Techspace Appoints Robert Ryan as Chief Real Estate Development Officer

  • People Moves
  • 27.09.2017 10:18 am

Techspace, the startup that leases office space to some of Europe’s top technology scale-ups, today announces the appointment of Robert Ryan, as the company’s Chief Real Estate Development Officer.

Ryan, who is a property industry veteran with over 20 years of experience, previously worked for Travelodge. During his 12 years with that company, he created the London development team, taking Travelodge from 11 hotels to more than 70, making it the largest hotel company in the capital, with more than three million square foot of operational space.

Last year, Techspace announced the closing of a Series A funding round of £5 million. The additional funding has seen the company expand into two new locations in East London, Aldgate East and most recently Shoreditch, which opened this Summer. The new flagship space in Shoreditch increases the number of locations under management to six in London, and Techspace now caters for a community of over 1,500 members.

To further accelerate the company’s ambitious growth, Ryan’s role will be to drive Techspace’s international expansion by identifying the real estate opportunities within emerging ecosystems across Europe, the first of which includes a new location in Kreuzberg, Berlin. After a list of buildings is aggregated for desired regions, Robert’s team will get to work modelling options and analysing building profiles, giving way to a selection process.

Ryan joins Techspace from Lenta Business Centres, a serviced office provider, where he held the position of Property Director. Within this role, he also oversaw the UK arm of CP Holdings’ property portfolio which included farming, retail, residential and hotels. He began his career as a Chartered Surveyor at Matthews & Goodman where he spent 6 years before moving to Whitbread Hotels as Strategic Development Manager.  

Techspace was founded in 2012 by serial entrepreneurs, David Galsworthy (CEO) and Alex Rabarts (CTO/COO). The company aims to support high growth businesses by providing scale-ups with flexible workspace, growth services, and access to new investment.

Techspace operates an “occupational exclusivity” policy, whereby only high growth technology companies are eligible for membership; a community which supports the growth of notable scale-ups such as Business InsiderMemriseHibob, and Goodlord. More than just beautiful spaces, the community is what defines Techspace, and the membership has become a thriving ecosystem of technology teams and innovators.

Robert Ryan said: “This is an exciting opportunity to move the needle for scale-ups across Europe, by expanding our offering into emerging ecosystems around the world, we believe we can inspire innovation and help young companies realise their potential.

David Galsworthy, CEO and Co-Founder of Techspace, said of the appointment: “Robert’s experience in the industry is well known, and there’s no doubt he joins the fray at a time when he can make a real impact to our growth plans. We’re delighted to welcome him to the senior team.”

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