Becca Munroe, our Senior Workplace Manager, started her journey at Landsec in 2021. Critical to her decision to join us was the strength of our flexible office product Myo.

‘As customers become more particular about the quality of space they work in, I wanted to be part of shaping a product for an industry leader with high quality stock.’

Becca also aligns with our purpose and values, which shapes the way she approaches work life. ‘I align the most with the Landsec purpose ‘Realising Potential’.  As a black woman in the real estate industry I think it’s so important to be making a conscious effort to bring underrepresented groups to the table. Our Landsec Futures fund will help to do this and also help our customers to see the impact they can have. It’s a really powerful opportunity for us to make a difference.’

The opportunity to make a difference is something that is close to Becca’s heart. With volunteering a big part of our culture, she’s been able to lead on partnering with 20/20 Change at Myo – a youth empowerment organisation focusing on helping young people realise their potential and support them into the world of work. ‘At Myo we host 20/20’s quarterly job fairs which sees employees from across London advertise their roles and run employability workshops for young people,’ Becca says.

Zoe Gilligan joined us in 2016 as Portfolio Manager, and has since progressed to the role of Portfolio Director.  

Building a better future for our communities and maintaining a good work-life balance are two factors that have always been important to her – especially since having children. ‘We owe it to our future generations to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to protect the beautiful world,’ she says. ‘Being part of a company that is so passionate about making a difference has become even more important since having children. I want them to enjoy what the environment and the wider world has to offer.’ 

For Zoe, one of the deciding factors in joining Landsec was our flexible working policy, which enabled her to spend more time with her young children in their formative years. ‘I joined as a Portfolio Manager working 4 days a week and had flexible hours to enable me to get back for bath and story time,’ she says. 

Our purpose – creating sustainable places, connecting communities, and realising potential – resonates with Zoe in how she approaches both work and life. ‘Being part of a community will often make you realise your potential and bring out the best in people.’ 

Zoe brings out the best in people as she works with us, and this was especially evident as she participated in coaching and mentoring programmes. ‘I was recently part of the Circl Coaching programme and developed a great relationship with my mentee who I am still in contact with. Being a coach and a mentor are extremely rewarding, I am always so proud to watch people develop and reach their goals.’ 

Currently, she’s working on a 6-month youth engagement programme at Cardinal Place, where she and her team engaged with a number of young people to help reshape the public realm in Victoria. ‘It has allowed us to develop a deeper connection with our community and given those young people exposure to the real estate sector,’ she says. ‘The project has been very rewarding and supports our desire to create sustainable places whilst connecting communities and realising potential.’ 

Ollie Leggett joined Landsec through the Landsec Academy Apprenticeship scheme, supporting various teams across the business while working towards a Business Analysis qualification. 

He is currently working within the Social Sustainability team as a Junior Project Manager, after moving into Change and Project Management and achieving his PRINCE2 Foundation qualification.

Sustainability is a particularly important value to Ollie, working within a team that focuses on that element of the Landsec purpose. ‘Landsec takes huge steps towards sustainability and helps its employees to do so too with initiatives like the four paid volunteering days a year,’ he says. ‘Time is often seen as one of the barriers to being more sustainable, so having these days means we can spend time supporting causes we care about.’

Ollie has taken advantage of this volunteering incentive, which enables him to support the Construction Youth Trust, talking to young people about his experiences of being an apprentice and encouraging entry to the industry. ‘It was great for me to be able to express the benefits of an apprenticeship, especially since university is spoken about much more commonly, meaning young people don’t always know about alternative routes.’

Georgie Manly joined Landsec in 2020 as a Customer Experience Designer, working across Workplace, then Retail, and was promoted to Customer Propositions Director this year.

From the very beginning of her journey at Landsec, she was impressed with the way her colleagues and senior stakeholders allowed everyone room to grow, progress their careers, explore different areas of expertise, and make an impact.

‘This knowledge gave me the confidence that I was not just a number, but instead someone who can make profound change and develop my career’.

