Integral Group Elevates Lundy Wilbon To President In International, Modular Pivot

LONDON — The 1960s and 1970s were all about liberation and radicalism, right? Not so fast. The City of London was still dominated by bowler hats and pinstripes, and life in most of post-war Britain was narrow, cramped and routinely prejudiced. You could watch flower power on the TV, but there was little flowering of new opportunities if you went to the wrong school, were Black, female, gay or Jewish.

Neil Sinclair built a series of London-based property businesses during the 1960s and '70s, became one of the surveying business leaders in the 1980s and '90s, and today is a doyen of the industry as co-founder and chief executive at investor Palace Capital. But getting to the top has required determination and mettle, and 50 years ago, it also meant overcoming prejudice in the property business.

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Sophie van Oosterom was working in the London office of Lehman Brothers almost exactly 13 years ago when the lights literally went out on a September Sunday evening. Suddenly, no one wanted to take her calls. 

Working in the real estate private equity business of the failing investment bank, she kept her job only because technically she was working for the investors in the funds Lehman managed rather than the bankrupt company itself. But she went from the top of the pile to the bottom, learning lessons she has never forgotten in a career that has taken her to the helm of global real estate at fund manager Schroders.

“There was that moment of uncertainty when all of the operating partners we were working with wouldn’t pick up the phone any more, because they said, 'You were the money before, but now you’re nothing,'” she recalled at Bisnow London’s Women Leading Real Estate event.

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