Women Leading Real Estate: International Women's Day Cocktail

Lucille Watkins-Brazier is Head of Social Value, Lendlease Development, Construction and Consulting, a role where she leads the company’s efforts to create and implement strategies that foster positive social impact and benefits for communities. With over 20 years’ experience, Lucille’s expertise spans Social Value, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), Ethics and Supply Chain, Community Engagement and Responsible Business practices. Her career spans various sectors, including real estate, gaming and hospitality. At Lendlease, Lucille’s focus includes supporting the company’s goal to create $250m of social value by 2025. She is particularly recognised for her work addressing complex socioeconomic programmes for large urban regeneration schemes across the UK, notably receiving the Excellence in Real Estate Award at the 2024 Social Value Awards, and being shortlisted for several others in the social value arena.

After starting her career at Blackstone, Jenny Wang co-founded the logistics investor, developer and asset manager, Sunrise Real Estate, in 2021. Since then, she has helped take the business from a standing start into one that has quietly invested nearly €1bn of equity capital into over 20 million sq ft of high-quality logistics assets across the UK and Europe. As COO and head of asset management, Jenny is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of Sunrise and the asset management activities within the portfolio, as well as being a member of the investment committee. Jenny is passionate about the recruitment and retainment of female talent and leads the Sunrise Ladies initiative, which aims to provide an empowering and supportive environment for open dialogues amongst the female colleagues. By creating their own business, Jenny and the other founders of Sunrise have deliberately created a culture that embraces sustainable work-life balance, supporting the team’s wellbeing and personal growth while creating a more productive environment for professional excellence and ambitions. They hope they can set a new standard for the industry. While big-box logistics is Jenny’s forte now, Jenny’s path into real estate was via the hotel sector. She graduated magna cum laude from the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, but the decision to take a module in real estate while there ignited a spark for the sector that changed the course of her career. Jenny is also on the Board of Directors for Cornell Real Estate Council and is in charge of regional chapter expansions, bringing together alumni in real estate across the world. Her hobbies include tennis, table tennis, skiing and travelling.

Melanie joined the British Property Federation in 2015, following nine years as Director General of the Food and Drink Federation. Melanie began her working life as a Police Constable in the Metropolitan Police Service.  She joined HM Customs in 1988 and subsequently held a number of senior roles in the civil service. Her role is to champion a diverse, successful and sustainable real estate UK real estate sector recognised for the positive benefits it delivers to communities across the country. Melanie is also a Trustee of the property industry charity LandAid and a member of the Council of the University of Essex. She was awarded a CBE in 2015 for services to the food and drink industry.