Sean is an Associate Director in the Research and Strategy Team at UBS Asset Management. His main focus is on European economic, capital and occupier markets but specializes in retail and logistics. His research has focused mostly on identifying and evaluating investment opportunities for UBS's USD 112 billion Real Estate & Private Markets business (REPM). Other areas of interest include the evolution of ecommerce, the development of global supply chains and the emergence of a European debt fund universe. Sean joined UBS from PMA, where he worked as a retail and leisure researcher for 3 years, focusing on the UK and Germany.

Steffen Friedlein was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1968 and started his career at Kriegbaum Unternehmensgruppe in Böblingen, where he last held the position of Head of Leasing. He joined ECE in April 1999 as Leasing Manager. In 2008 he was appointed Regional Director and became Senior Director Leasing for North Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Italy at the beginning of 2013. Since 2014, he has been responsible for the leasing activities of all centers in Germany, before he became Managing Director Leasing and Member of the Board of ECE in 2018.

Andrea Carpenter is a Director of Women Talk Real Estate, and  a writer and communications consultant in the property industry. As a Director of Women Talk Real Estate, Andrea helps raise the visibility of female experts in the industry through the stage and media. On the writing side, her book about the history of the modern European property industry, High Rise and Fall, was published by Routledge in September 2018. Andrea began her career as a journalist at Property Week before moving on to be editor of EuroProperty for seven years. Following this she worked for various industry bodies including the Urban Land Institute, INREV in Amsterdam, and its sister organisation ANREV in Hong Kong. On returning to the UK, she worked as Head of Marketing and Communications EMEA at CBRE Global Investors.

Chris Igwe is one of the world’s leading authorities on global retail and highly sought after for his passionate views, deep knowledge and great insights. Based in Paris, he is special advisor to global brands, owners and investors on strategic matters at his own consultancy firm, Chris Igwe International. He is also Managing Partner at More Or Less, a company representing exclusively tenants in their portfolio and lease-related problems. Chris is Co-Chair of the ULI Retail and Entertainment Council and a member of the European leadership of ULI. From 2007 to 2015 he was Senior Director EMEA and Head of Retail, France at CBRE, and before that, Head of Real Estate Europe at Gap, and prior to that Head of Real Estate Europe at Foot Locker Europe. Chris was also Managing Director Europe for ICSC. Chris is an international speaker, former Jury Member for ICSC, RLI, CNCC, and a long-standing Steering Committee Member and Conference Master of Ceremony (2011 – 2019) for MAPIC. He has also lectured for ICSC, UK’s Bayfield Training, EFAP MBA in Paris and Abu Dhabi Paris Sorbonne University.

Bert Broadhead is a director at ALTERX who own & manage over 2m sqft of retail in UK & Germany. He has recently overseen the independent-led regeneration of Vicar Lane Shopping Centre in Chesterfield. Bert is also host of the Building Our Future podcast series, exploring emerging trends and themes impacting on the built environment.

As chief executive of ULI Europe, Lisette van Doorn is responsible for the development of the Institute’s activities across the region, including its renowned pan-European conferences and over 250 local meetings and events across 14 countries. She is responsible for working with ULI’s staff both locally and globally to deliver more high profile content and reports; coordinating Advisory Services panels and Urban Plan; and expanding the Institute’s thought leadership across Europe. Van Doorn joined ULI in January 2015 from LIRE, her own consultancy business, which advises international institutional real estate investors and fund managers on strategy, organisational optimisation and portfolio structuring. Prior to this, van Doorn was country manager for CBRE Global Investors where she managed a €1.6bn portfolio of assets in Italy and fund manager of two shopping centre funds (€ 1.3 billion) with assets in Spain, Portugal and Italy. Before joining CBRE Global Investors, van Doorn was founding chief executive for INREV, the European association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles for four and a half years. Van Doorn started her career at ING Investment Management, where she held account manager and assistant controller positions before being made managing director of research & strategy for ING Real Estate Investment Management Europe.