality First, which provides hotel management and property services to clients, Jim has worked with many leading hotel brands including IHG, Accor, Best Western, Premier Inn and Travelodge.
DAN HORWOOD
Chief Investment Officer
Having worked with Paul Oliver intermittently since 2002, Dan joined Curlew in 2013 to work on corporate initiatives, including new business initiatives.
Dan brings to Curlew 12 years of experience as a ‘sell-side’ real estate equity analyst with an in-depth knowledge of property investment, development, fund management and service enterprises, both public and private. In his previous positions with Liberum Capital, Singer Capital and Peel Hunt, he was involved in pre-IPO structuring, flotations, secondary fundraisings and advisory projects. He also founded a ‘smidcap’ credit research business.
THE TEAM
DAVE ALLWOOD
Fund Manager
David joined Curlew as the Deputy Fund Manager in May 2020 from British Land where he had worked as their lead development analyst, advising on acquisitions, discrete development projects and wider regeneration schemes across a range of asset classes.
At Curlew he is now responsible for assisting with investment strategy, providing financial modelling, analysis and underwrite for Curlew’s expanding investment and development programme.
KRISTIAN MILLS
Director Of Asset Management
Kristian was appointed in April 2020 to take responsibility for the management of Curlew’s two PBSA funds. A true PBSA specialist, Kristian has 15 years experience in this sector having worked with some of the UK’s largest PBSA owner-operators including iQ Students, Greystar, and UNITE.
More recently Kristian was Head of Operations for the South East and London at CRM Students. Kristian is an MA Graduate in Human Resource Development and brings to Curlew a valuable grounding in all aspects of site and team management which he has built throughout his extensive career in PBSA.
SHAZIM ABDULLAH
Senior Financial Controller
Shazim joined Curlew in 2017 as Senior Financial Controller for the Curlew Student Trust.
Prior to this, he was Financial Controller for Round Hill Capital’s Nordic Commercial Fund. He brings significant Real Estate Fund Finance experience having previously also worked at Schroders on their UK listed Real Estate Investment Trust.
Shazim qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC.
DEBORAH LLOYD
Fund, Legal & Strategy Advisor
Deborah joined Curlew in February 2021 as a senior consultant advising on business strategy, regulatory, corporate and contractual matters. She also sits on the company’s Risk Committee.
Formerly a Partner at law firm Nabarro LLP (now CMS) for 23 years she is a former Chair of both AREF and INREV and is currently Deputy Chair of the University of London’s Estates Committee.
Highly regarded for her strategic thinking and thought leadership, Deborah is an expert in fund structuring, refinancing and investment processes. She will also oversee matters of Corporate Governance.
GREG FOX
Senior Development Director
Greg joined Curlew in the summer of 2018 as a Senior Development Manager in the Curlew Opportunities team.
Greg previously worked for Brookfield Multiplex on a number of high-profile schemes including One Blackfriars. Prior to this, he worked on two large scale PBSA schemes delivering over 1000 beds
He graduated from the University of Reading with a degree in Construction Management and Surveying.
NICK WOOLCOTT
Head of Project Management
Nick established CST’s SPEC 2020 – a bespoke guide to creating top-class student accommodation. He currently acts as Project Manager on Curlew’s schemes and monitors CST’s forward funding programmes.
Prior to working with Curlew, Nick project-managed a number of high profile projects in the UK across a range of sectors. These include Tate Modern, Heathrow Terminal Airside1, Heathrow Terminal 5 baggage handling, Luton Airport, the new Acute Wing of the Whittington Hospital and the development of a project management system for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Daniel joined Curlew in December 2015 as a Fund Accountant. He is responsible for monitoring and managing the Curlew Student Trust’s cashflows and debt covenants while also assisting Brett with lender and administrator relationships.
Prior to joining Curlew, Daniel worked for Amber Infrastructure as a Project Accountant, gaining relevant experience in the PPP/PFI and SPV industry with responsibility for the accounts of the Wind Farm Offshore Projects and Property Investment project.
Daniel delivers quality financial statements, quarterly board packs and bank reports. He holds a BA in Accounting and Finance and is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
Director of
Sustainability
GREG AKOKA
Director of Sustainability
After a 15 years in the hospitality sector, Greg joined Curlew in 2015 as an ESG consultant to focus on GRESB reporting.
After achieving Curlew’s first Green Star in 2016 for the CST I fund, his responsibilities have been expanded to cover the development of our ESG operational framework, the integration of ESG issues in our investment process and all our Sustainability Disclosure requirements.
In 2020, Greg developed the Curlew Sustainability Strategy 2030, which is our current road map to Net Zero and he’s currently working on the integration of TCFD, SFDR and SDGs indicators into our reporting process.
DANIEL ADEMUWAGUN
Fund Accounting Manager
NIGEL MOGRIDGE
Director Of Operations
After a career in a real estate encompassing asset management, investment management, acquisitions and development management, Nigel joined Curlew in March 2020 to undertake the broad role of steering and coordinating the various operational aspects of the company.
These responsibilities include HR, IT, compliance and PR/marketing and occupational premises.
UJWAL GEHLOT
Senior Investment Analyst
Ujwal joined Curlew Capital early 2016 and works in the investment team. Prior to this, he worked as an M&A investment analyst within the real estate/corporate industry at REGUS, assisting origination through to execution on a range of deals including debt financing.
He is highly numerate with a particular strength in financial modelling having graduated in Accounting and Finance from Cass Business School, London.
KIRSTEN DAMANT
Investment Analyst
Kirsten holds a BSc in Property Studies and has a first-class MSc degree in Real Estate from Kingston University.
She works in Curlew’s development team on all aspects of the development process from site acquisition to completion and is specifically responsible for the development team’s financial analysis as well as assisting on all other aspects of the development management cycle
EMMA
LANDER
Operations Assistant
Emma Lander was appointed as Operations Assistant in March 2020. Emma started her career at Clydesdale Bank as a Business Associate before joining Allied Irish Bank in Compliance.
Immediately prior to joining Curlew Emma worked at 7 Dials Asset Management as Finance Assistant, working for the CEO and CFO on fund administration and compliance.
She joined Curlew to work alongside the new Director of Operations on a wide range of administrative and operational matters.
ROBERT
MORGAN
Consultant
Robert is responsible for Curlew’s non student lettings and for certain corporate governance, due diligence and insurance matters.
He is a Chartered Surveyor with 35 years experience in the commercial property world of agency, lease advisory and corporate real estate. He was a Partner and Director of a number of leading firms including Jones Lang LaSalle and BNP Paribas.