Nicolas Boffi is the Managing Director of MIPIM, the world’s biggest real estate event, held every March at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. MIPIM now runs year round, through the MIPIM Asia Summit in Hong Kong and the launch of MIPIM Middle East in Riyadh this October. In this episode of Tell Me More, Nicolas reveals several pieces of news about MIPIM 2027 for the first time.

Before he ran the world’s largest property event, Nicolas spent two decades in urban development and city planning. He grew up in Besançon, trained as an engineer at EIVP, the City of Paris engineering school, and added a master’s in urban planning. He worked on the Grand Paris Express, the largest metro infrastructure project in Europe, representing 40 billion euros of investment and 200 kilometres of automatic metro, along with the urban development of around 70 new districts around its stations. He then spent almost sixteen years at Arcadis, ending as City Executive in Paris, sitting between elected officials and private investors.

We discuss:

– Why mid-sized cities in Europe have a strong future, and what is driving new investment and infrastructure into them

– What the Grand Paris Express taught him about transit-oriented development and land value capture

– Why real estate projects stall over trust and risk perception between the public and private sector, rarely over ideas or capital

– What public leaders and private investors each need to change to turn urban ambition into concrete project pipelines

– The new matchmaking service built into the MIPIM app, and the shift from spontaneous networking to intentional deal making

– How MIPIM 2027 expands beyond the Palais des Festivals into a city-wide experience across Cannes

– The new MIPIM destination for luxury residential and branded residences

– Why the MIPIM Challengers programme for leaders under 31 matters to the future of the industry

– How the MIPIM Asia Summit in Hong Kong and MIPIM Middle East in Riyadh, built around the region’s giga projects, fit into a global platform

– The one book he recommends to anyone starting out: Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

Whether you are planning your next MIPIM in Cannes, working between the public and private sides of a development project, investing in European real estate, or building a career in urban planning and the built environment, this episode is a rare look inside the world’s biggest real estate event from the person running it.

Subscribe for more conversations with the people redefining real estate, capital, and leadership across the globe.

Erez Cohen is Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Urbium GDI, a real estate investment platform focused on the Mexican industrial sector, and the author of Real Estate Titans. Throughout his career, he has been involved in more than $5 billion in real estate transactions in Mexico, the United States, and Brazil.

He started in investment banking in New York on the sell side, moved across to the buy side in private equity at Carlyle, and then made the harder crossing from analysing deals to owning them. He worked on some of the first REIT structures in Mexico, ran investment as Chief Investment Officer at Thor Urbana, and in 2018 co-founded his own platform.

Most of this conversation is about Mexico, and not the headline version. Where the capital actually comes from, what the politics do to a development timeline, how you underwrite security risk city by city, and why he concluded seven years ago that industrial would beat every other asset class in the country.

He does not romanticise that last step. When you advise, your job is to spot the risks for someone else. When you own the asset, your job is to decide which of those risks are worth taking, hire the people who will execute, and carry the outcome yourself. He calls the path hellish, says entrepreneurship is not for everyone, and reflects that the humility it forces on you is exactly the point.

We discuss:

– What changes in your head when you stop advising on risk and start choosing which risks to take with your own capital

– Why he redefined success from working at a great firm to owning something, and what that cost him

– The Sam Zell story that explains Mexican industrial: an 8 cap in Dallas, a 13 cap across the border in Monterrey, the same tenant in both, and dollar financing at nearly the same rate

– Why 2010 and 2011 were the turning point, when REITs and the Mexican pension funds finally gave managers an answer to the question every LP asks second: how do I exit

– The two very different Mexican industrial theses, peso-denominated logistics in the centre versus dollar-denominated manufacturing on the northern border

– How he prices political and security risk city by city, and what he tells investors who read Mexico as one uniform market

– Where the next decade of Latin American real estate sits, and why liquidity decides which countries are investable at all

Whether you sit on the buy side, the sell side, or somewhere in between, this is a detailed look at how an emerging market gets institutionalised, and what it takes to build a platform inside one.

Subscribe for more conversations with the people redefining real estate, capital, and leadership worldwide.

Audrey Klein is a Partner at Spencer House Partners and one of the most respected capital-raising voices in global real estate. In this episode of Tell Me More, we dive deep into her personal and professional journey: from investment banking in New York, to Bank of America in San Francisco, to founding Caskar Partners in Germany, to becoming one of the first formal local European fundraisers for Blackstone’s London office through Park Hill Real Estate.

We discuss:

– How Audrey built a global fundraising career across the US, Europe, and Asia

– Why investors back the people before they back the product

– What real integrity looks like in private equity and playing the long game

– How to find your anchor investor when raising capital for the first time

– Founding WIRE and championing women and mentorship in real estate

– Why success is never a straight line, and how you get back up

Whether you’re raising capital, building a platform, or navigating a leadership role early in your career, this episode is full of hard-won wisdom from someone who has helped shape how capital moves across the industry.

Subscribe for more conversations with the people redefining real estate, capital, and leadership across the globe.

