Meet our BREEAM Awards 2025 judging panel
Our judging panel is formed of built environment experts and leaders from across the industry.
Ufi Ibrahim, Chief Executive, Energy and Environment Alliance.
As Chief Executive of the British Hospitality Association (BHA) from 2010 to 2018, Ufi transformed the organization, achieving significant financial and commercial success. She led the merger with the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, forming UK Hospitality to enhance commercial and political influence. Ufi also shaped the UK Tourism Industry Group and launched the Big Hospitality Conversation, creating 67,000 jobs and apprenticeships.
At the World Travel & Tourism Council (2000-2010), she developed the International Competitiveness Monitor for Travel and Tourism and led the industry's first global commitment to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2035. Ufi is a commissioner of the Food Farming and Countryside Commission, addressing key issues in the UK's food and agricultural sector, and chairs the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Tourism, working to boost the UK's tourism appeal to international investors.
Alexandra Vella, Technical Director, RED Engineering Design
Alexandra works at RED Engineering Design in the ‘Sustainability Solutions and Climate Change’ unit. With over 20 years of experience, she started as an electrical engineer and now focuses on sustainability. She is a licensed BREEAM assessor and manages RED’s Building Certification team, handling project assessments, bid management, and internal training. Her team also conducts energy audits and various ESG activities. Alexandra has worked on diverse projects, including data centres, offices, and residential buildings, and contributed to BREEAM 2014 and 2018 schemes.
Swati Singh, Energy and Sustainability Lead at CBRE
Swati Singh is the Energy and Sustainability Lead at CBRE, where she is spearheading a financial services account to decarbonize its real estate portfolio, while also overseeing Energy and Environmental Management Systems. Before transitioning to the real estate sector, Swati was the Sustainability and Carbon Lead for the HS2 Euston Station contract, delivered by the Mace and Dragados joint venture. She also spent over six years at HS2 Ltd, the organization responsible for delivering the new high-speed rail line, where she developed and led the sustainability assessment standards for the entire program, including BREEAM setting target ratings for both buildings and infrastructure. Additionally, Swati has worked on numerous BREEAM projects as an assessor and Accredited Professional (AP).
Alexandra Notay, Expert in housing, placemaking & ESG
Alexandra Notay is an internationally recognised expert on housing, placemaking and ESG. She has 20 years’ strategic advisory and investment experience having worked extensively across four continents. In August 2024 Alex took over the chair of the Radix Big Tent Housing Commission from Dame Kate Barker and was the lead author on its first report.
Until July 2024 she was Placemaking and Investment Director at Thriving Investments (formerly PfP Capital), the fund and asset management arm of Places for People Group, overseeing a UK-wide residential strategy. In October 2023 Alex won Residential Leader of the Year at the inaugural Property Week awards for Inspiring Women in Property. Alex is Chair of the British Property Federation (BPF) working group on residential ESG, former Vice-Chair of the ULI UK Residential Council and currently serves on BPF’s Build to Rent and Sustainability Committees and AREF’s ESG / Impact Investing Committee.
Breana Wheeler, Director of Operations USA, BRE
Breana Wheeler is the U.S. Director of Operations for BRE, leading the expansion of the BREEAM standards across America. With her efforts, the U.S. has seen a remarkable increase in BREEAM-certified assets, growing by nearly 160% in 2022 and 100% in 2023, now present in 33 states and the District of Columbia. A respected figure in sustainability, Breana is a frequent speaker at industry events and hosts an ESG webinar series. Breana supports technical work on the development of BREEAM’s Resilience and Social Impact themes across all BREEAM standards globally. With a decade of prior experience in environmental and sustainability risk management for multinational corporations, she is a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA).
James Fisher, Head of Strategic Partnerships, BRE
An experienced ESG and Real Estate Sector Professional with a strong background in built asset sustainability, certification and consultancy. James possess a balance of both technical and commercial skills, ensuring that client relationships are at the heart of everything he does. His focus areas are low carbon and net zero strategies for existing portfolios, benchmarking and performance KPIs for real assets. In parallel, he has a broad and deep understanding of the full range of ESG matters impacting on the built environment.
