Damian Wisniewski received a Mechanical Engineering degree at Imperial College (1983) followed by ACA (1986) at Arthur Young (now EY) in London. He then spent two years post qualification in audit and then joined Stockley Park Consortium as FC and Co Sec. The shareholders were Stanhope Properties PLC, Chelsfield plc, Prudential and Kajima. Damian was then asked by Nigel Wilson (then CFO at Stanhope and now CEO at L&G) to join Stanhope and worked there from 1990-2 before being approached to join Chelsfield in 1992 as FC and later CFO. Chelsfield floated on the LSE in December 1993 and the business grew significantly up to 2004/5 when it was taken private and sold to Westfield, Multiplex and the Reuben brothers. Damian then spent almost three years at Wood Wharf (50% British Waterways, 25% Canary Wharf Group and 25% Ballymore) as COO running the JV, helping secure a 7 million sq ft mixed use planning approval in 2008. After that, Damian was approached to work for Treveria plc in the West End, a highly leveraged AIM listed vehicle set up by Dawnay Day owning €3bn of retail assets in Germany. Damian joined Derwent London plc as FD in January 2010.

Q-What was your first job and what is the worst job you’ve ever done?

My very first job was as a summer student at Thames Water where I had to investigate premises in central London (mainly Soho) which were declared by their owners as empty (and therefore not paying water rates!) – to check that they really were empty.  That was probably also the ‘worst’ though there were some interesting moments even then.

Q-Was finance your first career choice and what were you doing before?

I was keen on music initially (awarded a piano diploma at the Royal Academy of Music when I was 17) but realised that it could be a struggle to break through.  After that, I initially thought about an engineering career but, after a few months working at Lucas in Acton, decided that I needed to broaden my skills and wanted something more finance-based.

Q-Why did you choose a career in the commercial real estate sector?

Initially, it rather chose me as I was seconded by Arthur Young to a property development company based near Heathrow called Stockley Park Consortium (SPC).  This was in the late ‘80’s when there was a major development boom and it was very exciting.  I really liked the people I worked with and the product was leading its field – it was probably considered the pre-eminent business park in Europe at the time.  I later joined them as an employee.  From there, I moved to Stanhope who were project manager and shareholder at SPC and were involved in some of the biggest developments in London like Broadgate, Chiswick Park, King’s Cross, Ludgate Circus and Docklands.  From then on, the combination of product, people, big financial projects and capital markets activity had me hooked.

Q-Why do you enjoy the sector?

I have worked for some of London’s top developers and investors over a period of amazing growth in London while it went from a rather quiet capital city to a global hub which attracts talent from all over the world.  I also enjoy working with our professional advisers of all sorts, the bankers and finance teams we borrow from and our investor base.  It is a fairly close-knit sector where people all generally get on and respect each other – not something that applies universally outside of this sector!

Q-What’s a typical day like?

I’m based in our office at Savile Row in Mayfair but get out and about a fair deal seeing properties and meeting people. My job focuses mainly on running a team of about 25 in finance and IT, working closely with CEO, John Burns and other directors to keep the business running smoothly, leading the raising of finance, meeting investors and funders and ensuring reporting and governance are all properly dealt with.  We try to do everything well and have a fantastic team of people at Derwent London.

Q-Who or what has had the biggest impact on your career?

Definitely the people.  Early career – Stuart Lipton and Nigel Wilson gave me a great start in the property world, then Elliott Bernerd and Nigel Hugill were fantastic mentors at Chelsfield.  Ian Henderson was a strong and supportive Chairman at Treveria and finally, working with John Burns and other colleagues at Derwent London continues to be a high point.  My advice to people is to follow great people and learn from them as much as possible.  It has certainly worked for me.  I probably also learned a lot too from the demanding moments when things were tough in the early 1990’s and post Lehman’s.

Q-What advice would you give to people at different levels on developing their careers?

