Coliving Awards

Ed Sharland is a Director at Assael Architecture, specialising in residential design with a particular focus on coliving. He has led and contributed to numerous pioneering coliving schemes, including the RIBA award-winning Folk at Sunday Mills and the 2024 Coliving Awards winner Folk at Florence Dock. Ed has also played an active role in shaping the sector, contributing to supplementary planning guidance for coliving across the UK and supporting the Conscious Coliving Campaign, a directive aimed at educating UK planning authorities and policy makers on co-living. With expertise and industry insight, he brings valuable perspective to the Coliving Awards judging panel.

Pepa Casado D’Amato is a trends researcher and the founding partner of Futurea and SUR. Specialising in the habitat industry, she advises companies on how to effectively integrate emerging trends into their business and design strategies. Her portfolio includes collaborations with prestigious brands such as Four Seasons, Cosentino, Roca, Rols, Leroy Merlin, and Siemens.

Currently, she serves as the curator for Ambit’s trendsCLUB and holds teaching positions in design and interior architecture at renowned institutions, including IED Madrid and EsDesign Barcelona. Pepa also spearheads key research initiatives such as The New Habitat and the Spain Design Index, the latter of which was recently honored with a Silver ADI Cultura Award.

With a career spanning over a decade, she previously spent ten years at the helm of the Habitat Trends Observatory.

Sarah has worked with the biggest student accommodation brands globally including GSA, The Student Housing Company and Student Roost. Her experience spans twenty years and includes PropTech, estate agency, new build residential marketing, PRS and PBSA. Voted one of the Property Week Trailblazers in 2020, Top Voice in Property Marketing 2025 and Inspiring Women in Property Finalist 2025, Sarah’s knowledge of the industry and market is unrivalled which she uses to support clients with an innovative and creative approach.

Markus Felinger is an Austrian executive operating at the intersection of hospitality, technology, and finance. As Chief Technology Experience Officer Tribera Group (formerly MILESTONE), he oversees Operations, Customer Experience, and Technology acsross some 7.000 beds in seven European countries - after leading the MILESTONE Group's turnaround as Managing Director through to its successful sale in 2025. His career spans nearly a decade in hotel systems and group controlling at Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group, plus finance leadership roles at Bombadier and Bartelsmann. A WU WIen graduate, he pairs deep controlling expertise with hands-on technology know-how, from BI platforms to AI enablement.

Jeroen Janssen is an Official Member of the Forbes Technology Council, an invite-only network of technology leaders, where he contributes thought leadership and engages with global peers on innovation, leadership, and the future of technology-enabled business.

He is the founder of Liven World, a residential real-estate concept built around people, wellbeing, and sustainability. He also leads REDE, a brand and experience agency, and pioneered Experience Diligence, an approach that assesses the lived experience of a building as rigorously as its financial and technical fundamentals.

Based in the Netherlands, Jeroen works at the intersection of real estate, design, and technology, focused on how the built environment can measurably improve the way people live. He brings to the jury the conviction that the best technology in coliving is the kind residents never have to think about, it simply makes daily life better.

Kelly-anne is a dynamic and accomplished Managing Director at The Class Foundation, with a wealth of experience in events, politics, higher education, and real estate. Her impressive career spans over 10 years, during which she has built a strong network of influential leaders in the living sector and worked on a variety of impactful projects.

As a former member of the National Code, Kelly-anne implemented the first health and wellbeing clause into the UK national accreditation scheme in 2016. She has since continued to champion social value, investment, sustainability, wellbeing, community, and policy reform within university cities across Europe.

Kelly-anne’s passion for education and quality housing for students is at the core of her work. She understands that a positive and supportive living environment is crucial for social and economical success and has dedicated her career to improving accesses to the sector. Her leadership and enthusiasm has been instrumental in connecting the largest network of private and public stakeholders covering €450B in assets across Europe, and driving positive change.

Haz Memon is a visionary in the coliving industry, and serves as the founder of Coliving Hub, an association of coliving operators. Through this platform, he not only raises awareness about the challenges faced by the industry but also actively shapes its future trajectory. As the cofounder of ESCAPE, one of Europe's first coliving brands, Haz has successfully established a network of coliving properties spanning across Greece and Switzerland. With 8 years of experience in Coliving, Haz wears multiple hats. Not only does he operate coliving spaces, but he also serves as a consultant for new operators, sharing his wealth of knowledge and insights. His passion for the industry is seen on international stages, inspiring others with his vision and expertise. Haz is committed to fostering communities, nurturing connections, and redefining the very concept of home in the digital age.

