Raymond Mould, 74, one of the industry’s most respected entrepreneurs, died this week leaving behind a legacy of successful businesses and blossoming careers.
Alongside launching, building and ultimately selling three of the UK’s most successful property companies – Arlington Securities, Pillar Property and London & Stamford – Mould is credited with creating a new generation of real estate leaders, enhancing the careers and businesses of the advisers he employed and being the industry’s ultimate mentor.
Patrick Vaughan, Mould’s business partner and firm friend for more than four decades, said Mould had a big effect on a lot of people during his career.
“When the whole of the racing press, the property press and the national press want to write your obituary, then you know you’ve made a mark,” he said.
Vaughan, who met Mould on a celebratory holiday after proposing to his now
wife, remembers his friend
and partner as a “huge character with a great sense of fun”, a
man who was very outgoing, generous, willing to help people and free with his opinion, but who “did not suffer fools”.
The pair, who launched their business career together just 18 months after their first meeting, made the perfect duo and are credited with having impeccable timing when it comes to cycles.
“Raymond would always see the glass of whisky as half full,” remembers Vaughan. “I would always see it as half empty, so between us it meant that we didn’t do anything silly…but we did do some exciting things.”
Those exciting things included setting up business parks venture Arlington Securities in 1976, expanding it to become the largest property company in Europe and then selling it to British Aerospace in 1989, just before the 1990s crash, for £278m. The establishment of Arlington spawned the careers of Morgan Jones and Ian Watson, who now run Hansteen.
After Arlington came Pillar Property, a retail park investor backed by General Electric. Pillar went public in 1994 with a value of £170m. It returned more than £400m to investors over the following decade and was eventually sold to British Land in 2005 – again, shortly before a crash – for £811m.
The creation of that business was the start of a glittering career for protégé Andrew Jones, now chief executive of LondonMetric, a £1bn-plus company formed via the 2012 merger of Jones’s Metric Property and Mould’s and Vaughan’s final venture together, London & Stamford.
London & Stamford was launched in 2007 and invested in City offices, private rented residential and industrial. Mould stepped down from LondonMetric in 2013, before returning to the market last year investing in Oxenwood Real Estate, a firm set up by former colleagues Jeremy Bishop and Stewart Little.
His death has been labelled as the passing of a legend.
‘He had a nose for an opportunity’ – industry leaders pay tribute
Patrick Vaughan, life-long business partner: “We always joked that Raymond was the dowry in my marriage and what a marvellous dowry he was. Eighteen months after we met, we started working together and didn’t stop until a few years ago.”
Andrew Jones, chief executive, LondonMetric: “He lived life to the full and was one of the leading property entrepreneurs of his generation, creating and floating three successful property companies alongside Patrick. I worked with him for more than 10 years and he had a terrific impact on me, helping shape my career. I will never forget that.”
Jeremy Bishop, executive partner, Oxenwood: “Raymond had a way of combining both commercial acumen together with an ability to engage with people at every level. He invoked an appetite for success from everyone he worked with and I am sure that these things form part of his outstanding track record of success throughout his entire career. It has been the greatest pleasure for Stewart (Little) and me to work with Raymond these past nine years. He will be greatly missed but more greatly remembered by family, friends and industry colleagues alike.”
Morgan Jones and Ian Watson, joint chief executives, Hansteen: “Having worked under Raymond at Arlington in the late 1980s, we were extremely fortunate to have learned our trade from the best in the business. Their [Mould’s and Vaughan’s] entrepreneurial approach, property expertise and focus on making and taking a profit, led them to make the right calls at the right time. As a result of their leadership we were inspired to set up our own business, Ashtenne, in 1989. After we had left Arlington, Raymond continued to inspire by encouragement and example. He was always interested in how we were doing and along with Patrick they ‘raised the bar’ with success in different property sectors at Pillar and London & Stamford.”
Simon Hope, global head of capital markets, Savills: “Raymond helped me enormously in terms of my career. He was a cycle player and read the cycles extraordinarily well. He was great fun to work with. Very loyal, very generous. If we all manage to have as much fun as he had by our 74th year then we will all go to heaven happy.”
Paul Wilkinson, founding partner, Wilkinson Williams: “He had one of the best ‘noses’ I have ever come across for an opportunity and, equally if not more importantly, developing an investment theme, coupled with a great enjoyment for life and generosity of spirit. Raymond, along with his colleagues, helped us enormously to establish our business. We started at nearly the same time that Raymond and Patrick set up Pillar. I doubt we’d be where we are today if it hadn’t been for the business we did together.”
samantha.mcclary@estatesgazette.com
