Self Storage UK Conference 2023

Nadine Dereza is an award-winning journalist and presents business, news and entertainment programmes on TV and radio. Nadine chairs, hosts, and facilitates conferences, panel discussions and live events for a diverse range of clients in the UK and internationally. She currently presents a tech programme for CNBC.  Nadine has also presented for Associated Press, BBC, CNN, SABC, Simply Money, Sky TV, Summit TV and Talk Radio. With an in-depth knowledge of business and finance, Nadine was named as ‘Financial Journalist of the Year’ during her time at the Financial Times and Summit TV. Over the years, she has worked with the full business spectrum – from entrepreneurs to management teams to CEOs and has also interviewed key policy and decision makers, as well as countless global politicians.  Department for Business, Innovation and Skills appointed Nadine as a Non-Executive Director of the WorldSkills London Board. This was for the duration of the ‘Skills Olympics’ 4-year project to promote best practice apprenticeships and vocational training in the UK. Nadine is also founder and Media Director of Babaco Media, communication skills specialists in preparing clients for media interviews, presentations, crisis planning and parliamentary committee hearings to some of the best-known brands, organisations, and businesses. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and an Ambassador for Workers’ Educational Association (WEA). Nadine is a Judge for The Business Books Awards and Young Enterprise. She is co-author of the 5-star rated best seller Insider Secrets of Public Speaking.  Nadine is Mum to two children, aged 22 and 17 and she currently rents a self storage unit!

Helen is Operations Director at the Self Storage Association, taking up post in March 2019.  Previously, Helen was Director of Membership Services at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, a not-for-profit, national membership organisation where she spent 8 years working across membership, communications and events. Prior to this, Helen spent 12 additional years in the education, learning and training sector and a number of years working within the corporate sector.

Chris, a Commercial Manager, advises on all property investment and management activities to a number of privately owned, related companies. As part of the portfolio; Chris leads the expanding self storage business, blue self storage (previously known as Cardiff Self Storage), a container self storage operator based in Cardiff.

Chris believes that good quality, container storage operators have an important place in the market.  Historically, Container Operators were often thought of as the ‘lower end’ of the market – however with many Container Operators offering a high standard of quality, Chris is looking forward to working with similar minded operators within the Sector Forum to ensure that Containers are recognised in the Self Storage industry for their USP’s.

Chris is also a SSA UK Board member, representing container operator members.

Oliver Close is a Senior Director at CBRE Ltd and leads the firm’s activities in the self storage sector.  Oliver has over 22 years’ experience in self storage and has provided real estate advice to many of the major operators in the industry, across both Europe and the Asian self storage markets.  
Oliver worked on the stock market flotations of both Shurgard and Safestore, has executed a number of sale transactions in several jurisdictions and collaborates closely with the SSA UK, including with the production of the UK Self Storage Survey for a period of years.  CBRE’s activities include, in addition to valuations and transactions, general advisory, debt advisory, equity raising, capital allowance advice, corporate finance and site acquisition services.

Richard joined the Nurtur Technology Group as Chief Commercial Officer in February 2016 and is responsible for sales, customer success and marketing.  He has been in the business of increasing customer revenue through understanding conversions and sales and marketing opportunities since graduating university with a master’s in marketing and Management some 17 years ago.  He spent his early career working internationally with sales and marketing of overseas properties, then saw a niche in the market to develop a Global Referral System.  Richard joined forces with GPEA, the parent company of Fine & Country and The Guild, where he helped develop the international network, became the marketing director, was co-founder of the IT division PropertyLogic and where he latterly undertook the role of MD, before joining BriefYourMarket.  Richard’s expertise spans licensing, marketing, and technology, notably linked to the property/home-owner-home-mover sector.  What excites Richard the most right now is the world of big data and how the correct use of data can drive a business’s success in a modern world.

Dave is a well known and accomplished self storage professional with over 21 years of self storage experience.

For 17 years he was an executive board member at Safestore, joining at 15 stores and 40 employees. As a member of the management buyout team in 2004 and the IPO team in 2008, he played a major role in the company’s success and its growth to a FTSE 250 company with over 580 employees and 134 stores, revenues of £112m and EBITDA of £64m, making it the UK’s No 1.

Dave was also Managing Director of Space Maker Self Storage (12 stores) for 6 years before it was acquired by Safestore in 2016.  This provided Dave with invaluable experience in managing and operating a medium size self storage business.                                                                                                                          
Since retiring from Safestore in 2017, Dave has specialised in advising, directing, and assisting small and medium UK and European self storage and container operators to build and maximise their business potential through many areas including, team development, enquiry management and sales process implementation. Above all, Dave specialises in maximising revenue and therefore, EBITDA.

With a trusted network of specialist suppliers, Dave has a unique mix of industry knowledge, business growth experience, coaching and development skills and practical experience that enables him to add value to new start-ups, existing operators and to those looking to optimise their exit.  