You must first try to find something you enjoy and find interesting. Then, I would really advocate looking for people you respect and work well with.  Good relationships tend to lead to more opportunities and it is then important to really get under the skin of a business and see it through a few years.  I am usually a bit suspicious of people who move jobs too frequently as it often takes a year or two to properly settle into a role.  If you have a longer tenure, you cannot then get away with creating problems before moving on to let others sort them out.  Then, believe in yourself, stick to your principles and try to treat people as well as possible – it will pay dividends in the long run.

Q-Who inspires you and why?

I am constantly inspired by the creative talent, commercial awareness and relationship-driven approach of all my colleagues here at Derwent London.  It really is a pleasure to come to work! I am also a governor at the Royal Academy of Music (where I studied as a junior exhibitioner) where the governing body, staff, students and alumni all make me realise the importance of hard work, dedication, love of music and the emotional responses that it brings.  There is so much good work going on around us, much of it unpaid, which often gets rather overlooked by our media!

Q-What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Hard work, dedication, humour and a strong sense of fairness hopefully make up for my lack of patience!  I try to build strong teams and treat people well and I find that they almost always repay me in kind many times over.

Q-What do you think are the common qualities that the best leaders have?

There are different kinds of leaders but the ones I work best with are good at listening, have broad analytical skills to help them make good decisions and then find it easy to galvanise others to follow them.  One often finds that the best leaders have powerful charisma and broad interests too.

Q-What are you most proud of?

Other than my family, it is the teams I have built up at a number of different places, principally in my 21 years at Chelsfield and Derwent London, the achievements of those teams and the way the people within them have flourished.

Q-Why do you feel championing inclusion and diversity is so important?

Every team needs different sorts of people to thrive.  If we are all similar in the way we think, then we are doomed in the long run!  It is actually diversity of thought which is most important but other forms of diversity are perhaps easier to identify and therefore more measurable.  There is also undeniably some ‘correcting’ to be done to avoid past prejudices and to encourage those from less privileged backgrounds.  I am delighted to say we have a very good assortment of talent at Derwent London and take our responsibility to society and to our own people very seriously.

Q-Where do you see the Real Estate sector in 10 years time?

I’ll focus on the commercial office sector as that is our specialism here – it has already changed quite a bit with workplaces becoming less formal, more flexible and with a focus on providing what the younger talent pool wants.  Long gone are the days when the choice of offices was made by the CEO and FD to be convenient for their favourite restaurants!  I think there will continue to be a focus on good design, accessibility to public transport, local amenities for the staff and good value.  Technology will continue to drive our behaviour, will re-shape roles and may lead in the future to fewer low-skilled office workers.  For example, at DL, we are already using clever software to read and summarise leases.  Our occupiers want simpler documents with less time and money spent on the process of moving in and out of new buildings.  However, people are essentially social, like to congregate together, bounce off each other and inspire each other and that means that demand for office space will continue.

Q-What are key challenges for business directors/partners in 2018?

All businesses are concerned by the ongoing political and economic uncertainty that hangs over us but there is a limit to what individual businesses can do in that regard.  We are focusing on running our company well, delivering good space where it is needed and at decent value and de-risking our pipeline of projects before taking on new speculative risk.  We are also keeping our finance simple and flexible – long a Derwent theme – and finding the time to manage the many requirements of good governance and responsibility.  On top of this, it is important to remember that the business must appeal to its investor base and keep re-examining the inputs and outputs that will make that happen.

Q-Finally, what do you do to relax?

I live in the very beautiful village of Woldingham in Surrey, high up in the North Downs but within the M25 and just over 30 minutes to central London by train.  I love the activity and energy of London but also enjoy getting back to the countryside where I can enjoy playing my piano, relaxing with the family (my wife Debbie, children Zoe and Adam and a West Highland terrier) and driving my three Lotuses – a 1990 Excel SE (owned for 25 years now), a 2008 Exige S240 Sprint and a 2014 Evora S.  Each is very different but all three have been 100% reliable, are cheap to run and great fun to drive.  We also have a home at La Sella near Denia in Spain where we spend quite a few weeks each year, enjoying the weather and food, playing tennis and swimming.