About Grand Bequest
Meet the people combining regeneration expertise, technology, research, and investment to bring empty buildings back into use.
Why This Team Exists
Empty and underused buildings are rarely held back by one issue. Ownership, planning, condition, community priorities, funding, investment requirements, and delivery decisions are often handled separately. Grand Bequest exists to bring that fragmented work into one coordinated process.
How Grand Bequest Works
The team works across councils, owners, communities, researchers, technical specialists, and capital partners. By combining reliable evidence with clear coordination, Grand Bequest helps each party understand what is viable, what must happen next, and how a building can move towards delivery.
The People
A multidisciplinary team coordinating technology, investment, research, and regeneration delivery.
Founder & CEO
Katherine leads Grand Bequest’s strategy, partnerships, and delivery, bringing together regeneration, investment, and technology around a shared project picture. Her work focuses on turning complex building challenges into credible routes forward, while keeping public value, commercial discipline, and long-term stewardship visible in every decision.
Impact Investment Analyst
Sulaiman examines how risk, viability, and capital can align around buildings with social and environmental potential. He supports investment analysis and project readiness, translating complex evidence into practical questions for funders, owners, and delivery partners while keeping intended impact and accountability in view.
Technical Lead
Iyalla leads the technical systems that organise fragmented property evidence into a clearer, more useful project picture. He shapes product architecture, data workflows, and secure delivery, ensuring that technology supports real regeneration decisions without replacing professional judgement, governance, or local knowledge.
Housing Policy Researcher
Eriko researches the policy and delivery conditions that shape how empty buildings return to use. She connects housing evidence, stakeholder perspectives, and place-based context, helping the team identify where current systems create friction and where more inclusive, durable regeneration choices can be made.
Health & Regeneration Researcher
Syrine delivers evidence-based insight into a critical blind spot in urban regeneration: physical improvements rarely directly translate into measurable health outcomes. Her research identifies the structural drivers of community displacement and disengagement that undermine long-term outcomes, building a framework for embedding stakeholder voice into regeneration policy and investment strategy.
Business Development Lead
Kundan builds the relationships that move regeneration opportunities from early conversation towards a defined route forward. She works across owners, partners, and prospective clients to clarify needs, shape practical next steps, and connect Grand Bequest’s research, technology, and investment capabilities to the right building challenge.
Financial Data Lead
Zhao leads financial data analysis across the regeneration pathway, helping teams understand feasibility, exposure, and the assumptions behind a project case. His work connects property evidence with robust financial modelling so that opportunities can be compared consistently and decisions can be explained with confidence.
Recognition and Evidence
Awards, media coverage, programmes, and partnerships provide independent evidence of Grand Bequest’s progress and credibility.
Three Consecutive Wins in the Years Grand Bequest Entered.
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Recognised for applying financial technology to a social or community challenge.
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One of four women-led businesses recognised in the 2023 awards.
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The homelessness charity announced its investment in Grand Bequest’s empty-building technology.
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Grand Bequest was selected for the 2023 REACH United Kingdom technology scale-up programme.
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An interview exploring how Grand Bequest applies evidence and technology to vacant buildings.
Read InterviewEarly coverage of Grand Bequest’s approach to supporting the conservation of historic buildings.
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Independent certification recognising verified social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.
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Academic collaboration supporting research, evidence, and applied regeneration learning.
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UK Government-supported innovation work through DESNZ, Defra, and Innovate UK.
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Accreditation reflecting a commitment to fair pay and responsible employment.
View AccreditationTell us what you are trying to move forward. A building, place, portfolio, research question, contribution, or general enquiry is enough to begin.
