John Harrison
John Harrison commenced his career in property in 1969 working for commercial estate agents in central London. In 1971, he opened his own surveyor’s practice in London’s Regent Street and in 1975, he became an internal property advisor to Price Waterhouse Cooper with regard to £100m work out of a commercial portfolio within their insolvency division.
Thereafter he co-founded his first privately owned property investment and development vehicle which specialised in the first Strata sales in the UK and took this company, Marylebone Estates Plc public in the mid 80’s. He successfully sold his shareholding to British Institutions in 1991.
In 1992 he co-founded Marylebone Warwick Balfour Plc which listed on the London Stock Market through a reverse takeover in 1995. He holds a substantial shareholding in the company.
MWB today has substantial trading concerns within the Retail, Serviced Office and Hotel sectors. MWB was the first UK Company to set up an indirect vehicle to invest in leisure and retail property backed by the British Institutions. MWB’s first Limited Partnership was launched in 1996 – investors included Norwich Union, Scottish Widows, Deutsche Bank, Clerical and Medical, Sun Life of Canada and Hermes. The Fund Management division achieved assets under management in excess of £500m prior to sale in 2002.
In 2005, John established through IPO the APN/UKA European Retail Trust which raises capital in Australia to invest on behalf of Shareholders in European Retail Assets. The Portfolio stood at €1 billion at the time he sold stake in the Asset Manager (July 2007).
John is also Chairman of Childhood First, a charity which focuses on the wellbeing of 5-6 year olds through its Therapeutic Communities in the UK. He is also a fellow of the RICS.