Last year I set out to the firm that I would be standing down as Managing Partner at the end of March 2025, a decade after I first had the privilege of taking on this role.
I’m proud to have served nearly 30 years at Montagu Evans in all, a place I fondly recognise as my second home. However, this is the right time to hand over to the next generation of leadership at our fantastic partnership.
The process for electing my successor has begun, with the nominations process well underway. We expect to announce our new Managing Partner this summer, with the role formally starting on 1 April 2025 after a structured transition period.
Over the last year we have been working with external consultants, PSFI, to help shape the future of our business, taking into account all our partners’ views and the feedback we get every year from our clients.
We are one of the strongest LLPs in the UK real estate market and our focus on solving clients’ planning and development challenges has been a key part of that success.
Clients increasingly want the trusted advisor relationship that they get by working closely with partners who are passionate about what they do and which comes, in part, from having a stake in their own business. It’s a model that supports the very best talent who can shape their career as far as their ambitions will take them.
Being the Managing Partner in this type of true partnership is very different to the role of CEO or Managing Director at a corporate. As the first among equals, it’s about ensuring collaboration, consensus and bringing together a range of people and skills into a team where, together, we are stronger than the sum of our parts. And it’s this which sets Montagu Evans apart: collaboration and partnership is in our DNA.
As I look back, there’s a lot we can be proud of. In addition to our connected and collaborative approach, we’ve expanded significantly in 10 years, adding many talented people – from graduates through to partners. We have increased our emphasis on living, industrial/logistics and healthcare, particularly across London and Scotland, and we are delivering significant, transformative schemes across the country, thriving on complex and challenging opportunities where we can combine strategic approaches with specialist thinking – from major urban renewal and tall buildings to docks and airport-led regeneration to portfolio growth and asset repositioning. We’ve grown across both the public and private sectors and we are now one of the UK’s pre-eminent advisors for clients with planning and development challenges.
As with any leadership role, there have been some tough decisions to make too, with Brexit, Covid and the market downturn from mid-2022. We have had to get through challenging markets and unprecedented global upheaval, especially in the last few years and I suspect their impacts are not yet fully over. Changes to our business have never been made lightly and we continue to take sensible decisions that are in the best interest of our partnership as a whole and, notwithstanding short-term challenges, will set our leaders on a stronger course for the years ahead.
I’m sure that Montagu Evans will continue to evolve and succeed as we respond to new ways of working, new clients, new opportunities and many other ways to secure our legacy for another 100 years – and more.
And for me, these changes will mean the chance to recharge after an intense few years, and then to pursue a portfolio career within the real estate sector. There is still more to do.
Right now, though, we are focused on ensuring as little disruption as possible to our teams and clients as they continue to do what they do best and we set up the partnership for its next phase of growth. Change brings opportunity, and I’m looking forward to keeping in touch and seeing what our next generation has to offer as they build on our legacy further in the many years ahead.
