Meet the team

Miss Head is responsible for administration including its existing investors, joint venture partners and third party advisors. Prior to Yoo Capital, she has worked extensively within major family offices in a Private PA capacity.

Andrew, who is based in Hong Kong, is responsible for creating business opportunities within the Asia Pacific region as well as the day-to-day running of the office. He has over 17 years of property experience in the Asia markets: he was a founding Director for Cushman & Wakefield in Hong Kong and, prior to joining YOO, the Executive Director for International Investments at Knight Frank Hong Kong overlooking all the cross-border transactions between their international offices, including residential developments and marketing, hotel investments and resorts developments. Out of the office, Andrew is a “green” origami artist using environmental friendly or recycled papers. He has created a series of large sized origami lanterns for a well known Spanish restaurant in Hong Kong and published a book in 2000 for Paramount Movies – Star Trek Paper Universe (Simon & Schuster).

Andrew has been involved in real estate for over 20 years at all stages of the development process as a Quantity Surveyor, Contractor, Project Manager and Developer. He has worked with John Hitchcox for over 14 years both at Manhattan Loft and at YOO since inception. Andrew heads up the development and investment side of the business and has been instrumental in delivering many of YOO 's more profitable developments - carrying out much of the due diligence and risk assessment work required prior to any YOO investment. With his extensive knowledge of the development process he is ideally placed to evaluate new project partners and ventures.

Anthony’s mix of sustainable engineering, project development and finance have him ideally placed to help grow the Yoo Energy portfolio. Having successfully developed his own 23 Acre Solar farm in Cornwall in 2014, he went onto to work under JV with Yoo Energy on both wind farms and solar projects. As an entrepreneur, Anthony has run his own businesses over the last 14 years, in both the UK and Asia. Including starting and running for six years, a sustainable heating and power business, installing for domestic and commercial clients. He is also active in project and finance broking globally in the sustainable energy sector. Having introduced Yoo to an Energy from Waste project, he was invited to join the team to further develop opportunities in the UK, Ireland and further afield. Yoo Energy continues to develop and look for opportunities in energy from waste (UK and Ireland), solar (Western Europe), wind (UK & Ireland) and energy storage (UK). Supporting the global paradigm shift towards our sustainable energy future.

Claire, an internationally experienced Interior Architect, graduated from the respected Parisian school Nissime de Camondo. She spent time working in Belgium, France, Italy, China, Brazil and currently in the UK. Claire credits her international experience and trips as a key inspiration for her design approach. During her career, she has worked on a wide variety of projects, including hotels, theatres, commercial spaces, offices and high-end residential developments. Following her interest in sustainable design, Claire recently became a LEED Green Associate.

Dominic is a chartered surveyor with extensive experience at all stages of the development lifecycle. Prior to joining Yoo Capital, Dominic has led and managed teams delivering commercial, residential, retail and educational schemes for Capco, Mace and the Met Police. Dominic began his career as an officer in the British Army. Dominic is responsible for development activities for Yoo Capital.

Jag has extensive experience of working with individuals at all different levels of the real estate sector, from property consultants and investment managers to developers and financiers. Prior to working with YOO he was UK controller of the Dutch financial institution ING Real Estate. With an auditing and commercial background Jag has excelled in combining finance, legal, management and commercial expertise in various industries, from small start-ups to large multi-nationals. Jag has comprehensive experience in dealing with international tax, legal, cultural and management issues and plays a key role in negotiating, advising and managing YOO's partners globally.

James has been with YOO since the company’s inception in 1999. He previously joined Chairman John Hitchcox in 1994 at the Manhattan Loft Corporation as Sales & Marketing Manager during which time he gained extensive experience of working closely with design and construction teams. Earlier real estate experience included ten years in the residential sales sector, where he was the principal of a West London real estate agency. James has played a key role in developing YOO's international presence as a branded lifestyle and design orientated place maker. He is a partner in the business and heads partner collaborations and the company’s business development team globally.

John Hitchcox’s rare combination of entrepreneurship and design savvy has had an unparalleled effect on property development worldwide. In 1991 he co-founded the Manhattan Loft Company, bringing to market incredible domestic living spaces, carved out of generous post-industrial buildings, the like of which had not been offered in London before. In 1998, with his great friend, design giant Philippe Starck, Hitchcox set up YOO, a ground breaking property design and development company. YOO is now the largest residential design and development brand in the world. YOO homes have been designed and developed in large scale projects with partners across 27 countries. Designers Jade Jagger, Marcel Wanders, Kelly Hoppen, Anouska Hempel and Steve Leung have all joined the YOO family, creating a portfolio that offers luxury design in many different forms, from the cutting-edge to the most enduringly classic. YOO has won many industry awards for design, development, community building, hotels and residences. John was born into a family of creatives; his father was the highly respected architect, Brian Hitchcox OBE. John entered the world of property development aged only 19, starting on his own with a house in South London. John lives in London with his family.