Paddy Allen is the CEO of Kinetic Capital - a specialist lender transforming the European student housing market. In this episode of Tell Me More, we dive deep into his personal and professional journey: from building global experience in real estate to leading an investment platform focused on purpose-built student accommodation.

We discuss:

• Why student housing is more resilient than traditional real estate asset classes
• How Paddy built conviction in the idea for Kinetic Capital
• The entrepreneurial mindset behind leading a fund and earning investor trust
• Market trends shaping student housing across Europe and globally
• Lessons in leadership, team building, and making long-term decisions in high-pressure environments

Whether you're an emerging leader, a real estate investor, or a founder building something new, this episode offers practical insights and real-world experience from someone actively reshaping the industry.

Subscribe for more conversations with the people redefining real estate, capital, and leadership across the globe.

In this episode of Tell Me More, I sit down with Laura Kairienė, Chief Architect of Vilnius City, to explore how digital transformation and human-centric design are shaping one of Europe’s most innovative capitals.

Laura shares her journey from her early days in architecture to leading the city’s vision for sustainable growth, smart infrastructure, and urban regeneration. She explains how Vilnius integrates data, design, and dialogue between citizens and government to create a city that works for people, not against them.

We discuss the evolution of Vilnius’ skyline, the role of technology in modern planning, and how architects can balance heritage with innovation. Laura also reflects on leadership in public architecture, lessons learned from European cities, and her mission to make Vilnius a global benchmark for future-ready, livable cities.

Highlights:

• Digitalisation & data-driven design in urban planning
• How Vilnius builds smarter, greener, and more connected communities
• Balancing heritage with innovation in a growing European capital
• The power of architecture to shape human experience
• Laura’s leadership vision for the city of tomorrow

Whether you’re passionate about architecture, urban planning, or the future of cities, this episode offers a rare glimpse into how one of Europe’s most forward-thinking capitals is being designed for the next generation.

In this episode of Tell Me More, Ruslan Hajduk sits down with Jerzy Wójcik, the founder and CEO of JWA – one of Central and Eastern Europe’s leading consultancies in sustainable real estate development, ESG strategy, and green building certifications.

Born in Kraków, Jerzy studied architecture at the Cracow University of Technology, the University of Tennessee, and spent time at Gensler in New York, working on the LEED-certified Bank of America Tower. These formative years shaped his vision of combining design with sustainability. In 2011, Jerzy founded JWA – bootstrapping the company without external investors – and has since grown it into a market leader certifying over 15 million m² of real estate across Poland, CEE, and even Mexico.

In this conversation, we dive into:

• How Jerzy pivoted from architecture to entrepreneurship
• The early years of JWA and how he scaled the company without outside capital
• Why ESG, carbon neutrality, and green finance matter for the future of real estate
• The role of data, advisory, and certifications in creating long-term asset value
• Building trust with developers and investors in an evolving regulatory landscape
  

Jerzy also shares his perspective on the future of ESG in CEE, insights from international markets like Mexico and Spain, and advice for young professionals who want to succeed in real estate while making a positive impact.

Whether you are an investor, developer, or sustainability leader, this episode offers valuable lessons in entrepreneurship, resilience, and building a values-driven business in the real estate sector.

In this episode of Tell Me More, I sit down with Guy Pinsent, Founder & CEO of Less Mess Storage - one of Central Europe’s leading and most successful self-storage companies.

Born in London and raised in the English countryside, Guy’s path took him from Eton College and Cambridge University to a career in investment banking at Citibank. Driven by a passion for being at the heart of business, he later joined the British Embassy in Poland, strengthening UK–Poland business relations for 6.5 years. From there, he transitioned into real estate with Colliers before founding Less Mess Storage in 2014, growing it into a benchmark for the self-storage sector in Central Europe.

Highlights:
• How #economics, incentives & behavior drive smart decisions.
• Fundraising highs & lows – and knowing when to walk away.
• Product segmentation, customer pathways & storytelling.
• Why data and focus are key to scaling in real estate.

We also dive into Guy’s passion for economics, his reflections on free markets, and the key lessons learned from decades of dealmaking in multiple industries.

Guy’s Book Recommendations:

• The Undercover Economist – Tim Harford

• Freakonomics – Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

• The Infidel and the Professor: The Friendship of Adam Smith and David Hume – Dennis C. Rasmussen

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, economist, or real estate professional, this episode offers powerful insights into self-storage, real estate innovation, and the philosophy behind successful business leadership.

In this episode of the Tell Me More podcast, host Ruslan Hajduk speaks with Lars Sommerer, Managing Director of SwissPropTech and Advisory Board Member at Swiss Circle. Lars shares his career journey from working at UBS in banking to becoming a key voice in the Swiss PropTech ecosystem. The conversation covers the evolution of digital innovation in real estate, the current trends shaping the Swiss residential market, and the unique funding dynamics of the local startup scene.

Lars highlights three standout PropTech startups tackling real-world challenges and emphasises the importance of solving core industry problems through technology. He also shares practical insights on relocating to Switzerland, the country’s high quality of life, and its stable yet complex real estate landscape. The episode concludes with Lars’s book recommendations and lessons learned from a life bridging finance, innovation, and real estate.