Tom Wilson, Delivery Manager (Building Performance Services), BRE
Tom started his career in sustainable construction working on climate adaptation at the UK Climate Impacts Programme at Oxford University. This built upon the world leading UK Climate Projections ’09 to understand the challenges the built environment may face for the rest of the century. This was followed by a brief role at the Energy Saving Trust, focusing more on UK consumer advice for saving energy. Tom joined BRE in 2011, initially training hundreds of BREEAM Assessors around the world as part of the BRE Academy. He then took on BREEAM International which he helped to grow strongly over a number of years. This was followed by a year in the USA working with the team to establish BREEAM in that market. He currently leads the development of the BREEAM science, working with a team of subject matter experts to ensure BREEAM continues to deliver the biggest possible impact on sustainability in the built environment.
Lucy Selmes, Head of Customer Experience, BRE
Lucy Selmes is the Head of Customer Experience at BRE joining in 2022. An accomplished, self-motivated and results driven customer service professional with over 25 years’ experience. Lucy has worked with global customers in IT, telecommunications, SAAS (Software as a Service) and more recently the built environment. She has gained extensive experience and knowledge leading customer service teams, overseeing the service management of complex customer accounts, and maintaining customer retention. She has achieved a track record of success, excelling in customer satisfaction targets (CSAT and NPS), through active listening, collaborating, and talking with customers. Lucy thrives in transforming businesses so that they can excel and deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Gary Zhao, China Manager, BRE
Gary Zhao is General Manager of BRE China with highly experienced background in the area of built environment sustainability. He has profound knowledge in built environment engineering, participating in many landmark projects in China including Jinmao Tower, Shenzhen Ping’an Financial Tower, Shanghai EXPO Urban Best Practice Area, etc. He has also worked in Real Asset valuation sector with broad knowledge of asset survey and valuation for transaction use and bank loan references. With ESG trending focus now he has been driving BRE’s BREEAM service in China to a rapid growth, highlighting BREEAM’s holistic and scientific scoring matrix to be widely taken up by RE stakeholders such as fund managers, banks, private investors and other financial institutions.
Ian Slesser, Head of Product Management, BRE
Ian Slesser is the Head of Product Management at BRE. Ian joined BRE in 2020 and leads a team of Product Managers and Product Owners responsible for the development of products and services across the organisation. Ian has a passion for creating and delivery products which meet the needs of customers and exceed their expectations. BRE provides an opportunity to provide products that make a real difference in the built environment and helps the world to achieve its sustainability goals. Prior to joining BRE, Ian worked for 14 years in Highways related roles, starting with Lincolnshire County Council Highways through to leading a Highways Asset Management practice around the world, with customers from Sydney, Australia to California in the US.
Chris Pyke, Chief Innovation Officer, GRESB
Chris Pyke is an environmental scientist and Chief Innovation Officer for GRESB. Dr. Pyke has cross-cutting responsibility for innovation, communications, and supervision of the GRESB Foundation. Dr. Pyke previously served as Senior Vice President for Arc Skoru (part of the USGBC family of organizations), Chief Strategy Officer for Aclima, and a research scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Dr. Pyke is on the faculty of the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Georgetown University. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Jessica Long, Senior Vice President Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability, NAREIT
Jessica Long is the Senior Vice President of Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability at Nareit. She guides sustainability programs, including industry reporting and educational programming, and leads Nareit’s Real Estate Sustainability Council (RESC). With over 17 years of experience in both private and public real estate, she previously served as Head of Sustainability for the Americas at Nuveen Real Estate, focusing on climate risk and carbon reduction. At JBG SMITH, she directed sustainability efforts post-merger and established the company's first formal sustainability program. Long is an active member of several industry groups, including the Real Estate Roundtable, ULI, and Better Buildings Alliance, and was the former chair of the NAIOP MD/DC – Sustainable Development Committee.
