The Crown Estate anounce appointment of new board member

The Crown Estate announces appointment of a new Board Member and re-appointment of Dinah Nichols.

Chris Bartram, Chairman of Orchard Street Investment Management, has been appointed as a member of The Crown Estate Board; it was announced today, Tuesday, 5 December, 2006. Chris Bartram will be a non-executive Board member of The Crown Estate, which comprises seven part-time members and one full-time executive member. In addition to the Main Board, Chris will also sit on the Audit Committee.

Chris will take up his position from 1 January, 2007 replacing Ronald Spinney who will be retiring from The Crown Estate board after seven and a half years. Ian Grant, Chairman of The Crown Estate, said, “I am delighted to welcome Chris Bartram as a new Board member. His wide experience and proven success in the property sector both at Orchard Street Investment Management, which he set up in 2004, and at Haslemere Estates where he built up a portfolio three times the size on his arrival to around £1.5billion – will be of great value to The Crown Estate and its Board.”

Chris Bartram said:

“I am delighted to be joining The Crown Estate at a very exciting time in its history. It is an amazingly diverse and interesting business and I look forward to contributing to its continued future success.”

The Crown Estate is one of the largest property organisations in the United Kingdom, last year valued at £6 billion. Its profits are paid to the Exchequer for the benefit of the taxpayer and in 2005/06 this amounted to £190 million. The urban estate includes substantial urban holdings ranging from Regent Street in central London to offices, business and retail parks around the country and significant residential holdings. The portfolio is managed with a strong sense of corporate responsibility and contains over 400 sites of special scientific interest on the rural and marine estates. Chris Bartram is married with two children. He is currently Chairman of Orchard Street Investment Management and was Managing Director of Haslemere which was floated on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1999. Current non-executive appointments include: Chairman, Babcock & Brown GPT European Retail Fund, Chairman of Estate Management Development Fund at Cambridge University and Associate Fellow, Downing College, Cambridge. Past [non-executive] appointments include: President of the British Property Federation, Chairman of the Bank of England Property and a non-executive Director of George Wimpey plc.

Re-Appointment of non-executive Board member, Dinah Nichols CB

The Crown Estate has also announced today the re-appointment of Dinah Nichols as a nonexecutive Board member for a further term of four years with effect from 16 January 2006. Ian Grant, Chairman of The Crown Estate, said, “The announcement of Dinah Nichols’ reappointment is excellent news for us. Her contribution as a Crown Estate Board member over the past four years has been a tremendous asset to the organisation and her work in developing The Crown Estate’s policy and performance on corporate responsibility has been invaluable”

Dinah Nichols is currently a non-executive Director of Pennon plc and Shires Smaller Companies plc. She is also Chair of the National Forest Company, Chair of a Groundwork Trust and a Board member of Toynbee Housing Association.