And make change she has.
 
From being the chair of the Diaspora Network, which highlights colleagues who are from ethnic backgrounds, to creating new spaces and better destinations for guests in her current role, Georgie relates most to the ‘realising potential’ element of the Landsec purpose.

‘Not only is it important for talented, ethnically diverse individuals to be seen and heard, but their expertise should positively impact decision making. With this role, I'm also able to ensure that voices of communities we serve, who are also ethnically diverse, are heard and listened to so we can create authentic spaces that positively serve everyone in them,’ she says.

Realising potential at Landsec involves customer centricity, something that Georgie puts at the heart of all her decision making. ‘When our customers succeed, we truly succeed’, she says.

‘I believe everyone and everything has potential. Looking beyond the surface and finding unique attributes is where opportunities start to unfold and when the magic starts to happen. As a creative, solving problems and creating new opportunities is what I do best.’

Duaan Lewis joined us in 2022, initially as Retail Operations Support Assistant before becoming our Retail Liaison in early 2023.

Throughout his career, he’s worked with organisations that align to his personal values – from a strong focus on sustainability, to actualising better representation of diversity within the workplace.

Of the Landsec purpose – creating sustainable places, connecting communities and realising potential - Duaan relates most to the ‘connecting communities’ element. ‘Landsec owns a widespread portfolio in diverse locations up and down the United Kingdom,’ he says. ‘Whether it’s our flexible workspaces within London or retail destinations that lie at the heart of tight-knit communities, it’s so important that we ensure that these communities are established and nurtured to get the best out of these spaces for everybody using them.’

Just shy of a year into his career at Landsec, Duaan was asked to co-chair the Landsec Pride Affinity Network, which aims to improve representation of LGBTQ+ individuals within Landsec and in the wider property industry, as well as to foster a sense of allyship within the business. ‘As much as I love this ‘extra-curricular’ part of my role, a whole lot of work goes into it from the network which we feel will really leave a lasting impact not just internally for our colleagues, but also for our guests and the communities that we work within,’ he says.

Landsec has evolved its approach to diversity and inclusion in order to truly understand our communities’ needs and continue to create places where people feel a sense of belonging. ‘I firmly believe that there is an intrinsic link between D&I and performance,’ says Duaan. ‘I feel that Landsec understands this and are making strides to put D&I at the forefront of our HR Agenda to foster the best talent that bring a well-rounded variety of characters that form our staff.’

Hywel Butcher, Senior Marketing and Planning Manager, UK Shopping Centre Portfolio, has been determined to make an impact since he joined us at Landsec 15 years ago.

The element of the Landsec purpose that Hywel resonates the most with is ‘Connecting Communities’, and it’s clear to see how he helps us brings this purpose to life. ‘When our communities succeed, we succeed,’ Hywel says. ‘From Landsec Future Grants, Circl Mentoring, volunteering days, Christmas Giving Trees and the incredible work our centre teams do with their communities across the regions – there are some fantastic initiatives to get involved with to help make a real difference.’

Hywel is passionate about ensuring that Landsec continues to drive change and ensure all of our employees feel represented, empowered, heard and seen. ‘I’m pleased to see how far we’ve come with visibility, inclusivity and equality over my 15 years at Landsec.  But there’s always more we can do,’ he says.

 ‘This is reflected in my role as co-chair of the Landsec Pride Network.  This year we’ve worked hard to educate and promote allyship across the business – as well as to our guests at our shopping destinations across the UK.’

When asked about what diversity means to him, Hywel says, ‘Visibility of role models and to feel safe to be your true authentic self in the workplace matters. It is in the interest of both our people and our business to provide support and assistance for LGBTQ+ employees.’

Rosa Yates, Retail Intern, joined us in April as part of the Landsec Futures internship programme.

Rosa, like many in her generation, had the unenviable challenge of studying and graduating during COVID – and she succeeded with flying colours, being awarded the Student Excellence Award. She graduated from her Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Westminster in 2020.

