Sophie Carruth joins Hillbreak from LaSalle

Hillbreak is delighted to confirm that Sophie Carruth, formerly European Head of Sustainability at LaSalle, has joined its team to concentrate on the delivery of ESG training and education services to its clients globally.

Sophie B&W

Her arrival follows the recent appointments of veteran ESG data standards and reporting specialist, Matthew Tippett, and former Magic Circle lawyer, Jessica Moore as governance and regulatory specialist.

Carruth was responsible for driving ESG into the heart of LaSalle’s real estate investment activities in Europe. She developed and oversaw the delivery of LaSalle’s European Sustainability Strategy, focusing on the four pillars of climate change, responsible consumption, rewilding and social value. She was responsible for driving the creation of LaSalle’s first Net Zero Carbon Pathway, which embeds the management of ESG at each stage of the asset lifecycle.

Carruth was the longest-serving member of LaSalle’s Global Sustainability Committee and led the delivery of ESG education across the business, which included a collaboration with Hillbreak to provide ESG Training to its European leadership team in 2020.

Until leaving LaSalle, Carruth was a board director at the Better Buildings Partnership and chaired its ESG Training Steering Group, which oversaw the appointment and supervision of Hillbreak to deliver the ground-breaking BBP ESG Training for Real Estate Professionals. She was also a Steering group member for the IPF research project: ESG Benchmarking in Real Estate, and was a Member of INREV Sustainability Committee from 2014–2016. She continues as a Member of the Women in Sustainability Network.

Carruth comes from an asset management background at LaSalle and is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She completed her Masters in Real Estate Management at London South Bank University and before that gained a BA (Hons) in French and Italian at Bristol University.

With demand for Hillbreak’s industry-leading ESG training and education growing in all of the major global markets, Carruth will focus exclusively on developing and delivering learning support to clients that are seeking to enhance both the knowledge and the practical skills needed to address investment and corporate imperatives in this rapidly developing area. She will play an instrumental role in further developing and delivering the hugely successful BBP ESG Training course, as well as bespoke learning programmes for individual client organisations.

Commenting on her arrival, Jon Lovell, Co-Founding Director of Hillbreak, said:

“We’re delighted to welcome Sophie to Hillbreak. She’s so well regarded amongst her peers for the impact she’s had over many years in the real estate industry and I know our clients will benefit greatly from her deep and extensive experience. She’s a natural leader and teacher; her instinct for mentoring others on their own ESG journeys is something that’s really stood out to me over the years that we’ve known each other. She’s a perfect fit for our expanding training business.”

Miles Keeping, also Co-Founding Director, added:

“As we head into 2022 – another pivotal year for our own business and the industry more widely – there’s no-one we’d rather be working with to further our ESG training and education services. We know from the feedback we’ve already had from clients with whom Sophie will be working that she’ll be an absolute hit with them and we feel really privileged to be working with her.”

Carruth said:

“I’m excited to join the Hillbreak team to deliver much needed ESG training to the real estate sector. There is a huge need to upskill property professionals so it’s great to be part of the solution and help as many people as possible from all aspects of the industry to integrate a better understanding of sustainability into their working practices.”