Since 2020 DSOC has grown, not only in the self storage sector, but also nationally within the wider fire and security industry. Anthony joined DSOC having spent his whole 16-year career in the security industry across engineering, accounts, and most recently, sales. Initially, he helped to establish DSOC on a technical level with the alarm-receiving platform and technical support across the business. After much success with brand awareness and new business, Anthony now heads up Sales and Account Management for all existing and new customers at DSOC. He is the named supplier account manager for over 200 self storage facilities in the UK including Big Yellow, Storage King, Ready Steady Store, and many more multi-site national operators and small independent operators. 

Lindsey is a partner at Knights plc and an experienced corporate and commercial lawyer, having spent many years as a partner in private practice acting predominantly for entrepreneurs as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. Although Lindsey works across many sectors, for many years a number of her clients have been in the flexible space sector (self storage, managed offices), enabling Lindsey to develop specialist knowledge specific to these businesses. She has worked extensively with the SSA UK to refine the suite of standard self storage agreements and the Manual of Advice and Procedures and regularly delivers legal training sessions for members.  She is regarded as one of the very few experts in UK Self Storage Law.

Jill has trained at one of the most prestigious digital schools in the world, Hyper Island. She is an accredited Facebook marketing manager and Google Ads and G4 properties manager.

Having worked within the self storage vertical for almost 3 years now, Jill is very excited about the future of marketing and advertising within the self storage industry. The opportunities are limitless.

Her advice for any new client is “don’t stress too much about being perfect in this digital age. There can be no such thing as perfection because the digital landscape is changing too quickly. All we can do is test, review, iterate, and test again. Data is everything.”

Adrian has over 22 years’ experience in the self storage industry, and is the Operations Director of Big Yellow Self Storage.  He is a RICS qualified Chartered Surveyor and was previously a Director of Edge Properties PLC – a developer of big box retail assets.  Adrian joined the SSA UK Board in July 2021, having previously been an SSA UK Board Member between 2008 and 2014.

James is an entrepreneur with a background in the events industry, and the creative soul of the Mr & Mrs Smith brand. With his wife, Tamara, he conceived the first Mr & Mrs Smith guidebook in 2003, inspired by a disastrous weekend away together at a spa hotel in the Lake District. As the hotels included experienced an increase in bookings, the couple decided to capitalise by becoming a boutique travel agency, servicing their growing membership base by helping them book their trips, too. Today, ‘the travel club for hotel lovers’ has over a million members worldwide able to choose from a carefully curated, 1,500-strong collection of hotels and villas – all bookable online or by phone with its team of in-house travel specialists, based in London, New York, LA and Singapore. Each hotel is personally vetted by Smith’s globetrotting experts and then reviewed (anonymously) by a range of actors, writers, influencers, entrepreneurs, chefs, DJs and other personalities. Past reviewers have included Lauren Laverne, Raymond Blanc, Olivia von Halle, Tom Dixon, Pandora Sykes, Tom Aikens and Stella McCartney. James ensures consistent, high-quality execution across every Smith initiative, as well as bringing a keen strategic mind to the board and acting as global ambassador for the business. In 2014, James received an MBE for services to the British travel industry.

 

Philip joined Cushman & Wakefield in 2019 to lead the Self Storage Team. Philip joins with a wealth of experience including the valuation of operational and trading assets, naturally including self storage, alongside the more traditional sectors. Most recently, Philip worked at Colliers, where he oversaw the valuation of trading assets such as self storage, public houses, cinemas and gymnasiums.  In the main, Philip’s involvement has focused on valuations for financial reporting basis along with loan security and portfolios. Philip is known by all the main stream lenders active in the property sector including Barclays, RBS, HSBC, Lloyds, Santander, Metrobank, Coutts and AIB together with a range of bridging financiers and other debt providers.

Sarah Manning is Managing Director of Secure Stores Nationwide, supplier of shipping containers and related accessories.

Sarah has been in the container industry for the past 14 years, starting her career at Mr Box, which she ran and grew in to one of the largest market players.  Mr Box was then acquired by Mobile Mini in 2016, who Sarah continued to work with for a further 4 years.  Sarah has recently launched her own container business, Secure Stores Nationwide. Secure Stores specialist area is Self-Storage, with a strong focus on customer service.

Laura started YBA (Your Business Angels) in 2014 having a lightbulb moment after attending a marketing course in Google Ads. Implementing what she learnt in the following six months, they attracted 108 new customers, adding £30,340 to their turnover, with a huge ROI of 220%. From there, she invested heavily in learning, travelling the world, attending programs and courses from some of the biggest marketing names in the world; devouring book after book, course after course and spent a solid six months of her life studying her new craft, day and night. 8 years later and with multiple awards under her belt and earning the prestigious accolades of being both a Google Premier partner and in the top 3% of agencies, Laura can tell you how using Google Ads and Facebook Ads can transform your business and produce new enquires like a well oiled machine!

