Brett Robinson MA, MBA, MSc, CFA

Brett is one of the founders of Seven Dials and has over 35 years of investment experience. Previously he worked at AXA IM and Guardian Royal Exchange where he was a Director of Guardian Assets Management, with responsibility for £7bn of Life Fund assets, including £1bn of property.

Brett comes from an investment background, having started his career on the trading floor, subsequently moving into fund management, working in derivatives and quantitative techniques for equity investment. For many years he has been applying these analytical techniques and methods to the appraisal of real estate investments. An early mover in the so-called alternatives market, in 2011 he identified the potential for segments of the market which lie outside the mainstream commercial sectors but shared the characteristics of property.

Brett is also a founder and CFO at Curlew Capital, an award winning investment manager in purpose built student accommodation (‘PBSA’).Curlew Capital manages two funds backed by CBRE Global Investors. In recent years Brett has also closed over £250m of loans secured on PBSA assets.

Mickola Wilson FRICS

Mickola Wilson is a joint owner of Seven Dials she joined in 2008 and is responsible for property strategy and investor relations.

She is a Non-executive director of the Mailbox plc and the Kent and Medway Partnership Trust (NHS) and is a member of the Property Committee for the Mercers Livery Company, a member of the Council for Essex University and a Non-executive Director of her family’s estate agency Kalmar.

She was non-executive Chairman at Cushman and Wakefield Investors from 2008 to 2016. At Seven Dials she has managed property portfolios for a range of clients, including Bank of London and Middle East (BLME), and the Princes Quay Shopping Centre in Hull for Jadwa Investments. She has also been a non-executive director of the Government Property Agency (GPA), and Palace Capital plc.

Prior to joining Seven Dials she was CEO of Teesland plc a listed property fund and asset management company with a cap value of the order of £200m, with over £5bn of funds under management across UK, Western and Central Europe.

For over 20 years she was MD of Guardian Properties part of GRE, with responsibility for their property investment funds and their occupational property.

Darren Fennell MRICS

Darren has an outstanding track record over 30 years, of creating and managing investors property portfolios. In different decades he has outperformed the market running institutional portfolios at both Guardian Properties and Tesco Pension Investment achieving top quartile performance whilst investing significant capital. In between, Darren was responsible for creating vehicles for the private investor market which included a £100m light industrial fund and a £250 multi sector listed product ‘TAP’ whilst at Teesland Plc and prior to that the Small Property Fund for Scottish Widows.

Darren has also successfully created added value products for private investors.

Stephen Palmer BA, MSc (Econ)

Stephen was an original founder of Seven Dials in 2002. Prior to this he was Director of Research & Strategy at Guardian Properties.

From 2005, he spent 11 years as the London-based Portfolio Manager for Alecta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, where he was responsible for the UK and continental European real estate business and the management of £1bn+ of investments. During this time he assembled a £600m portfolio of indirect investments spread across the public and private markets which performed outstandingly well, delivering exceptional returns for Alecta. His success sprang from setting a strategy that was based on in-depth analysis of the investments in the wider context of the economy, market dynamics and business fundamentals. This approach led to early mover investments in student accommodation (£60m, 2006) and healthcare (£145m, 2008-2013).

Since Alecta closed its UK office in 2017, Stephen has undertaken various consulting assignments. He is currently managing a £300m portfolio of UK indirect investments for DTZ Investors. Long committed to improving the efficiency of real estate markets, Stephen sits on the AREF Investor Committee and he recently contributed to the AREF/INREV sponsored report on Open Ended Fund Pricing and to an industry initiative to introduce a new Professional Investor Fund.

Derek Weist FCA

Derek is a chartered accountant with over 30 years’ experience in investment banking, Islamic finance and real estate financing. An expert in setting up and managing Sharia compliant and conventional UK property funds, with particular experience in the retail, industrial and healthcare sectors. He currently advises a number of institutions, including those involved in retail, residential and prop-tech activities.

Derek worked for many years for over 25 years in Islamic banking, working for Ahli United Bank, ABC International Bank and latterly for BLME as head of wealth management and asset management.