‘After graduation, I sunbathed in the garden for a bit before getting a comms internship with Cardiff Met Uni and Cardiff City Council to launch DAPTEC, a sustainable tech start up. It’s still on display at Techniquest in Cardiff. After that I began the process to teach English as a foreign language in China… the second lockdown hit. So, I worked as an LSA in a local school before I returned to retail. And now I’m here!’

She found out about Landsec Internships through the Circl Leadership Programme. ‘I really enjoyed my experience on the programme, and my Landsec partner Sarah Gaskin (Retail Manager at Clarks Village) was great to work with!’

Rosa’s role includes assisting the Retail Manager to further develop Brand Partner relationships, customer satisfaction and supporting the local community. She’s worked at a number of our retail destinations, including supporting West 12’s first Summer Fair, overseeing the stalls and performers, and working on opening a community library for children to enjoy over the summer holidays.

Her most memorable experience at Landsec so far has been her week with the team at St David’s, Cardiff. ‘The team were lush, there were multicoloured feathers everywhere thanks to Harry Styles, and it’s the centre I received my first paycheck in. A paycheck that was promptly spent on 4 pairs of Topshop Joni Jeans.’

Faith Rusoke joined us in April as Brand Account Management intern, to learn about building brand relationships and leasing out units to provide the best customer experience and generate revenue. Her career path began after she finished school and took a break from studying, where she decided to work in hospitality.

‘During this period, I decided I wanted to pursue my passion in real estate, I then came across this internship, applied, and here I am!’

She’s learned a lot during her internship, but one thing that she has particularly enjoyed is, ‘reaching out to brands and going through the leasing process. My most memorable experiences so far have definitely been the retail summer day and my site visit to Gunwharf Quays!’

Faith has recently worked on getting new brands into our Platform+ units, which provide 1,200 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft of prime retail space in some of the UK’s best trading locations. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing the brands I’m working with actually enter the stores for the first time,’ she says.

Her advice for future interns? ‘Life’s a good teacher, make sure you learn your lessons.’

Ocean Campbell is our Guest Experience Intern, who’s been with us for the past few months through the Landsec Futures internship programme. She was referred to the role through a community career development programme called Spear in Camden.

Ocean says, ‘My role is all about guest experience and how we can maximise that. I assist in the creation of guest propositions for our retail centres, help manage the content creation in the Landsec app for London properties, deliver customer pop-activations across the London offices and manage my team finances.’

Ocean has a wealth of retail knowledge built starting from her very first job, which was at M&S as a retail assistant. ‘The most valuable thing I learned was the importance of communication with your team,’ she says.

Lately, she’s been working on the Landsec app, ‘we’ve been preparing content for the launch, creating guest propositions and project management trackers.’ She says it’s been interesting, as she barely uses her own social media!

When asked what one thing she wishes she’d known when she was younger, Ocean says, ‘that life’s a bunch of stairs, take it one step at a time.’

Sumayrah Ahmad is a law graduate who joined us earlier this year as our Compliance Intern through the Landsec Futures programme. Her role involves assisting the Compliance Lead with day-to-day data protection and governance across all our assets. She plays a key role in enhancing our compliance framework and ensuring we adhere to regulatory standards.

Sumayrah has a wealth of experience through her law degree (which she completed over three years during lockdown – an impressive feat!) and previous part-time jobs, ‘Technically this is my first job… but valuable knowledge of regulations and problem-solving and interpersonal skills from my degree and the part time roles (e.g. tutoring, barista) are proving to be invaluable assets right now.’

She’s recently been working on data protection, which forms her day-to-day – but she’s also been enjoying ‘revamping the Anti-Bribery and Corruption and Gift and Hospitality policies, as well as updating the E-Learning Compliance training.’

Sumayrah has particularly enjoyed days out to our properties, which puts into perspective the work she does. ‘My most memorable experience so far was the team visit to the Depot Mayfield and MediaCity – don’t think anything will top these precious moments with the team!’