CLB members April 2021 Voice Box

David Cannon – AscendiaSurrico

David Cannon, proud owner and founder of AscendiaSurrico and has over 30 years of experience in the Real Estate sector and has worked for a number of world leading companies in the UK, USA, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and KSA.

The company AscendiaSurrico (like its name) has been involved in the growth and improvement of world leading projects, new start-up companies, modernising older companies, leading, managing, supporting and advising real estate developers, investors, media, asset, property, facility and engineering companies.

We are a group of specialist and experienced professionals in real estate services, powered by an entrepreneurial spirit. We want to support the most ambitious clients and want the most ambitious people to work for us. It’s really as simple as that!

We work with clients and customers that want to aspire to be the best and in a variety of assets including mixed use commercial, retail and residential real estate. From local companies to global firms, our clients span industries including banking, investment, real estate development, media, energy, healthcare, law, manufacturing and technology.

David started his career in the Royal Navy as a controls Artificer, travelling throughout the world serving his country for 15 years, culminating his service participating in the 1st Gulf War, onboard HMS Cardiff.

We are passionate about business and truly believe that we share a common language and horizon. I firmly believe in carpe diem and taking the opportunity to seize the moment and to motivate others in developing business through companies and their customers. It’s not the business ‘per se’ rather, it is the delivery and service level that the customer sees and pays for; which is the real benchmark of satisfaction!

David can be contacted via his e-mail [email protected]

Dipendra Gurung – Prive Cinema

Angel Investor

I head Prive Cinema, an exclusive By-Invite Only boutique cinema chain, ready to welcome members post-pandemic in London, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Paris, Cannes – French Riviera, Singapore and Dubai with plans to further extend in 71 more Cosmopolitan Cities by 2025 in different phases. Prive Cinema hosts Previews and Private Screenings with ultimate luxury experience.

I have been actively involved in the UN’s SDGs 2030 since its inception and the UN Race to Zero sets another goal worth chasing by 2050. The need for action now can be felt by looking at the melting glaciers of Himalayan Nations and the poles. It is indeed a problem that hits both Mount Everest and Mariana Trench.

As members of IoD, we must unite to overcome this issue that has and will trigger catastrophic natural calamities like forest fires and floods to name a few. Awareness is the most important aspect and London Directors should focus on it. Prive Cinema is eager to create and broadcast digital contents with the UN and celebrities before, during and after cinema screenings. Other organizations can do similar acts to raise awareness among social elites and celebrities. This will have a ripple effect on the community among millions of their fans and followers. London Directors must embrace UN Race to Zero as the core CSR of their organizations.

We can also contribute by making our offices paper as well as plastic free and supporting innovative ideas that can help minimize our reliance on fossil fuel. Collectively, we can make a difference.

Ian Taylor – Nestt Properties

Nestt is a vertically-integrated Build to Rent property company currently operating in the south of England.  We identify sites suitable for development, create desirable living environments, construct using high quality, sustainable resources and operate the rental of these apartments with a ‘high-touch’ personal approach.

Nestt is the trading name of B2B Properties Ltd established 2012 with a mission to create superior living spaces for Millennials (born 1980-1995) and Generation Z (1995 to 2005).  Churchill famously quoted “We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.”   We’ve internalised this message to apply both to the physical residences themselves and particularly the manner in which the rental side operates.

Attention to detail and personal relationships differentiate this business at every stage of the process.  City centre locations, dedicated working-from-home spaces and high security are crucial as well as strong ‘green’ credentials.  Also ‘on call’ 24/7 support to address personal issues whether transactional, such as locked-out, or longer term physical and mental wellbeing.

Active energy management is a key issue in the design and operation of our developments.   This is not purely altruistic: energy expenditure is major expense and active management attention paid to how to optimise consumption.  As tenants are largely self-contained the energy management strategy follows a three-step approach: at the building design phase; at the annual energy supply contract stage and the periodic monitoring of actual energy usage by each tenant.

With widely reported growth in the number of young people unable to buy into the ‘property ladder’, this sector is forecast to show strong demand for the foreseeable future.

Fact Box

Company: B2B Properties Limited trading as Nestt

CFO: Ian Taylor

HQ Location: Newbury, Berks

Year started: 2012

Website: www.nestt.biz

Contact: [email protected]

Tobias Tasche – SIP Specialty Oils and Fluids (SIP Limited) London, UK

Marketing and Business Development Director

I am pleasantly surprised about the momentum in the petrochemical industry to work together to develop pathways to make net-zero possible – not just in terms of carbon emissions, but also in terms of reducing overall environmental impact. And here at SIP are at the forefront of bringing some of these technologies to the market.

SIP Speciality Oils and Fluids have for more than thirty years been a well-respected marketer and distributor of speciality baseoils and additives for specialist industrial applications, and we sell widely across EMEA to a wide range of respected companies.

To support our customers’ interests to pursue cleaner options for product formulations, we have introduced a number of international companies to the European market that bring new solutions to the table for our customers: nanomaterial additives to reduce friction for instance, and biodegradable antiwear additives that are so benign that they are approved against stringent regulations for food safety and for biodegradability, where no crude oil derived products are used.

And we even represent an interesting American start-up that is able to turn vegetable oil into a carbon-negative lubricant baseoil – taking more carbon out of the environment than is put in – potentially a renewable game-changer for our industry!

Customers are also becoming also more vocal about the need for the whole supply chain to be more sustainable, not just our products. We work with independent organisations like Ecovadis to improve our performance. The first steps have been taken but there are more to follow!

Tobias can be contacted via his e-mail [email protected]