AREF Tax Committee Biographies

Christopher is an experienced tax advisor with over 20 years experience in the investment management industry.  He has been at Schroders since April 2006 and has expertise in a wide range of international taxes. Before Schroders he was at Deloitte for 8 years where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser, working in the banking, investment management, and real estate sectors as well as a period working on tax policy.
 
Christopher’s current focus is supporting the growth of the Private Assets business within Schroders through close working with the investment and product teams to meet investors' objectives and manage tax risks effectively, and providing tax due diligence and transaction support on acquisitions, both for the Schroders group and on behalf of investors.

Will has worked at Aviva Investors since 2004 and is currently Head of Fund Structuring advising on UK and offshore real estate fund, infrastructure and traditional fund set ups. Previously Will was Head of Tax for Aviva Investors advising on a wide range of investment management tax issues including property transactions, M&A work and other non-property related fund issues.

Prior to joining Aviva, Will spent over 4 years in Ernst & Young's real estate tax team and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2001. Will has a law degree from Exeter University.

Will is a member of the AREF Management Committee and previously chaired the AREF Tax Committee, taking an active part in lobbying tax authorities in relation to tax issues affecting AREF members.

David Brown is a senior partner in the Real Estate tax group of Deloitte in London and heads the Real Estate Funds practice working extensively on UK and pan-European real estate capital flows. During 2007/8, David undertook a secondment to our Sydney office, focusing on Australian investment into Europe, Asia and the US.

Throughout his career David has specialised in advising on the taxation aspects of real estate investment and development transactions and has led teams advising a number of real estate funds, property companies and private investors.

Frequently leading cross-border engagements, assisting clients on acquisitions, fund formation and other transactions within Europe and into the US and Asia.

Clients include AREA Property Partners, Aviva Investors, Europa Capital, Henderson Global Investors, Songbird/Canary Wharf Group and Westfield.

He graduated from Cambridge University in 1990 and is a Chartered Accountant.

John joined M&G Prudential as Head of Real Estate Tax in July 2018. He is responsible for tax in relation to M&G’s real estate activities worldwide including tax advisory, compliance and tax issues relating to product development. Prior to joining M&G Prudential, John worked for Qatari Diar, the real estate development and investment arm of the sovereign fund of the State of Qatar, for 5 years in Doha and London with tax responsibility at various times for matters across Europe, Asia and the UK. John also acted as Finance Director for the Europe & Americas region towards the end of his time at Qatari Diar. Earlier in his career, John spent 9 years with Deloitte in London and Luxembourg primarily focussing on providing advice to private equity and institutional clients investing into international real estate. 
 
John is a graduate of the University of Sheffield, a Chartered Accountant and holds an Advanced Diploma in International Tax.

Simon is Head Of Tax at Legal And General. He has worked in financial services and property and is skilled in Banking, Accounting, Treasury, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), and Private Equity.

Simon is an accounting & treasury professional. 

A member of the Tax Committee of the Association of Real Estate Funds, Aaron advises companies and institutions on the tax implications of their business and transactions.

He is actively involved and experienced in the real estate investment fund sectors, in advising both domestic and overseas investors holding UK real estate, whether alone, in joint ventures, or in more widely-held structures. He also regularly advises on the tax aspects and negotiations of M&A transactions.

Nick is a Partner in the Tax team at CMS Cameron McKinnon Nabarro Olswang with experience in advising on all aspects of tax planning and structuring for corporate clients in relation to mergers and acquisitions, reorganisations and joint ventures.

Nick advises clients in respect of the tax efficient acquisition, development, investment and disposal of real assets. Nick also advises in relation to the establishment and operation of investment funds and joint venture arrangements, particularly in respect of UK and European investments.

Nick has been with CMS (previously Nabarro), since 2000, having previously worked at PwC in New Zealand. Nick has law and commerce degrees from Victoria University, Wellington and is also a member of the British Property Federation tax committee.

David Love is the CFO at Knight Frank IM where he was responsible for all financial, operational, legal and administrative matters concerning the management of the business, and clients’ real estate investments.

David is also responsible for arranging and managing debt for client programs, and has oversight of all tax matters that affect the business. In his career he has been involved in structuring and restructuring a number of funds for a broad range of investors both retail and institutional, UK and international having previously been the CFO/COO for CBRE Global Investors in the UK and prior to that the CFO of ING REIM UK.

David holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and Bachelor of Law degree (First) and is a Chartered Accountant with over 28 years post-qualification experience in practice and industry.

Matthew Roach is a Partner at KPMG LLP. His practice focuses on real estate and funds taxation. Matthew has extensive experience advising on the taxation of UK and European property transactions, including leading complex cross-border M&A transactions. He also specialises in fund structuring, real estate finance and loan portfolio transactions. He is the author of several chapters in the Tolley’s Taxation of Collective Investment and Property Taxation handbooks. 
 
Prior to joining KPMG in 2011, Matthew was Head of Tax for Capita Financial Group where he was responsible for the taxation affairs of over 400 UK and international investment funds, including UK authorised investment funds and real estate & private equity vehicles. He also previously worked in real estate and funds tax for EY in London and PwC in Sydney.
 
Matthew has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Applied Finance degree from the Securities Institute of Australia.

Camilla has provided tax advice to the Financial Services Group since 1990. She has wide experience of advising on the taxation of all types of investment funds and in particular advises fund management groups on new product development.

Camilla's UK work includes the tax structuring for authorised unit trust and OEIC launches and reconstructions, for both securities and property funds. She also advises on unauthorised funds, including exempt unauthorised unit trusts. Offshore, she advises on the structuring and restructuring of both traditional and alternative funds, both open and closed-ended.

Recently, Camilla has worked on a number of substantial property authorised investment fund (PAIF) projects, both new launches and conversions of existing institutional and retail funds, following her role as lead tax adviser in the conversion of the Royal London Exempt Property Unit Trust into a PAIF in 2010. She was also involved in the asset transfers required during the reconstruction of the Henderson International Property Fund into two Aviva funds.

Camilla has contributed chapters to Tolley's Taxation of Collective Investment, as well as articles to journals. She has been involved in many industry initiatives and is currently playing a leading role on the tax committee of the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF) working with HM Revenue & Customs resolving the capital gains tax issues arising with PAIF conversions, and also working with HM Treasury on their tax transparent fund initiative.

Neil Stanford is a Real Estate Structurer within the Real Estate Product Finance & Structuring team at Standard Life Investments. Neil is responsible for providing global real estate specific asset and fund tax structuring solutions and advising on real estate related tax, structuring and regulatory matters. Neil also manages the team responsible for discharging the UK tax compliance and tax reporting obligations of Standard Life Investments' Real Estate business.  

Neil started his career at Standard Life Investments in 2005 in a general tax structuring role. Prior to joining Standard Life Investments, Neil worked for 5 years at KPMG gaining exposure to corporate tax compliance, advisory and international tax work.

Neil is a Chartered Tax Adviser.

Leonie is a Partner with over 17 years’ experience in corporate tax specialising in real estate.
Leonie has advised a number of clients on structuring and investing into European and global real estate funds. She has also provided tax advice in relation to several significant recent real estate transactions in the UK and Europe.
Leonie’s clients include large sovereign wealth and pension funds, institutional fund managers and family office clients.