Benn Zemek is the Chief Financial Officer of the Battersea Power Station project. Benn joined the project in early 2013, shortly after acquisition by the Malaysian consortium (SP Setia, Sime Darby Property and EPF). He has since played a key role in the successful transformation of the £9bn regeneration site, with a specific focus on leading the key funding and capital transactions and ongoing investment and financial management.
Benn has over 15 years of experience as a real estate finance specialist working as a principle investor, developer and advisor across the spectrum of real estate sectors and in multiple global jurisdictions. After completing a dual degree in Civil Engineering and Finance, Benn began his career at a national property company in Australia (now Lendlease) focusing on commercial development. Benn subsequently shifted his focus to real estate investment management and advisory with a number of investment banking and real estate private equity firms within Australia and the UK, including Macquarie Bank.
Benn’s specific experience has involved substantial exposure to the investment and financial management, transaction management and capital raising for development and investment assets across nearly all real estate sectors, including most recently, some of the largest and most complex capital transactions in the UK.
Q-What was your first job and what is the worst job you’ve ever done?
Those that know me well will chuckle at this! My parents instilled a strong work ethic at home so I was always working part time throughout school and university, resulting in me experiencing numerous less desirable part time jobs – starting out as a cleaner at decrepit local service station, then climbing the social ladder doing everything from a marshal / dog-poo patrol at a dog racing track, tying steel on site as a labourer, banging in for-sale signs for an estate agency, lifeguarding….and the list goes on! The positive side of doing a lot of tough part time work was it made me hugely appreciative of sitting in air-conditioned lecture theatres and as a result I didn’t take Uni (and everything thereafter) for granted.
Q-Was finance your first career choice and what were you doing before?
I have always been in the real estate finance sector but across an array of roles from principle investing in RE PE funds to corporate finance advisory. This background is certainly not your traditional finance career path and I am not a traditional CFO. But it marries well with my focus on strategic capital transactions and optimising project performance / ROE.
Q-Why did you choose a career in the real estate sector?
I have always had a strong interest in finance and real estate, which is why I paired my engineering degree with a finance degree – but without being certain which direction it would take me. Whilst I was in my final years at Uni, I was lucky enough to get a scholarship/internship with what is now Lendlease, which was a fantastic programme enabling me to work in the holidays / non contact hours (my less desirable part-time jobs came to an end!) in various departments. It was during this programme I really came to appreciate my interest in the ‘deal-making / structuring / financing / capital transaction’ side of real estate.
Q-Why do you enjoy the sector?
Real estate as an asset class is unique from a financier perspective as it allows you to be part of a tangible process and product – which is hugely satisfying when you see the physical manifestation of a deal / transaction. This ‘romance’ that the sector can provide also allows you to be a bit more multi-dimensional as a finance professional. I.e. you don’t have to be just ‘the finance guy’ but someone who has a real interest / opinion / passion for the underlying asset class.
Q-What’s a typical day like?
Being a very large, dynamic, complex and fast moving project, days at BPS are rarely typical and always interesting. Whether myself and the team are focused on a funding or capital transaction, engaging with stakeholders or monitoring the financial management, I seek to synthesise the ‘noise’ into clear objectives / deliverables and always establish the balance of priorities to ensure we execute on what matters most – I prefer to do the really important / mission critical things really well rather than trying to do an average job of everything.
Q-What has had the biggest impact on your career?
Definitely my time on the Battersea Power Station project. I see it as a huge responsibility to take a London landmark to ‘highest and best use’ whilst delivering on the promises made to our many stakeholders – not least our very supportive Malaysian shareholders, without which this fantastic transformation would not be possible. I have also had the benefit of working with and learning from some amazing people, for which I am very grateful. So I have to say a big thank you to the CEO Simon Murphy for giving me the initial opportunity to join the team almost seven years ago and participate in the journey to – as Boris Johnson once said – climb the ‘Everest of real estate’!
Q-What advice would you give to people at different levels on developing their careers?
My key advice is to always operate with a ‘growth mindset’ and focus on your ‘career velocity’. What I mean by this is to always seek to learn as much as possible in every situation with an open mind / growth mindset – allowing you to supercharge your experience in a shorter period of time. In my opinion, experience is not just a function of time; rather it’s a function of how much ‘distance’ (i.e. the depth, breadth and quality of experience) one has covered in that period of time – thus I refer to it as the career velocity. For example, having a growth mindset means you are willing to learn and take responsibility well outside your job description. I see the opposite of this all the time when, for example, a finance person puts up barriers to their job and says ‘I don’t know I’m an accountant’…this is clearly a limiting attitude. What one trained for as a professional should not be a barrier or constrain the definition of themselves. Instead, use it as a platform to launch off and tackle any problem. Because the process of thinking and problem solving that your training provides (whether you’re a finance professional or engineer or surveyor etc) transcends job descriptions / roles / industries.
Q-Who inspires you and why?
