Philip is Founder & Managing Partner of 90 North, a real estate investment manager headquartered in London, with offices in Chicago, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney. Recently celebrating it’s 7th birthday, 90 North was established with co-Founder Partner Nick Judd, with equity backing from James Caan CBE and Faisal Butt. 90 North has worked with both Middle Eastern and Malaysian equity looking for socially responsible and frequently Shari’ah compliant investments across the US, UK, Continental Europe and Australia.

Starting his career with Citigroup in the mid 90s, Philip has worked for both banks and investment managers, establishing Gatehouse Bank’s real estate investment team prior to establishing 90 North in 2011.

Q-What was your first job and what is the worst job you’ve ever done?

My first ever job was delivering free newspapers in the area on the weekends, which certainly kept me fit. My worst job as working on a supermarket checkout. Bright lights, smelly food and screaming children. A swift move to my local Halfords followed. Far more my scene.

Q-Was Tax [real estate?] your first career choice and what were you doing before?

Having studied Economics at university I achieved my goal of getting into banking, but wasn’t really sure where it would take me.

Q-Why did you choose a career in the commercial real estate sector?

It chose me really. I was a Risk Manager for the Italian, Austrian and French banks that Citigroup had dealing with and was keen to be the one creating the transaction in the first place, not the one signing it off. So I spoke to HR and they suggested an Analyst role with a new real estate team in Citigroup’s Private Bank, so I did that and liked what I found.

Q-Why do you enjoy the sector?