The Team
Cedric Bucher, CFA
Cedric Bucher, CFA
Cedric Bucher is the Chief Executive Officer of Hearthstone Investments Ltd. He was with Architas from 2011-2017, and previously held senior strategic and commercial positions with Barclays Wealth, SEI and Cardano. Cedric has a proven track record in the UK investment management industry, with responsibilities including Strategy, Business Development, P&L, Sales, Marketing and Product Development. Born and educated in Switzerland, Cedric spent the first part of his career with McKinsey&Co. in Zurich and London. He holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School and is a CFA Charterholder.
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith
Andrew’s 30 year property investment career has included international fund management and strategy roles at Aberdeen Asset Management, where he ultimately served as Global Head of Property, with oversight of client assets of over £20 billion across all market sectors, and previously at Henderson Global Investors, where he was responsible for European real estate research and investment strategy.
A graduate of Birmingham University, he is a past Chair of the Investment Property Forum, and a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He has served on industry steering groups in the UK and internationally, for organisations such as INREV, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the National Retail Planning Forum and the Bank of England Property Forum. He is the immediate past President of the Society of Property Researchers.
Helen Simons
Helen Simons
Helen has worked in residential asset management for over 15 years, focusing primarily on the private rented sector. She has deep end-to-end experience in the investment process and strategic asset management, and a track record of building investment portfolios. Her current responsibilities also include managing the property acquisitions pipeline and overseeing the delivery of new investment assets.
A graduate of the University of Leeds, Helen began her career at Grainger plc on 2007, where she spent eight years working on their PRS and regulated portfolios, latterly as part of the team running the JV portfolio with Dutch pension fund manager APG.
Prior to joining Hearthstone, Helen worked at two early stage businesses scaling and overseeing the performance of their residential portfolios, focusing on driving both large scale acquisitions and strategic asset management initiatives.
Brian Radford
Brian Radford
Brian is responsible for customer relationship matters and the management of improvement projects. He also project manages the delivery and satisfactory handover of new homes supplied through forward purchase and forward funding deals with housebuilders.
He has over 35 years’ experience in the residential property letting industry, managing assets across the UK, and brings a wealth of “hands on” operational knowledge. Prior to joining Hearthstone, in 2007 he set up and ran his own business, Radford Residential. Before that, he was a Director at Fairbridge Residential, responsible for managing a large, privately rented investment portfolio.
Lydia Garai
Lydia Garai
Lydia brings more than 10 years' experience in residential asset management. Prior to joining Hearthstone, she worked at Knight Frank, where she oversaw the company's onshore and offshore residential portfolios.
Lydia is experienced in providing advice and guidance on marketing and leasing strategies, and refurbishment projects. She also focuses on the launching of new assets, to ensure portfolios reach and maintain their maximum occupancy and rental income.
She is a Fellow of the Association of Residential Letting Agents.
Aramide Onayade
Aramide Onayade
Aramide is an ACCA qualified accountant who has over ten years of commercial and residential real estate experience. She has worked in various accounting roles with property management and asset management companies.
A graduate of De Montfort University, Aramide began her career in the corporate team of Lee Baron Ltd as an accountant. She then went on to Palace Capital Plc where she was a management accountant, responsible for a property investment portfolio of over £185 million. She has gained significant experience liaising with property managers, asset managers and investors across the UK.
Michael Dinsdale
Michael Dinsdale
Michael joined Hearthstone in 2019 as Head of Investor Relations. After graduating from the University of Reading in Land Management, Michael qualified as a chartered surveyor and has over 35 years’ experience in property investment. His career started in 1981 at the Prudential Assurance Company before he moved to TSB Investment Management. In 1989 he joined Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society, where the property business eventually became part of Aberdeen Standard Investments.
Michael joined Scottish Amicable as a Fund Manager for segregated, direct property mandates investing in commercial property across the UK. He also played a pivotal role in managing clients through five acquisitions of the business and moved fully into a relationship management and business development role. His focus has always been on property clients, but he also has experience in non-property asset classes, managing a broad range of institutional clients.
In his most recent role prior to joining Hearthstone, Michael was heavily involved with Local Government Pension Schemes where he developed a deep understanding of the issues faced by the sector. He also led the design, development and capital raise for a £115 million UK residential fund.
Darren Stent
Darren Stent
As Head of Business Operations, Darren is currently responsible for aspects of fund administration, governance and property transactions, and for a variety of business support functions, including the company’s IT infrastructure.
He joined Hearthstone in 2012, where he worked on the development of the company’s first, pioneering residential fund, and remains a member of the fund’s Investment Committee.
His career prior to Hearthstone includes experience at Prudential Assurance, Standard Life and Barclays Bank, in both investor and intermediary-facing roles.
Antonia Haralambous
Antonia Haralambous
Antonia is responsible for developing Hearthstone’s in-house research capabilities, and provides strategic support and performance analysis for our funds and client investment portfolios. As a member of the company’s ESG Committee, she also plays a key role in developing our ESG policies and processes as an integral part of our investment strategy.
Antonia brings international, multi-sector real estate research experience, having joined Hearthstone from Knight Frank, where she was most recently an Associate in the Capital Markets Research team.
She holds a first class degree from the University of Manchester.
The Board of Directors
Richard Twigg
Richard Twigg
Richard is a Chartered Accountant who joined the Skipton Group in 1993 as Head of Finance of Homeloan Management and in 1996, following the acquisition by Skipton, he was appointed Finance Director of Connells. In 2002 he was appointed to the Skipton Board and served as Group Finance Director until 2014 when he re-joined Connells as Group Finance and Commercial Director.
Cedric Bucher, CFA
Cedric Bucher, CFA
Cedric Bucher is the Chief Executive Officer of Hearthstone Investments Ltd. He was with Architas from 2011-2017, and previously held senior strategic and commercial positions with Barclays Wealth, SEI and Cardano. Cedric has a proven track record in the UK investment management industry, with responsibilities including Strategy, Business Development, P&L, Sales, Marketing and Product Development. Born and educated in Switzerland, Cedric spent the first part of his career with McKinsey&Co. in Zurich and London. He holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School and is a CFA Charterholder.
David Dutton
David Dutton
David is a “hands on” business angel in a number of small company start-ups and, until June 2016, was Executive Group Property Director for The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), a major UK media company, Chairman of DMG Information, ad as a Non-Executive Director for a number of other subsidiaries of DMGT.
Mark Drysdale
Mark Drysdale
Mark is a Chartered Surveyor with considerable experience in fund management and asset management. He has a proven track record of success across deal origination and execution, intensive asset management, capital raising and fund structuring.
Jamie Jago
Jamie Jago
Jamie retired from Savills in July 2021 after a 35-year career in PR specialising in residential property; the last 13 of which had been spent at the global property advisor following their acquisition in 2008 of the PR agency, Jago Dean, which she had co-founded in 2002. She joined the Hearthstone Investments Ltd Board in March 2022.