Whilst this is more personal than professional, I would have to say my Dad. He suffered a very unfortunate accident and series of subsequent medical setbacks over the last couple of years rendering him a partial quadriplegic – which is a massive adjustment for a man who was extremely fit, active and hard working. However, in spite of his circumstances he displays a truly extraordinary attitude on a daily basis and continues to try as hard as he possible can with what he has left – he is literally a ‘rehab gym junky’ doing whatever exercises he can possible manipulate his body to do. His fortitude and determination provide me with an enormous amount of motivation, inspiration and perspective.
Q-What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Starting with the positives – I certainly perceive my strength to be problem solving and the ability to synthesise the complex into ‘edible’ material for decision making. I specifically enjoy being able to identify a problem or opportunity, determine the optimum strategy to solve the problem / capitalise on the opportunity and then lead a team to execute.
My primary weakness (of course there are many others!) is probably my tendency to lack some awareness when managing my teams. I am guilty of perhaps forgetting that not everyone thinks the same / has the same personal drivers and motivations. So I require continuous personal reminders to ensure I take multiple perspectives in certain situations.
Q-What do you think are the common qualities that the best leaders have?
Those qualities that create the optimum environment for the team to achieve their full potential. In my view, the first and most important quality is leading by example – whatever you expect from your team you must also display yourself with actions. Then it’s the ingredients for creating a meritocratic, self-motivating and autonomous learning environment where honest constructive communication is fostered and expertise is empowered – I see these key ingredients as being respect, trust, honesty and accountability.
Q-What are you most proud of?
Personally, I am most proud of being a father and watching my girls grow into amazing little humans. They are so heavily influenced by the example we set as parents (no pressure!) and they are often a mirror of our personal strengths and weaknesses – so every time I watch them shine as little humans I am proud of my contribution.
Professionally I am very proud of playing a small part in the literal re-shaping of London at Battersea Power Station. This extraordinary project will leave a lasting legacy of design and placemaking excellence in the world’s greatest city, that everyone from our Malaysian shareholders to the many thousands of trade contractors can be immensely proud of.
Q-Why do you feel championing inclusion and diversity is so important?
I am a firm believer in a true meritocracy. It is very obvious that in a business, let alone a society, if we have the best people for each job then we will substantial outperform an environment that suffers from prejudicial barriers, and thus holds many of the best people back. Given there are still some very real barriers for lots of people, we need to execute this ‘championing’ to create equality of opportunity and a fair playing field for all.
I am also personally very passionate about championing women’s rights. As a father of two little girls, and whilst I have had the benefit of many strong females in my life (including my wife, mother and sister), I never really appreciated the gender imbalance until becoming a father. So I am desperate to do whatever I can as a leader in the workplace to ensure they grow up in a true meritocracy and are not forced to suffer from the many prejudices of the past and present.
Q-Where do you see the Real Estate sector in 10 years time?
On the journey to some fundamental changes and maybe only recognisable in form and utility. Real estate seems to be one of the last industries to be truly disrupted by tech innovation – including everything from the materials / production / supply chain / construction processes all the way to the user experience (i.e. virtual reality).
The other major disrupting factor is climate change – which will only accelerate some of the tech changes as we seek solutions to the real ‘price of carbon’ that the industry needs to reduce / offset – again impacting the full lifecycle of assets from the material / production /construction phase through to more sustainable use. Climate change is also likely to produce many wide ranging multi-dimensional direct and indirect impacts on the sector – things like, changing engineering design standards based on more frequent extreme weather events, impacting insurance provisions, impacting mortgage requirements, impacting the value of physical locations (prime waterfront…) and creating new population migration patterns as locations potential become redundant etc.
Of course, the full scope and magnitude of all these potential changes (which all provide opportunity for the industry to solve problems) will take longer than the next 10 years, but I suspect that by the time the last phase at Battersea Power Station is finished it will be done within an environment of very different parameters re: design, planning, production and use.
In any case, as long as humans continue to congregate into communities for living, working, eating and socialising – then buildings and the spaces between buildings will always serve a purpose and thus command a tangible value relative to the dynamic of demand and supply!
Q-What are key challenges for business directors in 2019/2020?
It looks like the next 12 months will suffer from similar anxieties of the last 12 months, but hopefully with an improvement in certainty as we balance global public policies with capital market expectations. I.e. the market is trying to price in the existential political issues like Brexit and global trade wars (which combined are certainly a recession catalyst) against the backdrop of further global monetary easing.
At a more granular level, successful navigation of the environment requires more clarity on some key catalysts – such as the tax environment in the residential market in the post Brexit / post general election UK, post Brexit occupier demand in the office sector, or understanding where the structural changes in the retail market start to bottom out with respect to the impact on ‘bricks and mortar’ and non-prime / non-destination assets.
Q-Finally, what do you do to relax?
As a father of a four year old and one year old, there isn’t much time to relax! So we focus on having as much active fun as possible, preferably outdoors – my favourite being snowboarding, boating, diving and surfing. Of course, most of which you can’t do in the London so we try and get away and travel as a family as much as possible.
