Board of Directors
SAPRO has a board of five Directors, all of whom are non-executive and all of whom, with the exception of Brian Myerson, are independent of the Company's investment manager and other service providers. A majority of the Directors including the Chairman are resident outside the United Kingdom. Details of the Directors are as follows:
Chairman
Quentin Spicer qualified as a solicitor with Wedlake Bell in 1968 and became a partner in 1970. He moved to Guernsey in 1996 as senior partner in Wedlake Bell Guernsey specialising in United Kingdom property transactions for non-United Kingdom resident entities.
He is chairman of the Guernsey Housing Association LBG, European Value and Income Fund Limited, ISIS Property Trust 2 Limited and RAB Special Situations Company Limited and is a non-executive director of several other property funds. Quentin holds a Personal Fiduciary Licence from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and he is a member of the Institute of Directors.
Peter Bester retired as executive chairman of Cadbury Schweppes (South Africa) Ltd in 2001, after seventeen years as chief executive of the group. During this period, he held non-executive positions on the boards of Amalgamated Beverage Industries Ltd (ABI), South Africa's largest bottler and distributor of soft drinks and served as non-executive chairman of Revertex Ltd, a subsidiary of Yule Catto Plc.
Since 2001, he has held non-executive directorships of ABI Ltd, AVI Ltd, National Brands Ltd, Distell Ltd, Suidwes Beleggings Bpk, New Holland SA Ltd, and Agrinet Ltd. He is also a private property developer with experience in retail and residential developments in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
David Humbles joined Total in 1977 and enjoyed a 25 year career in the downstream oil industry. He relocated to the Isle of Man in 1998 as Director and General Manager of Total (Isle of Man) Limited.
In 2003, David purchased Abbey Properties Ltd and St Paul's Property Services Ltd. These companies own and manage a property complex in the north of the island incorporating 200 residential apartments and 26 retail units as well as office accommodation. Also in 2003, he formed Westminster Properties Ltd to manage a large portfolio of residential and commercial properties on the island.
David is Managing Director of Oakmayne Properties (Regeneration) Limited, a property development company specialising in the London residential market, current projects have a GDV of over £800 million. David is also a non-executive director of several property funds including Speymill Deutsche Immobilien Company plc.
Brian Myerson is executive chairman of the Principle Capital group, which he founded in November 2004, and joint chairman of the Investment Manager.
Brian co-founded Active Value in 1993 and through the Active Value and Principle Capital Groups has been a pioneer in activist investing in the UK, Continental Europe and South Africa. Brian is South African and retains strong links to South Africa, where he has invested personally in a number of property developments.
Brian has been on the boards of several UK property companies, including Greycoat plc (1994 to 1996) and Marylebone Warwick Balfour Group plc ("MWB") (2002 to 2005), where he was chairman. When he joined, MWB had gross assets of £650m and owned major property and hotel interests (including the Malmaison Hotel Group) in the UK, as well as a Europe wide serviced offices business and a majority interest in Liberty plc, the UK department store. Brian oversaw two full refinancings of MWB together with a major asset disposal plan which resulted in the equity market value of MWB rising from £90m in March 2002 (when Brian's appointment was announced) to £170m as at 30 November 2005 (when he stepped down).
Brian remains on the board of Liberty plc, of which the Principle Capital group has the right to joint board control with MWB.
Richard Tice has 20 years' experience in international real estate development and investment across both the residential and commercial sectors. Richard has worked in the UK, USA and France. He was the joint chief executive of the Sunley Group, a significant privately owned real estate company, for 14 years until 2006. He now runs his own investment business, Tisun Capital. He has been particularly involved in the creation, structuring and negotiation of numerous real estate joint ventures, involving equity, mezzanine and senior debt financing of individual projects, with a wide variety of developers and investors.
Richard has been a non-executive director of numerous private companies and two fully listed property companies. He was on the board of Property Fund Management PLC during and after its flotation in 2002. He was also appointed to the board of Tay Homes PLC in the late 1990s.
