Logistics Stories

Faith is currently a Graduate Surveyor in the Thames Valley Asset Management Team, having previously been on rotation in the Greater London Development and Investment Team.

To become a Graduate Surveyor, Faith needed a 2:1 in any degree and found her current role through her university careers team. What drew her to SEGRO was the opportunity to work for a leading property company that is committed to investing, managing and developing best in class warehouses and her time at university helped Faith to get the job, not only because she had a degree, but because she had learnt skills such as time management, problem solving and teamwork.

Faith says the best thing about her role is the opportunities she’s offered. She has enjoyed assisting the team on the redevelopment of a SEGRO-owned industrial estate, gaining valuable experience on how to make a development viable and how to find solutions to configure the layout to the meet the needs of future occupiers.

Oliver’s current 12-month rotation is in the asset management team supporting those working on SEGRO’s Greater London portfolio as he works towards his APC (Assessment of Professional Competence). The job requires a 2:1 classification in any undergraduate degree and five GCSEs (grades 5-9) to apply. Personally, Oliver studied an undergraduate degree in Environmental and Business (a BA), followed by a postgraduate degree in Real Estate (an MSc).

He found the SEGRO graduate scheme both through the SEGRO website and job alerts provided by his university careers department. The position attracted him due to the variety of work he would be getting involved with, in addition to the excellent exposure that a ‘client side’ position can offer. The scheme also provides excellent on-the-job and structured training, which is key for creating a strong foundation of knowledge upon which he can build.

Oliver found playing team sports really boosted his ability to communicate effectively and is something he uses every day in the workplace.

“Although it’s a cliché answer – every day is different. I think this is important both for keeping the job exciting and new, in addition to my personal development and learning.”

Oliver feels that it is essential to try doing different tasks/activities everyday as it really helps boosts the rate of personal progression. Getting his first corporate job at SEGRO has been an amazing career highlight so far. The moment he received the job offer, it reaffirmed to him that all the commitment, hard work and extra-curricular activities he did during his schooling and higher education paid off.

Harveet is a graduate surveyor at SEGRO and her role required a 2:1 in any degree. She learned about her role through a job advertisement sent via university email.

She was excited to join the  SEGRO team because of the wide range of responsibilities outlined in the job description. Harveet also admired the company values, such as valuing employee’s career journeys and allowing them to explore a range of specialties within the company.

Harveet has family that work in the residential property field, which encouraged her to explore other areas in property, such as industrial and logistics. After completing her degree in Economics, she realised that she didn’t want to go into consulting or accountancy, but wanted to explore a field where she can learn something from scratch and that she can apply her economics knowledge to.

The level of responsibility on projects, the structured graduate scheme, which involves 2 rotations in different business areas, the career progression and the volunteering opportunities allow Harveet to have a better understanding of the company and makes for an exceptionally enjoyable job.

Working on projects that have benefitted the business such as completing new lettings and renewing leases for existing customers has been a real career highlight for Harveet, as well as her studying for her Masters degree in real estate.

Mark leads SEGRO’s strategy to grow its existing data centre portfolio outside of the Slough Trading Estate across UK and Continental Europe.

He has a BSc Real Estate degree from the University of Reading. He then joined SEGRO as a graduate and as part of the programme and worked towards completing his Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) to become a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) (MRICS).  Mark has been fortunate to progress and be promoted to Director since starting his career as a graduate at SEGRO.

Since joining SEGRO, it was always Mark’s aim to hold a leadership position. He emailed and tried to network with as many companies as he could gain work experience in real estate. Mark loves working across SEGRO’s portfolio and with our local teams in UK and Continental Europe.

Being lucky to start his career in logistics is one of Marks big career highlights!

Annabel’s role in the UK Investment team at SEGRO mainly covers acquisitions into and disposals out of our UK portfolio, as well as oversight of the bi-annual valuation of all of SEGRO’s UK assets. Day-to-day she may be running a cashflow to buy a warehouse on the M25, visiting a newly completed SEGRO development, or speaking to our agents to understand what our industrial property competitors are doing.

When she joined SEGRO as a graduate, she needed an RICS-accredited degree, which she had achieved in the form of an MSc in Real Estate at Reading University. At the end of her two-year graduate scheme. Annabel sat an exam to become a Chartered Surveyor and am now a member of RICS.

Annabel originally found out about the SEGRO graduate scheme at the Reading University Real Estate careers fair while studying for my MSc. For her current role, she was approached internally when her time on an internal secondment was coming to an end. She was attracted to the market-facing nature of the investment role and the team members she would be working with.

Annabel gained specific Real Estate knowledge throughout my MSc that is still directly relevant to her job and enabled her to have a solid foundation when starting the SEGRO graduate scheme.

The best thing about her role is that no day is the same and there is always a learning opportunity.

Going on a secondment with SEGRO to Paris for a year and working with her development and investment colleagues in France, Spain, and Italy to present and bring forward opportunities in those countries have been career highlights.

Jim is the Managing Director of SEGRO’s Northern European business which is in Germany and the Netherlands. He is responsible for the Property operations teams which cover Investment, Development, Leasing and Asset Management of our 2.3m sq.m Logistics and Light Industrial portfolio.

He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor (MRICS) in the UK as part of the graduate programme at SEGRO. After 7 years in the UK business mainly in Asset Management and leasing roles, he got the opportunity to work in Continental Europe, initially on a 6-month secondment in Paris.

Jim was previously the JV director of SEGRO’S European Logistics Partnership (SELP) which was set up in 2013 and has assets in 7 CE countries. An opportunity came up within SEGRO to run the Northern European portfolio and fortunately given his knowledge of the logistics assets within SELP that were in Germany and the Netherlands he was considered the strongest candidate. The opportunity to develop his people management skills and run an operational business is what attracted Jim to the role.

Jim qualified as a chartered Surveyor in the UK Logistics and Industrial market and have broadened my experience to other Continental European countries ever since, but I he has always remained in the Logistics and Industrial sector.

The first highlight for Jim was being the property lead and JV director on the set up of SELP in 2013. This was a €1bn JV that we set up with PSP Investments and have grown to over €6.5bn in the last 10 years.  

The second was being given the honour to lead the Northern European team back in 2018 and working together with a team of 60 talented colleagues to create the high performing team we have today.

Floss’s role is currently split between two teams the UK Investment Team and the Greater London Development Team. This is the second rotation of the 2-year graduate scheme at SEGRO, for which Floss needed a 2:1 in any degree. Previously she was working in the Thames Valley Asset Management Team.

She learned about the role the company website. The opportunity to work for a leading REIT (real estate investment trust) with a small headcount attracted her to the role, as it provides the opportunity to have a real involvement on all the projects you are working on. The best thing about her role is working for a company where you feel you really make an impact, even as a graduate!

Communication, time-management and problem solving are skills that Floss developed within her logistics career and a career highlight for Floss was completing her first letting of a small industrial unit in Slough.