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Meet the React News team


Editorial Team

Chris Borland

Editorial Director

Chris brings a unique angle to real estate reporting having worked across  the industry as an agent, communications advisor and journalist at two of  the biggest publications – CoStar News and Property Week. At CoStar, over  a five-year period, Chris led a concerted push to deliver more exclusive news  to the ‘Big 6’ regional cities and drove market engagement.

A contact list stretching the length and breadth of the UK & Ireland helped  Chris establish himself as one the country’s leading regional journalists.

James Buckley

Editorial Director

James has been covering the UK commercial property markets since 2008, making him one of the most experienced journalists currently working in the sector.

He started his career in commercial real estate at Estates Gazette where he spent four years working as an editor on the news desk. In 2012, James was recruited to help establish CoStar’s UK news service, for which he has worked ever since. As part of a team of three senior editors, James took CoStar News from a standing start to one of the UK’s most-read property news services in just three years.

James has a vast contact base across all levels of the property industry and has a track record of breaking the news of some of the largest investment transactions, with a particular focus on the London markets.

David Hatcher

Editorial Director

David has been embedded into the top tier of the real estate market since the start of his career. After spending seven years at Property Week where he was Finance Editor, he went on to launch the website of debt and finance specialist publication, Real Estate Capital. Most recently he spent four years at Estates Gazette where as Head of Content he was a key part of the leadership group.

David has a particular depth of expertise and contact base in corporate M&A, debt, fund management and logistics.

Andy Plowman

Head of Editorial Operations

Andy Plowman

Head of Editorial Operations

Bringing 15 years’ unparalleled experience of editorial production for both customer and B2B built environment titles, Andy is uniquely placed to ensure React’s content is of the highest possible standard for both our subscribers and our stakeholders.

As an editor and then head of content at customer publishing house Sunday, Andy headed up the production of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ flagship title, Modus. He worked closely with the client in shaping its content programme, commissioning articles, and helping steer through the transition of the title from a print publication to online platform.

Andy joined Sunday from Property Week, where he was deputy chief sub-editor. Across nearly seven years with the title he developed a deep working knowledge of the industry and a laser focus on detail in a fast-paced newsroom. As well as a much-needed sense of humour.

Julie Cruz

Managing Editor – Europe

Julie Cruz

Managing Editor – Europe

Julie has been a financial journalist for over 10 years. She covered global equities and Europe’s retail/consumer-goods sector for Bloomberg News in London and Frankfurt before becoming the managing editor of Property Investor Europe in 2016 – overseeing a team of reporters and editors across Europe. In 2019, she led the rebranding of the publication as it increased its focus on institutional investors and fundraising and became Real Estate Fund Intelligence.

Originally from France, Julie spent more than eight years in Germany before moving back to London in 2017. She has been covering all European real estate markets across asset classes for almost five years and has a vast contact base in the industry.

Julie oversees React News’ European coverage, breaking news on major capital markets deals and fundraising and writing heavyweight analysis and interviews.

Guy Montague-Jones

Analysis Editor

Guy is a highly experienced and award-winning property journalist. He spent six years at Property Week, working in various senior roles including latterly as Deputy Editor. He has a strong track record of breaking news stories and writing incisive analysis and comment pieces across a broad range of topics. His areas of expertise include listed real estate, fund management and debt.

Before Property Week, Guy covered the supermarket and food industry at The Grocer, one of the UK’s biggest trade publications. He started his journalism career at Decision News Media in France.

Charlie Schouten

Northern Editor

Charlie has extensive experience covering property and construction, with a special focus on the North of England, having worked for Construction News and Place North West. He started his career as Construction News’ Northern Correspondent, and then moved Place North West in Manchester, initially as a senior reporter and then as a deputy editor. With extensive contacts across construction, property, architecture, and investment community across the North, Charlie has a focus on exclusive news content and interviews. Born, raised, and based in Manchester, Charlie is passionate about covering all aspects of property in the region. Some of Charlie’s biggest exclusive stories have been Renaker’s purchase of Trinity Islands in Manchester, revealing the location of BT’s new Manchester regional hub and GCHQ’s Manchester city centre office and the anchor tenant Liverpool’s £200m Pall Mall.

Jessica Middleton-Pugh

Residential and Retail Correspondent

Jessica Middleton-Pugh

Residential and Retail Correspondent

Jessica Middleton-Pugh is React News’ residential and retail correspondent, leading on expanding the publication’s coverage of these diverse and rapidly-changing sectors. She was previously editor of leading regional property news website Place North West, guiding editorial and event coverage over the course of six years in the retail, residential, industrial, and commercial markets, and acting as the face of the business to readers made up of property investors, developers, councils, advisors, architects and contractors.

Alessia Pirolo

Finance Editor

Alessia Pirolo

Finance Editor

Alessia has over ten years of experience in business and financial journalism with focus on banking, distressed debt, and real estate. She has a unique expertise in the non-performing loans market having covered most NPL deals across Europe since 2015, for a total volume of almost EUR 600bn.

For five years at Debtwire, she moved from being a reporter to developing and being in charge of an NPL-focused product combining breaking news, data, and analysis.

Previously, she covered U.S. and European commercial real estate for the Wall Street Journal and the Commercial Observer. Alessia started her career as a journalist covering the court in her hometown Padua for the local issue of Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera. She holds a master’s degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

As a finance editor at React News she covers the distressed debt market, loan origination and refinancing.

Synne Johnsson

European and Nordic Correspondent

Synne Johnsson

European and Nordic Correspondent

Synne joined React News from Debtwire, where she worked as the UK & Ireland CRE reporter. During her time at the news service, she broke several major deals such as SocGen’s financing of One London Wall Place and Apollo’s financing of the Whiteley development in London.

