James in an industrial & logistics all-round developer and investor with 20-years’ experience. Following a degree in Land Management at Reading University in 2001 James joined Slough Estates as a Graduate Surveyor and moved to Gerald Eve in London in 2003. In 2007 James was made Gerald Eve’s youngest ever salaried Partner, in their London Planning & Development team. Between 2010 and 2021 James was Vice President at Prologis UK where he successfully promoted in excess of 4m sq.ft of strategic land, disposed of non-core land portfolios, acquired new value-add stock and development sites in urban infill markets. He implemented both speculative and build-to-suit development programmes for occupiers including Sainsbury’s, Yusen Logistics, NNR Global Logistics, Linkline Transport, UK Mail, Dunlop, Morrison’s, and others. He has a proven track record of investing in real-estate, building a portfolio and delivering development projects on his own account.
TEAM
James Wright BSc MRICS
Joint Managing Director
James is a founding Director of Pembury Real Estate where his focus is on sourcing development opportunities and value add investment stock, managing relationships with our capital partners, and using his considerable experience and an analytical approach to create value by delivering complex industrial developments. James is married, has three children and lives near Banbury, Oxfordshire.
Russell Taylor BSc MRICS IMC
Joint Managing Director
Russell has over 20 years UK real estate investment experience having joined Richard Ellis St Quintin in 2000. From 2002 to 2021 he worked in the fund management arm, CBRE Investment Management, where as a Senior Director he ran a team responsible for over £1bn of UK property assets. He operated a “cradle to grave” approach, formulating portfolio strategies, identifying investment opportunities, executing asset business plans and managing sales. His portfolio’s consistently delivered strong returns winning the 2019 MSCI top performing large Pension Fund over a three year period.
Russell has a BSc (Hons) degree in Land Management from the University of Reading, is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and holds an Investment Management Certificate from UK SIP (Society of Investment Professionals) authorising him to undertake investment business.
Russell is a founding Director of Pembury Real Estate focused on sourcing development and investment opportunities, formulating asset business plans and managing relationships with our capital partners. Russell is married, has two children and lives in Sevenoaks, Kent.
Oliver Bycroft MSc MRICS
Third Party Capital
Ollie’s career in commercial real estate spans more than 20 years, beginning at Colliers International working in their valuation team where he operated across sectors in the UK and internationally, before leading the valuation function in the industrial and logistics West London office.
In 2011 Ollie joined Prologis and lead their Investment Services team, analysing and articulating the risks and returns associated with investment, development and strategic capital opportunities on behalf of the Global IC and European Funds as the business grew their £5bn UK portfolio. Two years later Ollie assumed a market facing role in Prologis’s Capital Deployment team, leading the end-to-end sourcing, planning, delivery, leasing and disposition of flagship development and investment projects with a focus in the Midlands, southern M1 Corridor and Greater London.
Between 2021 and 2024 Ollie was Acquisitions Director at Arax Properties, satisfying joint venture mandates with various private equity capital partners, sourcing and acquiring investment and development stock and implementing business plans to maximise risk adjusted shareholder returns.
Ollie has a diverse range of analytical and commercial skills that he brings to his role at Pembury Real Estate where he plays a lead role in our Development Management business, sourcing and delivering industrial and logistics projects on behalf of our third party capital partners to achieve their capital deployment objectives and enabling them to leverage his experience to create value through the development process.
Ollie lives in North Oxfordshire and has two children, he loves the outdoors and especially the mountains.
Vivienne Swift
Finance & Tax Director
After graduating from the University of Birmingham in 2001 in Accounting & Finance, Viv spent 18 years at Big-Four firms, including Deloitte and KPMG, where she gained significant experience advising some of the UK’s largest companies and private equity houses on corporate tax and financial reporting. Latterly, Viv has advised owner-managed businesses across the areas of finance and governance. Viv’s experience therefore brings financial rigour and insight allowing us to deliver our overall strategy.
Viv is married, has three children and lives in Oxfordshire.
Kim Bayard
Legal & Governance Director
Kim is a qualified lawyer with over 20 years legal experience. She qualified in 2001 at DAC Beachcroft LLP, London and has held positions at the Government Legal Service, Capsticks LLP, the General Dental Council and various National Health Service Trusts. Her role covers oversight of legal processes, governance and coordination of rent collection.
Kim holds a BA (Hons) degree in Law from Warwick University.
