Oxford Properties Group has appointed Hala El Akl as Senior Director, ESG and Operations.
Hala will be based in London and will oversee Oxford’s ESG programme with a focus on operations.
Reporting into Anushka Grant, Vice President, Business Transformation & Platform Services, Hala will work collaboratively across functions such as Asset Management, Operations, Development and Finance/Investment Risk to launch Oxford’s global ESG strategy and framework. ESG is integral to Oxford as a business and Oxford is among the industry leaders in this space, placing within the top 7% of GRESB globally for more than a decade.
Hala joins Oxford from PLP Architecture, where she spent 12 years and was most recently a Director, responsible for commercial, life-science, residential, retail and mixed-use projects across the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. As a Founding Director of PLP Labs, she led teams exploring new ideas for future cities, with a focus on environmental and social sustainability.
In 2020, Hala was the first recipient of the ULI European Talent Award. She is a ULI global trustee and also sits on the Cambridge University Land Economy board. She received her MSc in Urban Policy from the London School of Economics; a Master’s in Territorial and Urban Strategies from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po); and both a Bachelor of Architecture (distinction) and a Bachelor of Social Sciences from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
Anushka Grant, Vice President, Business Transformation & Platform Services at Oxford Properties, commented: “With a strong track record of leading innovative teams that focus on the social and environmental sustainability of future cities, Hala’s in depth sector knowledge and practical experience as an architect and urbanist will be highly valuable as we launch our global ESG strategy and framework, which will ensure we continue to be among the industry leaders in applying ESG practices.”
Hala El Akl, Senior Director, ESG & Operations at Oxford Properties, added: “Oxford has been a leader in ESG for many years and I look forward to working collaboratively with teams across the business to take this commitment to sustainability to the next level.”
