20-30-40-50
Property Week, 26th October 2007Each week we meet a property character from a different age bracket. Today, Richard Heap meets Bernadette Cunningham, 37, a show loving Slow Movement enthusiast.
What do you do?
I am a director at Thornsett Group. My job is at the beginning and end of the development process feasibilities and financial modelling then preparing bid documentation and the legal side of things. The construction teams will take over when we’re on site and then I get involved at the end with marketing and sales.
How did you get involved in property?
The company is run by my two uncles, so I have always been around building sites. I was overseas for several years and, when I came back to the UK, I did a stint as a headhunter. Then I broke my leg in a skiing accident and had three months on the sofa to contemplate whether I was happy doing what I was doing. I wasn’t. Thornsett was about to open a new office so it was the right time to make the move.
Where did you work overseas?
I had seven years in South Africa working in advertising and public relations, which is hugely helpful in my current role.
What did you learn in South Africa?
In South Africa everything is on a much smaller scale so you get much more hands-on experience across a broader job spectrum. In England it would take you 10 years to get a level of experience that you could get in two years in South Africa. It’s more of a frontier mentality and, if you show aptitude, then people let you run with things much more readily than they would in the UK.
Do you attend events specifically for women in property?
I go to events where women are involved. The London Business School runs women’s events and, since there aren’t that many, I decided to arrange one of my own.
I think men are very good at doing the boys’ networking, which involves anything to do with sport. I had an idea to get together a group of women who were all involved in property so next time they had to think of a property solicitor or a property consultant, they had a lady on their list, rather than just men.
What did the event involve?
It was last September and chef Richard Corrigan very kindly cooked for us. He did the Queen’s birthday menu that was included on BBC 2’s Great British Menu last year. Richard’s actually a family friend so that’s how the link came about. I am planning the next event for this November.
What is the Slow Movement?
The Slow Movement is about taking things slower and enjoying life. At the moment our lives are so frenetic and so fast-paced that we try to cram too much into them, so we lose sight of why we do what we do. We were told computers and mobile phones would help to make our lives easier. But the fact is that the average person now does the work of 20 people because they are slaves to technology and are at home answering emails when they should be having a life.
Why don’t you like BlackBerries?
If you have a mobile phone you’re never off air and being off air is frowned upon. If people can’t get hold of you they have no patience any more. People should get the balance back by saying, “No, I’m not going to have a BlackBerry so that you can contact me whenever you want on work-related issues”. You look at people with BlackBerries and they’re on them all the time. They offered them to us but I’m not interested. Should we be slaves 24/7 to all of these people out there who use our services?
I’ve heard you talk about shoes in meetings.
It’s becoming a bit of a trademark, I’m afraid. I’ll be in a meeting with lawyers or consultants and they’ll say, “X will cost £20,000″, or “This piece of advice will cost you whatever”. They throw out mad numbers which, from the way they’re saying it, sounds like it’s nothing. And I will always pipe up with: “For that you could buy an awfully large amount of shoes”. Often we deal with big numbers and we lose sight of what that means in real-money terms.
Do you have a lot of shoes?
I have quite a few pairs of shoes, yes. And I am a typical girl in that I have exquisitely beautiful but totally impractical shoes that I can’t walk in.