In 2013 I was appointed the first Non Executive Vice Chairman and Chairman of the Assets and Investment Committee of NHS Property Services. The Company was established on 1st April 2013 by the Secretary of State for Health being the merger of 161 Primary Care Trusts and their assets into one Property Company with almost 4,000 properties and 3,500 employees. This was the largest Merger and Acquisition transaction in Europe for over a decade. During the two and a half years of my involvement I helped develop a real estate strategy and a cultural change programme together with major management changes. To assist this programme I organised and chaired a major conference on the issues around the cultural change needed to develop and implement a corporate real estate strategy to meet the aspirations of the Department of Health (see the published proceedings on this website). A main purpose of the Conference was to embed into the culture of the Company the concept of ‘stewardship’ of real estate assets, a concept now well reflected in the ethos of the Executive Management Team and employees.