Originally from Norway, Synne moved to London six years ago to study journalism at Kingston University, and also holds a masters degree in International Relations from Queen Mary University of London.

Synne covers the equity markets across continental Europe, and also leads our Nordics coverage.

Amy Finch

Senior European Correspondent

Amy Finch

Senior European Correspondent

Amy is a senior European correspondent who leads reporting European residential property transactions, trends and dynamics at React News. She joined the team from Debtwire, where most recently she was responsible for coverage of non-performing loan transactions across Europe. Before that she was a data journalist reporting on loan portfolio sales and compiled a comprehensive database of European deals as well as producing regular long-form analysis features on the NPL market.

Amy has a Master of Arts degree in journalism from City University, as well as Master of Science degree in biology from Bristol University.

Amaya Urgoiti

Senior French correspondent

Amaya Urgoiti

Senior French correspondent

Amaya is the senior French correspondent, reporting on transactions and trends across all sectors in the French market. She joined React News from mtn-i, where she reported on the gloabl debt markets across Asia and Europe. Prior to this, she was the real estate Southern Europe correspondent for Debtwire, where she reported on transactions in the French, Spanish and Portuguese markets, as well as producing features on events affecting those markets.

Originally from Spain, Amaya moved to London five years ago to start her career as a journalist. She holds a degree in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Salamanca.

May Agaran

News Analyst

May Agaran

News Analyst

May has maintained a career in the publishing industry, and has previously worked in print and digital, and more recently, in e-commerce. She is based in Asia.

Elena Dragulele

Logistics Correspondent

Elena Dragulele

Logistics Correspondent

Elena is a reporter and content strategist with a knack for telling stories and a flair for detail. She joined React News from PropertyEU in 2022, where she focused on breaking deals across the UK and continental Europe.

As a pan-European logistics reporter, she reports on transactions and trends across continental Europe.

Elena has a BA in International Relations from Queen Mary University of London, is originally from Romania and speaks Spanish.

Lovelyn Tagalag

News Analyst

Lovelyn Tagalag

News Analyst

Lovelyn was a news writer from S&P Market Intelligence, where she gained valuable experience in writing healthcare and financial news stories, including in-depth and exclusive articles.

Prior to that, she was part of a Manila-based team that was monitoring television and radio news for an Australian company. She also previously worked as a document analyst, which allowed her to become familiar with various industries across the globe.

At React News, her role is to provide support in delivering the most relevant commercial real estate news in the UK and Europe.

James Riding

Policy Reporter

James has a track record of editorial experience from newsrooms including Prospect magazine, The Sun and Archant’s north London newspapers. He holds a first-class degree from Magdalen College, Oxford and a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London.

James reports on government policy and how it affects the property industry, from housebuilding to net zero. Additionally, he works with the head of content strategy to maintain React News’ uncompromising editorial and production standards.

Commercial Team

Jamie Hamer

Commercial Director

Jamie Hamer

Commercial Director

Jamie has a decade long career spanning sales, commercial strategy and marketing for industry giants Procter and Gamble, the Acuris Group and Gartner. He brings significant commercial and sales expertise to the business and holds a CFA charter.

Henrietta Curtis

Head of Sales, Funds

Henrietta Curtis

Head of Sales, Funds

Henrietta has worked in publishing and event sales for more than a decade.

She joined React News from Institutional Investor where she specialised in events connecting institutional allocators with real estate, infrastructure and private equity funds.

Rhys Zownir

Business Development Manager

Rhys Zownir

Business Development Manager

Rhys is an experienced business development manager, with a strong track record from his time at AppDynamics, a division of Cisco.

Prior to his sales careers, Rhys was an army officer in the Parachute Regiment, after commissioning from Sandhurst.

Olivia Houlder

Head of Partnerships

Olivia Houlder

Head of Partnerships

Olivia has over a decade experience in advertising, marketing and sponsorship, specialising in commercial relationships and corporate partnerships.

She joined React News from Cirque du Soleil, where she managed large international partnerships for six years, and she now heads up React‘s advertising sales, client relationships and marketing.

Tori Hutchinson

Client Development Manager

Tori Hutchinson

Client Development Manager

Tori joined React News from Cirque du Soleil where she supported the day-to-day management of corporate partnerships across Europe. Prior to that she spent 5 years at the luxury jewellery company, Monica Vinader, where she worked on various global retail projects. Tori’s time is now split between supporting new business and existing client relationships.

Georgia Byass

Business Development Executive

Georgia Byass

Business Development Executive

Georgia joined React News after graduating from Newcastle University with a BA Hons Fine Art & History of Art degree.

Georgia’s role within the team consists of approaching new prospects and setting up trial accesses and meetings in order to drive the top-line activity metrics at React News.

Isabella Hills

Business Development Executive

Isabella Hills

Business Development Executive

Issy joined React News from UK SME lender Growth Lending, where she was involved in the marketing, from branding to working alongside the sales team to generate new business through weekly campaigns and webinars.

Prior to that, she worked for 5 years in fashion production, assisting talent for leading publications including Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.

Mona Kiren Singh

Head of Sales, Europe

Mona Kiren Singh

Head of Sales, Europe

Mona has worked within sales, client management and communication for over a decade alongside her experience within Television. Having previously worked for leading event and publishing companies such as the GRI Club and the Springer Nature Publishing Group, she joined React News from Institutional Investor where she was responsible for investor relations across the DACH region, event programming as well as moderating panels at their live events.

Will Judd

Business Development Manager

Will Judd

Business Development Manager

Jason Marcelin

Head of Advertising Sales

Jason Marcelin

Head of Advertising Sales