Even without the backdrop of the very flat mood music for the market, the announcement this week of Joanne McNamara’s appointment as chief executive of British Land hit a real high note.
Mel Flaherty, PW deputy editor
The output from her 16-year stint at Oxford Properties, where she is currently executive vice-president, Europe, speaks for itself: around £8bn of assets under management across office, retail, logistics and residential. On paper, she is well placed to take BL forward from its recently reported record year of leasing and particularly strong performances from office campuses and retail parks.
Her future employer’s description of McNamara as “one of Europe’s most respected real estate professionals” is also reinforced by a scroll-through of the more than 200 comments from an impressive list of well-known industry names responding to BL’s LinkedIn post about Simon Carter’s replacement. The move seems to have been universally greeted as good news for both McNamara and BL.
It is also excellent news for diversity in the sector. When she joins BL, which is expected by the end of November at the latest, McNamara will become not just the most powerful woman in property (measured by BL’s £4bn market cap), but one of the most powerful people in property, full stop.
McNamara will be one of the most powerful people in property, full stop
She will also, quite rightly, become one of the best paid, at least among the listed property companies. She will be rewarded with a pay package worth up to £4m a year, including a salary of £800,000.
On top of this, she will have the potential to further receive up to £5.9m over time, mostly in BL shares – partly in lieu of awards she would have earned at Oxford Properties, but also related to various performance and service provisions and to align her incentive awards with those of other executives at BL.
She is also very likely to make the top 10 of Property Week’s best-paid executives list when her first full year is under her belt, and to single-handedly significantly bring down BL’s current median 19.4% gender pay gap.
But before anyone gets too excited about this step forward for equality, it is worth remembering that BL is 170 years old and this is the first time it has had a woman as a CEO. Of course, this is not unusual. The other top listed REITs, Landsec (now 82 years old) and SEGRO (106), have never had a female in overall charge either – and nor have most other companies in the industry.
McNamara’s appointment doesn’t actually swell the ranks of women in that top tier of listed property company leaders. There were just four female CEOs in our top 40 last September, and with the departure of Rita-Rose Gagné at the head of Hammerson, and her replacement by Rob Wilkinson, that figure looks set to stay the same.
No one is suggesting that anyone other than the best person for the job should fill such positions, plus BL’s appointment and McNamara’s achievement deserve to be applauded for what they are.
If only it wasn’t so unusual – that really would be music to at least half the population’s ears.
