ULI UK NEXT held its first ‘Transitions to Leadership’ breakfast of the year on 2 May, with guest Anne Kavanagh, Chief Investment Officer and Member of the Board at PATRIZIA.

The breakfast, kindly hosted by ESO Capital Partners on Argyll Street, took the form of a very interactive informal exchange and discussion, and lasted for a full hour and a half, during which the 13 attending ULI NEXT members benefitted from Anne’s 25 years of experience, insights and anecdotes.

The discussion kicked off quickly and a lot of ground was covered during the meeting, ranging from the skills required to transition from a business expert to a leadership position, to how to plan for one’s career development, or what to do to keep a healthy work life balance. Anne was extremely open at sharing her experience, advice and lessons learnt, and the audience had prepared many topics they were interested in getting Anne’s opinion on. It was very interesting to learn that although Anne’s quickly accessed a series of international management roles through her career, she never devised her moves with a specific career plan, but instead focused on performing in her various roles, while the evolution took care of itself. Her observation is that the NEXT generation is much more proactive in career development and needs to be so!

When the breakfast meeting broke out at close to 10am, attendees all expressed how much they had benefited from the exchange, thanking Anne warmly for the time she spared them and for her openness.

Words by Alexis Gisselbrecht, Patrizia