Anne Kavanagh, the former CEO of the Trammell Crow Co. residential and mixed-use developer Telford Homes, has been appointed as chair of ULI Europe, the real estate and land use research organization.
Kavanagh succeeds Lars Huber, chief executive of Hines Europe, and plans to serve on a voluntary basis for a two-year term that officially began on at the start of this month.
She has been an active member of the network of cross-disciplinary property experts since 2001. She has served on the global board of directors since 2019, has been a global governing trustee since 2011, and is a member of the European Living Concepts Council. She previously served as the United Kingdom national council chair, as well as on many committees, including the ULI Europe executive committee.
At Telford Homes, one of London’s leading sustainable developers, she focused on designing and delivering homes and build-to-rent communities across London. During her career, she was also a board member at international businesses including Patrizia where she served as chief investment officer, and at AXA Real Assets where she had headed up asset management and transactions globally.
Kavanagh recently announced her retirement as CEO of Telford Homes and stepped down at the end of last month. She plans to focus primarily on her non-executive industry roles and continue her involvement with Telford Homes as a senior adviser.
ULI global chair, Diane Hoskins, global co-chair of Gensler, said: “I know that Anne is passionate about addressing many of the major challenges that our industry faces and has an impressive track record for driving areas such as diversity and sustainability."
Kavanagh has identified several priorities for her tenure as ULI Europe Chair.
She said: “We’re at a point in the industry where we are navigating an extremely complex environment, and looking to the near future we’re going to see changes occur at a scale and a pace that we’ve never seen in this generation.”
“The geopolitical landscape is more volatile and complex than it has been in decades, with worldwide events and political trends impacting the decisions we will make and are making as an industry. AI will also change everything across the entire real estate value chain. A good proportion of the industry is already beginning to use AI, and it is a critical, transformative factor in discussions on the future. Finally, climate & biodiversity change brings with it huge and urgent" challenges for reducing carbon emissions in the industry.
Four new members of the ULI Europe Executive Committee start their terms this month: Christian Schmid, incoming ULI Germany chair, global governing trustee of ULI and member of the board of managing directors, Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen, Germany; Jorge Pérez de Leza, incoming ULI Spain chair and chief executive, Metrovacesa, Spain; Ariana Maass, the incoming ULI young leaders chair, and commercial real estate finance, international investors at Berlin Hyp; and Anna Duchnowska, global governing trustee of ULI and managing director, investment management, Invesco Real Estate, Poland.