Mark Bourgeois, Chief Executive of the Government Property Agency - Managing £12 Billion of Government Real Estate

This week, I sat down with Mark Bourgeois, Chief Executive of the Government Property Agency, for a conversation that bridges the worlds of private sector real estate and public sector purpose in a way that very few guests on this show ever could.

Mark's journey into real estate began not through a carefully planned career move but through a rugby sevens team at Donaldson's in Leeds. What followed was 25 years at the sharp end of the retail property industry, from running shopping centre teams at Capital Regional through to managing director roles at Hammerson, navigating two of the most turbulent periods the sector has ever seen. The Global Financial Crisis and the structural disruption of COVID taught him things about leadership under pressure that no business school could.

We discuss what it really feels like to lead a three billion pound business through a fight for survival, why staying close to your North Star matters more than ever when the ground is shifting beneath you, and how Mark's unusually broad grounding in finance shaped a career that consistently put him ahead of the curve in a sector famous for siloed thinking.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn when Mark explains what drew him from the private sector into public sector leadership, first at Liverpool City Council during one of the most challenging periods in its modern history, and then to the GPA. He is candid about what surprised him, what frustrated him, and what has genuinely inspired him about leading a 500 person organisation with a mandate to transform how government uses its estate across the UK.

Mark also shares his thinking on AI and why he believes every leader has a personal responsibility to get deep into the technology rather than delegating it to someone else in the organisation.

And of course, I asked Mark the big question:

Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?

Drop your thoughts in the comments. We would love to hear your take.

Key Topics

✅ From Rugby Sevens to Real Estate. The Unlikely Career Origin Story

✅ Leading Through the Global Financial Crisis and the Retail Collapse

✅ What the Public Sector Teaches You About Leadership That the Private Sector Cannot

✅ Inside the Government Property Agency. The Mission, the Portfolio and the Opportunity

✅ Why Every Leader Must Be a Digital Leader Right Now

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