Ron has devoted his life to researching and teaching topics like senior housing and healthcare real estate finance, impact investing, business cases and asset management. His various accomplishments in the industry include fulfilling his roles as a Founder / Chief Executive Officer of MI, a Co-founder and Chair of the Senior Housing & Healthcare Association, a lecturer at Sociëteit Vastgoed Netwerk® (SVN) and Managing Editor of Real Asset Media Journal.

George is Editor-in-Chief at International Hospitality Media, a London-based publisher and events organiser. He also edits Urban Living News, a B2B website for the living sector. George has more than 20 years' experience as a hospitality, property and travel journalist. He regularly contributes to a wide range of international publications and websites.

Claire Flurin Bellec is the founder of Curiosity.Builders, a strategic advisory and venture development studio helping real estate, hospitality and urban development actors design more resilient, low-carbon and human-centred places.

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An engineer, urban planner and entrepreneur, she specialises in real estate product innovation, operational models and user-centred development strategies. Her work combines contextual intelligence, market analysis, product design and business model structuring to create places that are both economically viable and socially meaningful.te

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Claire previously co-founded Co-Liv and remains actively involved in the evolution of alternative living models. She is also co-founder of Curiosity Radar, an independent research platform exploring the future of housing, cities and real estate investment.

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She is the co-author of Changer l’Immobilier : de l’Utopie à la Réalité, a book bringing together the perspectives of more than fifty industry leaders on the future of the built environment.

Imogen is the Executive Director for Urban Land Institute, leading the UK business unit with a mission to bring together real estate leaders and experts to tackle critical issues facing the built environment industry. By background, Imogen is an experienced urban planner, specialising in large-scale regeneration projects and complex urban programmes. She has led the business case development, strategic planning programmes, communications strategies, and stakeholder strategies for multi-billion-pound major growth, regeneration, and infrastructure projects, and secured over £1 billion worth of funding/investment in transit-oriented growth strategies and infrastructure bids to enable regeneration and transit-oriented development.

With a 25+ years in architecture, design and development strategy, Brendan Geraghty is a recognised thought leader. He has been active in the urban and suburban rental living sector since 2011 and CEO of the Association for Rental Living (ARL) - the representative body for the Rental Living sector, since 2022. Known for actively championing the integration of consumer culture in BTR with a ‘brand before building’ approach, his extensive experience of the living sectors includes ESG work, EDI matters, and a keen focus on culture and people.

Brendan combines deep generalist and broad specialist knowledge, creating structured development and consumer centric BTR strategies, integrating consumer culture principles with investment requirements. He is an authority on rental policy and legislation including building safety and has been instrumental in the establishment of the UK’s first Rental Living Code of Practice, with its principles launched in March 2024, and the draft Customer Charter. Brendan also sits on the BTR Alliance, the cross-sector group, chaired by Clive Betts MP, that champions the continued growth of Build to Rent.

Karolina is a real estate investment professional with over 15 years of experience across equity, debt, and structured finance in the UK and Europe, specialising in investment origination, underwriting, and capital structuring across the full transaction lifecycle.

She is Founder of Livtoo, a boutique real estate capital origination firm connecting developers with aligned investors to deliver strategic living sector projects, and Studenliv, an international student accommodation placement agency.

Her expertise spans off-market deal origination, risk assessment, and execution of complex cross-border transactions across student housing, co-living, and micro-living, with a focus on investment quality, capital alignment, and scalable long-income residential strategies.

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Gina has spent 18 years turning ambitious real estate concepts into thriving operational platforms. With a rare blend of product, brand and operational expertise, she has shaped some of Europe's most exciting residential brands - from helping launch one of the UK's first Build-to-Rent brands at Essential Living, to running a £50 million rent roll across the EU at Novel Student.

Her work spans PBSA, coliving and Build-to-Rent, and she brings a hands-on, commercial perspective to everything from day-one brand strategy to scaled operations.