Brian has been involved in dealing with business rate assessments on self storage properties since 1986. He was actively involved in central discussions with the Valuation Office in agreeing the basis of assessment for this specialist class of property. Whilst initially dealing with self storage buildings he has in recent years started to look more closely at container sites. This is of particular relevance under the Government’s proposal to introduce a ‘Duty to Notify’.

Ollie Saunders is the Lead Director for Alternatives across EMEA at JLL, where he has specialised throughout his career since the mid-1990s in self storage from a valuation, brokerage and corporate finance perspective, enabling him and his team to provide first-hand transactional experience with valuation professionalism.   

He leads a team of more than 10 surveyors and data analysts working across Europe in more than 12 countries and has transacted a number of sales of self storage assets across EMEA, as well as equity raises.  He joined JLL in 2014 from Deloitte where he was an equity partner and the head of valuation.   

Ollie co-authored the UK Self Storage Association Survey between 2009 and 2014, and the FEDESSA Survey since 2014, and also authored the RICS guide on valuation methodology for self storage and other alternative asset types.

Rennie is the current CEO of the Self Storage Association UK & FEDESSA, having previously been the CEO of the Australasian Self Storage Association for over 9 years.  Rennie has extensive knowledge of the self storage industry across the world, from the developing Asian markets through to the birthplace of self storage in the USA.  He has over 22 years of association management experience 17 at CEO level.  Rennie is also on the Board of the Institute of Association Leadership, has an MBA and completed the Oxford University High performance leadership programme.

Tick Box Self Storage Project Coordinator, London Trading Standards. Gavin is a Chartered Trading Standards Practitioner. He holds the Diploma in Trading Standards (1990), a Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law, and an Interpol IP Crime Investigators Certificate.

He has worked for West Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, and the Trading Standards Northwest Regional Investigations Team specialising in anti-counterfeiting enforcement work. Nationally and internationally, he has worked on many anti-counterfeiting projects and continues to sit on the IP Crime Group representing the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.

In 2009 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Anti-Counterfeiting Group and in 2022 a CTSI Hero Award for his work on the Real Deal Campaign for Fake Free Markets.

Shital has over 24 years’ experience in the self storage industry and is the Head of UK Development for Storage King. He is a RICS qualified Chartered Project Manager and has previously worked for Shurgard, Access Self Storage and The Self Storage Company.

He has been involved in the delivery of over 50 stores in the UK through his extensive experience, commitment and stakeholder engagement.

Trevor Williams served as Chief Economist at Lloyds Bank for over a decade. Now an author, academic and consultant, he analyses the key trends and policies that shape the economy and markets. From energy and climate to how companies use their data to understand the wider economy, he brings clarity and relevance to an often complex and abstract field.

Trevor worked for the civil service whilst studying for his economics PhD, after which he went on to work for over 30 years as an economist in the City, most notably at Lloyds. His professional life has encompassed equity and foreign exchange, forecasting and financial analysis. Today he provides clear insight into how politics, demographics and trade shape economies and economic trends.

From earnings and inflation to stock markets and trade deals, Trevor explores what is going on in the economy and what it means to organisations and individuals. Looking at both the global and the local, the long and short term, he explains what the numbers really reveal. With a focus on interpreting the information as it is, not as people might think or wish it was, he considers the effects of disruptions like Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, and how (and how quickly) economies can recover and what actions influence that recovery.

Trevor also studies what risks businesses and government face and how the economy will react. In particular, he looks at the political economics of climate change, including the risks for investors, insurers and the general population that this existential challenge could impose. He also examines the economics of energy; the likelihood, causes and potential effects of energy shortages and what decisions and policies have increased the risk of energy reserves running low, as well as the cost to businesses and consumers.

As rotating Chair of the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Shadow Monetary Policy Committee Trevor keeps a close eye on Bank of England decisions and direction of travel. He unpicks the impact of interest rates, monetary policy and quantitative easing and translates them into useful intelligence businesses can use to inform strategy. He also reveals how companies can use their own big data sets to reveal insights into the broader economy and their place within it.

Along with his own blog, Trevor writes regularly on financial and market matters, including a regular column in the personal finance magazine Moneyfacts. He is the co-author of Trading Economics, a clear guide to the statistics and indicators that underpin market economics. He is a Professor at St Mary’s University, London and Visiting Professor at the University of Derby.

David was the third generation of a family removals business based in Newtown, Mid-Wales.  He spent his teen summer years working on the vans and, on leaving school, attended The University of Northumbria gaining a Business Studies qualification in Road Freight Transport and passed all examinations to become a full member of the Institute of Logistics and Transport.