Draft:Richard Upton (businessman)

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Richard Upton (born 10 July 1967) is an English entrepreneur and property developer, a co- founder of U+I Group plc, Cathedral Group Plc, Mount Anvil Plc and Cathedral Healthcare Plc.

Early Life and Education

Richard was born in Mile End, East London. After his parents divorce, Upton moved five times, eventually living in a police house on the South Circular near Lee, SE12, as his stepfather was a police officer. He attended the near-by Crown Woods Comprehensive School in Eltham.

During his time at Crown Woods, he was awarded a flying scholarship by the RAF aged 16. Richard was taught to fly by squadron leader Ted Girdler, former Red Arrows pilot at RAF Manston, Manston, Kent in 1983. In 1984, at the age of 17 he achieved a full private pilot’s licence. He also took part and was awarded a Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The first in his family to attend university, Richard graduated with an honour’s degree in Land Management from the University of Reading in 1988.

From university, Richard was recruited by Barry Bennett FCA to Irish housebuilder, McInerney Holdings as a development surveyor and land buyer.

Career

Upton went on to found and co-found property development companies with expert specialisation in social housing, student accommodation, doctors’ surgeries, fire stations, public parks, and large-scale regeneration.

He is responsible for over 10m sq ft of development across the UK and in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, including 5,000 student bedrooms. His businesses have won multiple accolades for the quality of delivery, partnership, and design.

Mount Anvil

In 1991 Upton joined Barry Bennett and Killian Hurley in establishing Mount Anvil, a construction and property development group. Richard played a major role in positioning Mount Anvil at the forefront of emerging markets in the property and construction sectors.

Upton developed and implemented Mount Anvil’s marketing and development strategy across the education, healthcare, and social housing sectors. Upton was involved in the co-ordination and project management of over £200m of development activity in these sectors.

In his role as Development Director of Mount Anvil, Upton managed a team of land, development and PFI experts to enhance Mount Anvil’s position in the property market.

Cathedral Group Plc

In September 1998 Upton, Bennett and Hurley founded property development company, Cathedral Group Plc. Richard disposed of most of his interest in Mount Anvil to focus on the Cathedral Group in July 2002.

Upon deconsolidation from the Mount Anvil, Group Cathedral was owned equally by Bennett and Upton, until Bennett’s retirement in 2008, when Upton acquired Bennett’s shareholding in the financial recession of 2008, retaining 95% of the ownership and distributing 5 % to MD, Martin Wood.

In 16 years, the company grew substantially to become known as a creative and innovative developer of mixed-use regeneration schemes in Greater London and the southeast.

In 2005 Upton and Bennett sold their specialist business, Cathedral Healthcare Plc to Primary Healthcare Properties plc in a deal valuing the business at £42m.

By 2012, Cathedral Group had completed the £80m mixed-use Clapham One regeneration project and the £90m Bromley South Central PPP scheme and had built up a development pipeline worth £1.5bn by 2014.

In May 2014, Richard merged the Cathedral Group with Development Securities Plc - a FTSE 350 property company in a deal valuing the Cathedral business at £27m.

Both companies had previously worked in joint ventures at The Movement, Greenwich and The Old Vinyl Factory and Morden Wharf. At the time of the acquisition, Cathedral Group owned assets worth a gross £47m, including nine high-quality, mixed-use developments worth £40m and totalling 5m sq ft. Richard was asked to join the board of Development Securities following the acquisition.

Personal Life

Richard is married to Rosalind Upton, a journalist and author. They have two children, Hunter Kingsley (16) and Sienna May (13).