The OBREMS/OBU Real Estate Mentoring Scheme 2016

The launch of the OBREMS/OBU Real Estate Mentoring Scheme 2016 took place on Tuesday 15 March. The event was hosted by Cushman & Wakefield in their offices at 43-45 Portman Square, London and brought together mentors and mentees for the first time. The Mentoring Scheme is managed jointly by OBREMS (which, by the way, is our alumni association) and the School of the Built Environment.

Back to the launch. The event was introduced by Chris Halliwell, Director at Cushman & Wakefield (and one of our alumni from the MSc Real Estate), who welcomed everyone to the event and to Cushman & Wakefield. Gina Dalton from the School of the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes introduced the Real Estate Mentoring Scheme, which focuses on supporting students who do not have an existing network of contacts within the property sector and is open to second year students on the BSc Real Estate Management and the BA Planning and Property. And then Gina introduced the following three speakers:

Rick de Blaby, Group Chief Executive at United House who graduated from Oxford Polytechnic in 1980. Rick has been involved with the mentoring scheme from the first year (2013) and he talked about his experiences as a mentor, how students could get the most out of the scheme (and their mentor) and how the mentoring relationship works both ways. Mentors can also learn a lot.

Niall Sloane, working in Residential Valuations at Deloitte Real Estate (graduated from BSc Real Estate Management in 2014). Niall was mentored by Rick de Blaby. Niall talked about how important the mentoring scheme had been to him and how much his mentor had helped him with his CV and dissertation. Niall is still in touch with Rick and they are still learning a lot from each other.

Matt Moran, graduate surveyor at Montagu Evans (graduated from BSc Real Estate Management in 2014) was mentored by Tom Leeming. Matt described how much he had benefitted from the scheme and the experience and advice of his mentor.

One of the unique features of our Real Estate Mentoring Scheme is that all of our mentors are graduates of either the BSc or MSc Real Estate at Oxford Brookes (or Oxford Polytechnic as it used to be) which means that the launch evening is also a great networking event and that mentors and students (or 'mentees') have an immediate connection. The energy and buzz that filled the room at the launch event is reflected in some of the photos...

Waiting for everyone to arrive. 

Initial introductions.

Rick de Blaby talking about his experiences as a mentor.

Niall Sloane on his experience of being mentored.

Listening to the mentors describe their career paths...

...switching tables...

...and again.

Refreshments...

...and more from the mentors.

Mentors and their mentees pair up...

For one-on-one meetings.

Catching up. Georgia Eckert (representing OBREMS) with Rick de Blaby and Niall Sloane.

After the official launch, a number of mentors and most of the students (and staff from OBU) continued their networking at All Bar One. For a while.