Past President’s Report - CULS AGM

Again, a formal welcome to the CULS AGM. It’s the first time under my presidency we’ve been able to conduct this live rather than virtually and also the first opportunity to follow on immediately afterwards and enjoy each other’s friendship and camaraderie at our annual dinner to be held this evening at Fitzwilliam College.

What that does mean, however, is that today I have to provide essentially two reports on the last year. Tonight will be more of a celebration and have a more reflective tone on my three-year tenure as your president so I’ve deliberately attempted to keep this presidential report as more factual as to the financial year 2021–22.

But it’s important to say, it’s great to be back in person and have the opportunity to thank all of you, and those who could not be with us today, for your support and commitment over this tumultuous period. Like many other organisations, we feared an existential threat to the society, not knowing if and when we would be able to host events again and whether our student membership would attend lectures other than online, with all the implications for not just their education but their future careers.

As someone who was struck down with Covid just a fortnight ago, for the second time, I think we are all aware that the pandemic has not gone away and as individuals and as an organisation we will need to continually adapt to this ever-changing environment.

My colleagues will shortly provide a more detailed report on the activities of the society, but despite the challenging environment, CULS hosted 17 events during the year and under the chairmanship of Colm Lauder, the Whitehall group a further 12 events of which 2/3 were a return to the successful format of private lunches. Thank you to all the forum chairs, who have continued to work tirelessly in arranging talks, tours, workshops, and webinars. We held a further six ESG webinars, led by Ami Kotecha and generously sponsored by Savills.

We published our annual magazine brilliantly edited by Werner Baumker and successfully relaunched the careers fair with a broader church of attendees including Real Estate Balance and Women in real estate represented, to ensure we o ered the students the most relevant opportunities. Just to advertise this year’s event on Thursday, 20th October, which is likely to be the largest and most diverse we have ever hosted. Thank you to Louise Sherwin for all her time and commitment in ensuring the success of this vital occasion.

Membership has increased to almost 1000 including an ever-larger cohort from the Department of Architecture; I’d like to thank Professor Campbell not just for his hospitality earlier today in hosting us at the department but also for his engagement and involvement with CULS and the APEC forum. In relation to APEC, which will continue to be chaired by Bryan, we say thank you for the enormous contribution of James Lai who is standing down from the committee as his work is taking him abroad, but with the hope and expectation that he will continue to be actively involved with CULS.

We also say thank you and a fond farewell to Sophie Jenkinson and other members of the Silver Street Forum. Sophie is undertaking a career change to become a teacher, for which we wish her well. SSGs continuing involvement and engagement is vital for the future of CULS and I’m delighted to announce that, subject to ratification later, a new committee has been established to be led jointly by James Webb of Eastdil Secured and Charlie Stoneham of Savills.

Following the success of the newly established ESG forum which has reached out to literally thousands of participants over the last two years, we have continued to review, examine and ensure our o ering remains relevant. We are building close links with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership and are also in the process of establishing a residential forum recognising the interest and appetite of this asset class.

Can I formally thank Professor Howarth for all his support throughout the year. We continue to o er whatever support we can in terms of Tripos prizes to the students, sponsorship of selective teaching sta and alongside CLEAB, all we can do to promote the desire and necessity of a new building for the department.

One thing I will repeat this evening, but it merits being mentioned twice, is that we o er our congratulations to both the Departments of Land Economy and Architecture on the outstanding result in the research excellence framework where they were awarded first place, and although we will all miss the retiring Professor Colin Lizieri, who has always been a huge supporter of CULS, the department seems to be in a very good place.

Once again, I wish to formally thank Erik Ruane, honorary treasurer, for his stewardship of our finances; he will reference the detail in a few moments, but through his considered and conservative management, our reserves actually increased over the last 12 months which, considering the broader environment, is a tremendous result. We have not increased our subs for five years and continue to wish to o er true value and accessibility to our members, but this is a situation we must monitor on a regular basis to ensure our financial viability.

Of course, we rely heavily, not just on the goodwill of our members but also the generosity of our sponsors which are many and varied; on behalf of the land society, thank you to you all. I would specifically like to name check: Knight Frank, APAM and Church Manor Estates for the support of our website, the Monday Charitable Trust for the sponsorship of our educational activities, Savills, Apache Capital, Howard Ventures and Mills & Reeve for their contributions towards the magazine, as well as Rockbourne‘ s underwriting of the SSG dinner.

We are privileged to have 11 honorary vice presidents of the society, some of the most influential leaders of our industry, often without an obvious direct Cambridge connection, but who have supported us directly or indirectly over many years. I can confirm to the meeting that I’ve been in contact with all of them and they have unanimously o ered to, not only remain engaged but committed to greater involvement in the coming years. Several are attending our annual dinner tonight. So, again, subject to passing of the necessary resolution, we will agree their appointments for another three years; and in addition, it is proposed that we invite Heather Hancock, LVO, former president of CULS and currently master of St John’s College to become an Honorary vice president. Heather and her husband will also be in attendance this evening.

Of course, as we all know, the society would not be able to function or deliver on any of its objectives without the tireless work of both Ali and Fiona; on behalf of not just the committee but all members of CULS, thank you for your continued selfless commitment and enthusiasm; it’s hugely appreciated.

I now have just one final task; to thank all of you for your support during my presidency and to wish Dan every success in the role. It’s an enormous privilege to be president of CULS but, Dan, if you have a fraction of the pleasure and fun I have had over the last three years you will flourish alongside the society.