Meet the judges: PlaceTech Prize

Meet the panel of property and technology experts judging this year’s PlaceTech Prize for innovation in the UK market.

PlaceTech Prize is open to the following, across all areas of technology in property:

• Projects
• Services
• Companies
• Products

The panel will also be judging entries for the PlaceTech Startup Prize, which will be awarded to the most promising business or project of the past three years.

Winners will receive a comprehensive package including editorial coverage, tickets to events, access to industry leaders and marketing support, as well as recognition as most innovative firm, project or startup.

The deadline for entries is 19 July 2019.

Click here to enter or nominate

The full list of judges includes:

Martin Bryant – consultant, speaker, writer, and educator on technology and media. Martin works to help technology companies craft a narrative around their products and business. He was previously editor-in-chief of international technology publication The Next Web, and community editor at Tech North, where he shone a light on the stories of start-ups and entrepreneurs in the North of England.

Tom Cheesewright – founder of applied futurism practice, Book of the Future and creator of the Applied Futurist’s Toolkit, a suite of strategy tools for agile organisations. Tom appears frequently in the media, with over a thousand appearances across TV, radio, print and digital providing analysis of the latest tech news and trends.

Danny Crump – director of urbanism, Broadway Malyan, leading the Northern city planning and delivery team. Danny has spent the past two decades delivering high profile projects around the world, and he has a particular passion for the role of design, development and regeneration, especially through the prism of transit-orientated communities.

Robert de Jong – programme director for the Urban Land Institute UK, advising and leading on the development of initiatives for the ULI Tech Forum, Sustainability and Infrastructure & Regeneration Council. Robert has over 20 years’ experience leading and developing innovative programmes for commercial property, third sector and industry associations.

Mike Edge – partner at law firm Mills & Reeve. A well-known lawyer, Mike has more than 30 years of experience in the property industry and has worked for a number of high-profile clients, including significant developers and investors, as well as substantial occupier clients.

Menno Lammers – chief proptech officer and founder of PropTechNL, a cross-industry development platform that aims to connect society challenges with proptech solutions and to invent the future of property by helping leaders to futureproof their organisations. He is also a mentor at startup bootcamp, ‘Smart City & IoT’.

Melanie Leech – chief executive, British Property Federation, where her role is to champion UK property and promote a sustainable partnership between the Government and the sector. Melanie has a wealth of experience, having worked for the Food & Drink Federation, the Metropolitan Police Service, HM Customs, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, the Office of the Rail Regulator and the Cabinet Office.

Filippo Rean – managing director of the MIPIM and Mapic global portfolio of tradeshows and conferences for property. He launched the first MIPIM conference dedicated to proptech in New York in 2016, and in June 2018 introduced MIPIM Proptech Europe in Paris. Filippo has previously held roles at GE Capital Real Estate, Bain & Co and Procter & Gamble.

Chris Stephenson – a partner at Concrete, a PropTech VC. He has nearly 20 years of experience in international real estate investment, asset management, portfolio management, construction, and financing, most recently as Managing Director at AIG/Global Real Estate Investment Corp. in London. Chris received a degree in Construction Management from California State University, Sacramento and a Masters in Real Estate from Cornell University in New York.

Bridget Wilkins – associate director within London’s largest development transaction and advisory team at CBRE, she is currently involved in advising on the delivery of more than 3m sq ft of mixed use accommodation across central London. Bridget is also involved in the Urban Land Institute UK Tech Forum, CBRE UK Innovation Board, CBRE UK Charitable Trust, Peer 20 Mentoring Group and Raise Your Hands Startup Charity.

Raya Yunakova – programme director at Pi Labs. Raya manages pre-seed investments at Pi Labs, a $10m venture capital fund investing exclusively in early-stage technology companies with a focus on the real estate sector. Prior to that she was responsible for Microsoft’s software developer and startup relations in 25 countries across Europe and Central Asia and had her own tech startup in the education space.

Michelle Buxton – founder and CEO of Toolbox Group, the creator of community engagement and management technology Mallcomm. Michelle spent her early career in retail real estate in South Africa, before setting up her innovation agency in the UK in 2000.  Since then she has been providing strategic insight and advice, marketing services and technology solutions to real estate across Europe, and now the USA.  The company is working in 17 countries with 250 retail, office and mixed-use locations.

Doug Ward – Born and bred in Manchester, Doug started his entrepreneurship journey back in 2006, Co-founding in 2012 Tech Britain, SpaceportX and investing in connectivity startup Telcom. Now he’s Co-CEO of the growing connectivity technology company, Telcom. Doug’s passion, commitment and dedication to the Telcom vision to change the UK’s internet, is moving ever closer. In 2017, Node was launched as the group’s proptech innovation and is already in the hands of property industry leaders Hermes, Fore Partnership and Allied London.

Ryan J. S. Baxter – is a lifelong New Yorker who is heavily involved in New York City’s real estate industry and public education system. He is the NYC Community Growth Lead for MetaProp NYC, and a Co-Founder of the PropTech Challenge. Ryan was previously a VP at the Real Estate Board of New York, where he led efforts in Sustainability and Technology, and addressed barriers in construction and housing creation.