Jonathan hails from a surveying pedigree. Having worked with our chairman John Hitchcox for over 25 years, Jonathan was responsible for a large number of development site acquisitions; both during their Manhattan Loft Corporation days (bringing incredible domestic living spaces to market), along with a number of larger projects by Yoo. He has also been instrumental in forming some of the longer-term investment strategies here at Yoo. His experience in investment lead him naturally towards renewable energy projects. Post Credit Crunch, Wind and Solar markets in the UK, with non-correlated index linked returns, made perfect sense. With early mover advantage, having developed an aggregated portfolio of wind turbine projects, he then led the successful sale of the portfolio to a well-known intuitional investor. Jonathan saw the near-term opportunity for the Energy from Waste sector in the UK and added this to the solar, wind and energy storage projects being created by Yoo Energy. Working with developers and end holders of assets, he continues to grow existing projects and develop new opportunities in the space.

Leo is the bridge that Yoo has been looking for in order to embrace a holistic design service for our clients. As Head of Yoo Architecture, Leo has a vast experience developed throughout a 20 years journey of commitment to innovation that pushes the design forwards while focusing on enhancing the human experience rooted in the cultural heritage and uniqueness of each location. His leadership in projects such as the new Google HD building in London, Rosewood Tower in Sao Paulo, Novartis HQ in Shanghai, are a few examples of his remarkable journey and drive to achieve an architecture aligned with concepts of place-making, community creation and sustainable design.

Mr. Lee has over 20 years’ experience in real estate principal investing and advisory. He has been involved in real estate acquisitions and asset management across the US, UK, Europe as well as India and Latin America. Mr. Lee has been active in the European markets since 2001. Most recently, Mr. Lee oversaw European real estate private equity at Marathon Asset Management, a multi-billion global investment fund. In addition to managing a number of Marathon’s real estate investments across Europe, India and Latin America, Mr. Lee was responsible for Marathon’s European real estate strategy and relationships. Prior to Marathon, Mr. Lee worked at Starwood Capital for 9 years, where he served as Managing Director of Starwood Capital Europe in London and where he opened the firm’s office. Previously, Mr. Lee worked in the Real Estate Advisory Group at Ernst & Young in New York and worked on numerous transactions advising opportunity funds, mezzanine lenders and distressed debt buyers.

Mark completed both parts of his studies (parts 1 and 2) at the highly respected architecture school at the University of Canterbury. He started working with John Hitchcox as soon as he had graduated, helping to set up the Manhattan Loft Corporation. Within five years, he was Creative Director, responsible for every design issue from building development to corporate design. After a few independent years running his own highly successful and profitable practice, Mark once again joined John Hitchcox to assist him in setting up YOO with Philippe Starck. Mark’s architectural background and hands-on experience in the area of cutting-edge development has given him an unusual and valuable insight into the commercial machinery of the property industry, as well as the expectations of the clients. Mark, who lives between London and Sussex, oversees the quality of the output from the YOO Design Studio all over the world.

Nick Rush serves as Asset Manager at Yoo Capital Management and specializes in acquisitions, asset management and capital raising. He joined the team in 2018, having previously been at The Townsend Group since 2011. Nick will be assisting Lloyd Lee and Andrew Thorpe in the regeneration of Kensington Olympia as well as analysing future acquisitions. Nick has extensive experience working in indirect property fund management, interacting with fund managers on a global basis. The Townsend Group Prior to working with Yoo Capital, Nick spent 7 years working for The Townsend Group specialising in portfolio management and investment underwriting duties. He was responsible for managing, identifying and sourcing both indirect and direct investments for The Townsend Group’s discretionary global portfolios (working across portfolios with a total AUM of c. £2bn) and participating in all aspects of portfolio management. Henderson Global Investors At Henderson Global Investors Nick worked in Real Estate Client Services where he was responsible for the completion of requests for proposals and product development for global mandates. Blackrock Nick began his career at Blackrock working in the institutional sales support team, acting as the main focal point for all support to the UK sales and dealing team which included liaising with independent financial advisers and third party administrators.

Wassim came to YOO in 2008, after working as an assistant to IT Director in a small business. He is responsible for all YOO group Network & System Infrastructure, IT Budget, IT Projects Strategies, Planning and Implementation. Waz has an interesting string of countries to his name. He grew up in Beirut. He got his first degree in computer science from the Technical University of Riga, and attended the University of East London for his MSc in computer systems engineering.

Will Dickens brings more than 20 years of real estate capital formation experience across the UK and Europe, forging strong relationships with leading public and private institutional investors and family offices, covering all aspects of investment, fund and asset management structures and platforms. Previously, Mr. Dickens has served in leadership roles at Citi Private Bank's Global Real Estate and Private Equity team, as well as at Henley Investment Management Ltd and King Sturge-JLL. Mr. Dickens has a BSc (Hons) degree in Real Estate Management from Oxford Brookes University, is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is certified by the Financial Conduct Authority.