Name: Kate Flaherty
Job title: Director of bids and public sector at Hartnell Taylor Cook
What I do: Over the past few years, Hartnell Taylor Cook has identified the public sector as a key target growth area and thanks to their committed efforts, the firm’s public sector client base has gone from strength to strength. So much so, that at the start of last year, they brought me in to head up the growth initiative for the wider business. I oversee all the new competitive bids from reviewing the opportunities to preparing the bid responses with our service leads and helping members of the team prepare for interviews and pitches. I also manage the public sector frameworks that we are on (including Crown Commercial Service and NHS Shared Business Services) and assist with our continuous drive to improve our social value and environmental offering as a business.
We continue to work with a range of local authorities in supporting their strategic reviews of property portfolios, including investment portfolios, looking at both rationalisation (where appropriate) or re-balancing the asset types held with acquisitions and disposals. These types of projects often involve Hartnell Taylor Cook analysing local authority core data records, including leases and titles, ensuring the obligations are correctly being applied and reviewing any overdue recent rent reviews and lease renewals to enhance values. We also offer services to assess the physical condition of sites, which often involves reviewing the Planned and Preventative Maintenance plans to check if the forecasting, costs and timings are in line with reality. This assists clients with financial forecasting and provides the rationale for investment decisions on upgrading to improve values and yield or selling in some cases.
Why I got into the property industry: A friend’s dad suggested I might enjoy a real estate management undergraduate course. Like many with no family working in commercial real estate, I never knew about this ‘hidden’ career path and I am so pleased this chance conversation happened and led me to working in real estate for over 20 years.
How I did it: I did a three-year undergraduate real estate management degree at Kingston University with a work placement year at CEMEX, where I completed one year of the APC before returning for my final year at Kingston, where I gained a first-class degree with honours.
My first proper job: I was a development surveyor at CEMEX, a global aggregate company, where they had invited me back after my work placement year. I joined their development team getting planning on the surplus land portfolio and selling sites, often for residential or mixed uses (from offices, to quarries and laboratories). It was here that I finished my APC and achieved my MRICS qualification.
My first big break: Meeting Gary Yardley, equity partner at King Sturge, when I interviewed him as part of my dissertation in my final year at university. Following the interview, Gary called me back and invited me for breakfast, which turned into a job offer in his team, which of course I snapped up! The role involved advising the public sector on development and sale options including joint ventures, delivering new homes, commercial space, and offices from their portfolios and meeting their wider strategic objectives. The team was brilliant and the company was a great place to work; I had five very happy years working there before my next move to CBRE.
My inspiration(s): Being a new mum, I’ve found I’m taking inspiration from the many strong women that surround me in the property industry, all making careers and family life work. Often juggling nursery drop-offs, after school clubs and sickness with the needs of their clients and colleagues, it’s a constant spinning of plates, but with the right support network and employer, it is possible.
The biggest challenge I have encountered to date: I was working in the PFI sector when Carillion went into administration. I was a company director on a number of PFI companies with live development sites and facilities management contracts, delivering services to schools across the UK. The immediate challenges we faced were ensuring services continued, schools faced minimum disruption, and development sites were made safe. Part of a wider team, I worked with the local authorities on replacing the FM sub-contracts and working through the legal and financial consequences. This involved many challenging conversations and decisions, but I learnt a great deal through the experience.
My greatest achievement/proudest moment to date: Making a big career change after my son was born, finding the right role that worked for me as a new mum, and ensuring it was one that I would find challenging and fulfilling. I wanted to ensure I was using the wide range of skills I had developed, but in a role that gave me a good balance with home life. I’m pleased to say my move to Hartnell Taylor Cook has provided a supportive environment on all of these fronts.
The biggest misconception people have about the property industry: ‘It’s a boys’ club’. I say, not anymore! In my day, there were four women out of a class of 30 on the real estate management course and I’m pleased to hear that today, it’s more of a 50:50 male to female ratio across the accredited courses, which is just brilliant.
My biggest bugbear about the industry/the one thing I would change about the industry: The diversity is improving but we still need to continue to evolve. In particular, work needs to be done widening the routes we use to bring the next generation into the working real estate world, including looking at different backgrounds and using the apprenticeship model. With the cost of attending university now higher and the elevated consequential debt levels (and tax levy on future earnings) for many, there exists a real barrier to attracting the next generation from all economic backgrounds. Ensuring that, as employers, we have multiple ways of accessing career paths is key to achieving a diverse workforce.
Why I am so passionate about ED&I: Working in real estate means we work with a wide and varied client base, representing the diversity of our society, which is continuously evolving. It makes complete sense to have this same level of diversity within our workforce in real estate advisory practices. Not only does it provide an enriching place for people to work, it opens doors, encouraging new talent and new ways of thinking; this in turn makes us more relatable to a wider and more varied client base.
Why I’m so passionate about ESG: Ensuring companies take better responsibility for wider social aspects, including their impact on the environment and on the local communities, can only be a good thing for society as a whole and for the next generation. It is a constantly evolving area and many companies are starting to better understand the correlation between doing well in this space and the beneficial impacts this gives the workforce. With increased employee fulfilment levels, we often see improvements in employee retention and our ability to attract new talent. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Where I’d like to be in five years’ time career-wise: Continuing to expand and grow Hartnell Taylor Cook’s public sector relationship base, particularly focusing on growing and ensuring authority owned asset portfolios are working as effectively as possible for the public sector. In addition to this, I hope to be continuing to offer advice on the physical condition and strategic advice in rationalising and revenue generation and, helping the sector as a whole to improve accessibility for SMEs to tenders and opportunities in the public sector procurements.
Who I’d invite, living or dead to a dinner party: Stephen Bartlett, Sean Connery, Rosemary Shrager and Romesh Ranganathan with a nice cheese board and a fine bottle of port.
What I do in my downtime: I live in a seaside town and try and get down to the beach as much as I can in the warmer months, whether it’s paddleboarding, swimming or just watching the sun set with a nice glass of wine. Otherwise, it’s hanging out with my husband and my three-year-old son. We love Leeds Castle in Kent.
The job I’d be doing if I was not doing this: In another life, I would have loved to have been a bespoke travel consultant for special occasion type holidays, obviously visiting every obscure place and trying out all the exciting sporting and recreational activities before the clients!
My advice for someone just starting out: Get practical work experience if you can, whether it seems relevant or not at the time. There is nothing like coming to an interview with some real-life work experience under your belt to talk about and demonstrate your commitment up to that point.
My motto/mantra: Let your regrets become learning opportunities and don’t look back in life, only forward, otherwise it will all be gone far too quickly.
