Team Leaders
The key Senior Executives responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Group are:
James Sunley – Chief Executive
James has headed the Sunley Group for over 20 years and is responsible for investment strategy and new project acquisitions. A product of Oxford and Reading Universities James trained as an investment surveyor specialising in retail investment and development. He is skilled at project modelling and assessing risk/reward financial returns for a wide variety of different opportunities. James has a son Casper, and three daughters Jemima, Phoebe and Clementine. An active wine consumer, James’s hobbies include most ball and field sports; he is also the Cresta Run record holder.
Rory Gleeson – Development and Project Management Director
Director of Sunley Holdings Plc and Sunley Estates Ltd with particular responsibility for overseeing all development activities, Rory joined the Sunley group in 1998. He previously spent 13 years working in Main Contracting for Mowlem and Ellmer Construction. Rory's development expertise runs across the breadth of residential development to overseeing the creation of a new hospital facility and to the delivery of sports stadia.
Rory’s portfolio within the group covers the identification of potential development opportunities, driving the planning process, overseeing the provision of development finance, delivering the development and bringing end product to the market. Schemes that have produced good levels of returns for investors and shareholders include residential schemes in Kent, Surrey, Dorset, Somerset, Hertfordshire, & Central London. Rory is currently overseeing the Group’s first venture into the Student Housing Sector, with a mixed use development in West London, due for delivery in September 2011.
Married to Roisin, with 2 sons, Darragh and Jarlath. Rory's sporting activities are now becoming curtailed, as he prepares himself to watch his sons compete in the 2020 Rugby World Cup.
Richard Evans – Land and Planning Director
After graduating from Reading University in 1991 with a First Class Degree in Land Management, specialising in Planning & Development, Richard has spent the past 19 years working in residential development. Since joining Sunley in 2002 Richard has been successful in securing planning approvals on numerous complicated sites, and has also been responsible for both buying and selling land to maximum advantage. His role involves identifying key planning and development issues and formulating an appropriate strategy and timeline in which to address them. His considerable experience within the industry has provided him with an excellent working knowledge of both the planning system and the array of technical issues associated with achieving optimum consents.
Caroline Treadwell – Land Manager
Since joining Sunley in early 2007 Caroline has been instrumental in securing planning consents on a variety of challenging sites, both for housing and apartment schemes. Caroline has excellent co-ordination skills and is adept at overseeing the roles of multiple consultants associated with particular projects, and in dealing with Town and District Councils. Her previous sales experience has proved invaluable in ensuring that the planning permissions obtained by Sunley have been of both good quality design and readily marketable such that the value of the land has been maximized in each case.
Peter Gossington – Development Manager
Peter offers 30 years experience of Project Delivery and will oversee all aspects of the Management/Design and Construction processes. Post his Sunley appointment in 2002 Peter operated as ‘Senior Contracts Manager’ for a large main stream construction company operating country wide working within the commercial/residential/leisure and pharmaceutical sectors.
Current responsibilities extend to:
- Project Design
- Value Engineering
- Building Control co-ordination
- Facilities Management and Post Contract activities
Kirk Graham – Residential and Mixed Use Acquisition
Kirk has 18 years experience in the London residential market. Prior to joining Sunley in 2009 he had been involved in residential development and investment, acquiring assets opportunistically where value could be added through the planning process, development and active management. He also worked for an RSL in the early part of his career managing a portfolio of Private Sector Rental properties and being involved in general development acquisition.
John Sims – Multi Let Industrial Property Specialist
John established Industrial Ownership in 1986 in a joint venture with Sunley Holdings, who provided initial funding for the Company. The ‘IO’ Group as it became known formed an initial joint venture with the coal board pension funds in 1990 known as CINIO Ltd, which achieved returns in this sector substantially ahead of the Industrial IPD index. Subsequently from 1996 to 2007 the group expanded its multi-institutional fund investor activities in the both the UK and Western and Central Europe, achieving total funds under management exceeding £2billion in 9 countries.