Cluttons boss on first year at helm; Sue Brown steps down; Tritax promotes in London Logistics Fund team

Having entered the top job at Cluttons around a year ago, John Gravett says he likes to keep his leadership style simple, adopting a similar approach to the late Apple founder and technology pioneer Steve Jobs, who once said, "simple can be harder than complex".

"That's an area that I have always tried to focus on, be that in my current position now, or be that when I was looking after client mandates, or when I was looking after a lease renewal rent review negotiation," Gravett says.

The Cluttons CEO is no stranger to the technology sector himself, having worked on property acquisitions for telecoms giant Vodafone during the early part of his career. He tells CoStar News' Top CREdentials podcast that it was this role, where he experienced the firm's Newbury headquarters, that gave him a taste for the corporate world.

In the episode he discusses his responsibilities leading one of the UK's oldest chartered surveyors and its goal to become a real assets adviser, in addition to providing his views on the future of the office, the right way to retrofit and the current state of the UK planning system.

Sue Brown will be stepping down as managing director of Real Estate Balance, the leading membership organisation working to improve diversity and inclusion in UK real estate. Brown said she intends to remain closely involved with the organisation and wider industry after six years in the role and is pursuing a number of new opportunities in the sector. She will continue to act as an adviser to Real Estate Balance, specifically in support of new member growth. Brown joined the organisation in April 2020 and helped broadened its scope to include ethnicity and social mobility alongside gender. Her replacement will be announced shortly.

Tritax has promoted Eleanor Gumpel to associate director, fund management. She joined the firm in 2023 as assistant fund manager across its private markets capabilities, including the Airport Industrial Property Unit Trust portfolio. Gumpel was part of a triple hire made by the group along with fund manager Nick Ireland and Dominic Moore, senior asset manager, to manage the 2.5-million-square-foot portfolio. It then became the Tritax London Logistics Fund in June 2025, with a focus on multilet industrial estates, last-mile logistics and mid-box clusters. She is a chartered surveyor and previously worked in Savills Central London team.

JLL has appointed Alistair Meadows as head of international capital for UK capital markets. He has 30 years of global experience including 15 years with JLL, having joined the firm in Singapore in 2010, where he led the international capital group in Asia-Pacific for seven years. Since returning to the UK in 2017, he has held several leadership roles, most recently leading life sciences and alternative investment across EMEA. JLL said Meadows will work closely with its UK capital markets teams, with particular focus on London, to "enhance investor coverage, originate new business, and provide real-time insight into active global capital flows".

Watling Real Estate has added to its Manchester office as it continues to expand its North West operations, with James Bunce entering the North West team to support directors Chris Walker and Ian Whittaker. His move follows the arrival of Dan Edmundson, who joined the business at the end of last summer supporting the agency and restructuring advisory divisions. Bunce moves from Watling’s Leeds office having worked across northern property markets since 2021. His career spans a decade of restructuring and recovery experience at GVA, Avison Young and latterly at Watling for the past three years since the firm’s inception in June 2023.

Runway East has hired Sophie Marsh as its first chief operating officer. The firm said Marsh, who has more than 14 years' experience in scaling start-up and high-growth businesses, "brings a proven track record in operational strategy, project delivery and organisational optimisation". It added that the recruit will drive operational performance across its workspaces and lead initiatives that "support long-term growth, service excellence and member satisfaction". Marsh has experience of working in senior operational roles, spending more than seven years at Appear Here, a retail space listing platform, and close to two and a half years at Onefinestay.

Multidisciplinary consultancy Stace has promoted Brian Gough to partner. The company said he will continue to contribute to the growth of the team and its presence in the Midlands, as well as more widely across its national operations. He joined the partnership as a project manager 13 years ago, initially in its Leamington Spa office, before the office was moved to Birmingham. Gough was most recently project director. The firm said in a statement: "Brian’s capability, commitment and leadership, together with the strength of the wider Birmingham team, will support the continued success and future growth of the Birmingham office."