CREFC Europe launches ‘young professionals’ initiative

The Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) Europe is reaching out to the next generation of the property finance industry with the inaugural event in a young professionals initiative to be held in London this evening (6 July).

The industry body is launching its Young Professionals in Real Estate Finance (YPREF) at an event at the ‘Walkie-talkie’ building tonight at 17.30. The YPREF is aimed at supporting the skills and knowledge of the younger members of the industry and will have a steering group made up of younger professionals.

YPREF is open to lenders, advisers and anyone involved in the sector with less than ten year’s industry experience. The main focus of the initiative is to provide training and networking opportunities, also focussing on emerging trends and innovation.

This evening’s event is jointly hosted by Ashurst and DWF LLP. Mark Clacy-Jones, head of data and analytics at Knight Frank, will lead a discussion around big data.

Incoming CREFC Europe chairman and head of real estate finance at HSBC, Steve Willingham, said YPREF would “help the development of the sector in the years ahead, pooling knowledge from the high achieving young people in real estate.”