Paul Duffree Lvo Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

London And Windsor

Responsible for the effective and efficient leadership of the Property team based in London and Windsor with a portfolio including Buckingham Palace, the Royal Mews, St James's Palace, Marlborough House, Kensington Palace and Windsor Castle.• Co-wrote HMT business case leading to the successful approval of the Buckingham Palace Reservicing Programme. Established the internal Programme Management Office, procured the framework secondment contracts and appointed key Directors. Now leading the interface between the internal Property team and the programme whilst chairing the high level governance meetings providing surety for the SRO, Programme Executive Board and external Programme Challenge Board.• Removed outdated ‘desk instructions’ in place a new flexible tiered governance model, appropriate for the value and level of risk undertaken and embedded a new procurement function within the existing property team. • Created a prioritisation matrix to ensure investment decisions were made on robust criteria focussed on projects which reduced the overall rate of decline of the portfolio following decades of under investment. Within 5 years this strategy had halted the decline in most areas and has started to improve in others ahead of the predicted timescale. • Provide direct leadership and property consultancy advice to the wider organisation.• Introduced professional management of the commercial portfolio thereby increasing income yields on investment.

London, United Kingdom

Responsible for the global diplomatic estate of 5,000 properties covering 270 locations located in 180 countries accommodating 14,000 staff with a portfolio value over £3bn.• Led the merging of the Asset Management and Programme Delivery team into one holistic Estates function.• Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for 2 Government Major Projects with accountability direct to Parliament.• Controlled the consolidation of the DFID international estate within the FCO portfolio.• UK representative on the Council of Europe Committee of Building Experts.

London, United Kingdom

Recruited following nationwide advertising campaign to establish a new department to professionally deliver the FCO’s global programme of capital construction related projects following a highly critical National Audit Office report.• Structured new department and embedded revised ‘ways of working’ to provide momentum to a change programme focussed on increasing productive activity, professionalism and flexibility whilst ensuring greater contact with our numerous and varied stakeholders.• Immediate introduction of a detailed portfolio management system to ensure effective and efficient control of all schemes and a global risk control matrix, whilst initiating and driving forward the creation of the permanent IAAP suite.• Following the success of the new team a rapid expansion of the active portfolio to include all FCO security related construction schemes and large scale projects for other international Government departments creating a centralised core expertise area for HMG. • Responsibility for a £1bn portfolio of schemes in over 60 countries in some of the most challenging environments with regard to political, legal/regulatory, climate, seismic and security related risks.• Effective resolution of complex longstanding failed legacy projects ensuring clear ‘value for money’ for all stakeholders and protecting the reputation of the FCO from potentially damaging court action. • A member of the cross Government ‘High Risk Reviewer’ team formed by HMT and Cabinet Office to assure and validate complex high risk security related projects.

To expand the Group operations into China and the Far East based in Beijing with extensive travel throughout the provinces and Hong Kong.• Created a profitable business case matching identified Chinese opportunities with Group strategic capability, formulated a detailed implementation plan and gained Group Board approval to proceed.• Negotiated and created a complex JV in Hong Kong to operate Bingo within Hebei province.• Gained approval from the Central Sports Lottery Bureau, Beijing, to be an authorised Bingo operator in China.• Identified the potential and negotiated approval to be the exclusive Bingo operator in 3 key Chinese provinces with local business and political authorities.• Designed and implemented a new Far East corporate company structure, maximising fiscal and legal benefits and protection for the Group and formed companies in Hong Kong, Beijing and Hefei province.• Identified the opportunity to own and operate 50 Sports Lottery shops in Hefei province, negotiated approval and developed all design, branding, marketing and sales strategies.• Converted the UK Bingo design, operational and cost appraisal model into a new concept design specific to the Chinese marketplace, encompassing cultural, legislative and material/methods sensitivities and practicalities.• Led the UK I.T. team in the creation of the Group’s first stand-alone Bingo I.T. system for China, with additional huge potential for the UK market.

To align and coordinate the separate Property functions, increase their productivity and make them a valuable internal service provider.• Re-engineered the department creating a high-performance and efficient organisation with close co-ordination between Facilities Management, Capex and Estates Acquisition functions.• Increased the efficient use of Capex by 70% year-on-year with a budget of £45m pa.• Implemented a new and effective acquisition strategy resulting in the opening of 15 large footprint units (up to 30k sq ft) in 3 years, increasing the total portfolio by 10%.• Reincorporated the Casino estate management, researched and implemented a radical redesign of new units with a customer ‘voyage of discovery’ concept, new branding and M&E redesign while reducing Capex cost/sq ft by 15%.• Led and co-ordinated a sale/leaseback project for over 60 sites with a value of £100m.• Successfully merged the Gala and Coral project teams on acquisition of Coral, increasing the property estate from 200 to 1700 units.• Undertook property due diligence for 2 private equity changes of control and 2 bank finance restructurings with a portfolio asset value of £873m.• Introduced a centralised F&M helpdesk reducing internal complaints by 95% and expenditure by 30%.• Created an efficient, aligned and stable property team providing a professional high quality service to the Group.

To control the financial, legal and contractual elements of schemes within the portfolio and ensure they were managed within defined boundaries.• Developed and implemented a major change programme improving the structure, operations and control of the development portfolio.• Sold and transferred 17 properties worth £33m from the regulated to the deregulated business including all legal due diligence, valuation and regulatory requirements.• Effected the separation of ‘Railtrack Developments Ltd’ from the regulated entity following Government administration of Railtrack, protecting £56m of assets and returning maximum value to the shareholders.• Negotiated to completion 6 JV deals for major development opportunities.• Successfully project managed 7 major station redevelopment master plans to completion with a total value of £700m.• Delivered £35m profit over the last 3 years of Railtrack operation.

Cdir, Chartered Director Of The Iod

Mba, Mba

Bsc(Hons), Quantity Surveying, 1St