Change of Chairman

Posted on: 17 November, 2014

Delva Patman stands down, to be replaced by John Gellatly

Delva Patman FRICS ACIArb, Chairman of The College of Estate Management (CEM), has announced that she will be standing down at the end of 2014. Delva has been Chairman of Trustees for six years, and joined the Board in 1999.

Delva Patman said: “I am very proud of the College’s achievements during my time as Chairman. In recent years CEM has made great progress towards becoming a fully independent academic institution. We are now using our taught degree awarding powers to deliver CEM degree programmes globally, from foundation to masters level. We are at the forefront of the revolution in online learning, offering fully online courses powered by advances in learning technology.

“As the outgoing Chairman I am confident that we have established a firm base for future success.”

John Gellatly FRICS has been appointed as the new Chairman of the CEM Board of Trustees with effect from 1st January 2015. John is currently Head of UK and Europe, Global Real Estate Multi Manager Group at Aviva Investors. Between 2005 and 2009 John was Managing Director at BlackRock. Before that he was Director of Real Estate Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston (Europe) Ltd. John’s career also includes senior positions in real estate investment with ABN Amro, Savills Fund Management and DTZ Debenham Thorpe as well as a number of industry related appointments, including being past Chairman of the Investment Property Forum (IPF).

Commenting on his appointment, John Gellatly said: “It is a great honour to be appointed Chairman of an organisation which makes such an outstanding contribution to education and research into the built environment worldwide. As an independent degree awarding institution CEM has a huge opportunity to achieve even greater impact in future.

“I was drawn to working with CEM because of its strong reputation in the property and construction industries and its mission to improve access to the professions. I look forward to working with the College’s Trustees, staff and students to deliver our growth strategy and realise our vision of becoming the leading vocational, online university.”