People

Tonsley Investments is owned and managed by James Dodwell and draws over 90 years of property expertise provided by him, Rebecca Gregory and Ian Dodwell along with over 30 years of finance expertise provided by Peter Allen. James, Rebecca and Ian are Chartered Surveyors and Peter Allen was a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen before moving from advisory to client side and has been a member of the Institute of Directors since 2001.  

James Dodwell Bcom (Hons) MRICS

James graduated from Edinburgh University with a 2.1 in Economics and Business Studies.  He joined Savills where he developed his investment skills and contacts working for Savills Fund Management on pension fund mandates that included Diageo and Boots as well as for private clients.

He then left Savills and joined Commercial Estates Group (CEG - see www.ceg.co.uk), an entrepreneurial private property company with a mixed commercial and residential portfolio totaling c£700m in value. At CEG he worked for the Investment Director and was responsible for formulating and implementing the investment strategy.  In 2007 he set up Tonsley Investments and has been Managing Director of the business and its affiliated companies since.  

Rebecca Gregory BSC (Hons) MRICS

Rebecca graduated from Kingston University with a 2:1 in Urban Estate Management.  As an Associate Director at Nelson Bakewell she worked for corporate tenant and management clients including Pearl Assurance, Computer Associates, AXA REIM and Warner Estates.  In 2003 she joined CEG as an Asset Manager and was responsible for creating and implementing an asset management strategy on a portofio of offices, retail and industrial units throughout the UK.  This included marketing and letting campaigns, acquisition and disposal of assets, appraising refurbishment and redevelopment options and managing project teams on refurbishments.

Ian Dodwell MRICS 

Ian Dodwell worked at Atisreal BNPP (formerly Weatherall Green and Smith; see www.realestate.bnpparibas.co.uk.) for 40 years where he was an equity partner for over 20 years. His expertise is in development, leasing and investment and he managed the Weatherall's London office during the early 1990's.  He worked for a range of occupier, investment and development clients, including IBM, Hewlett Packard, Scottish Mutual, Canada Life, MEPC and Helical Bar. 

Peter Allen BSc (Hons) 

After graduating with a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics at Bristol University, Peter qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in London, working in both its Business Services Division and Corporate Recovery. 

Peter then held a range of Head Office and analyst roles in Dairy Crest plc, leading to its Stock Exchange flotation, and Telewest plc, during which time he headed up all aspects of Finance for the launch of Internet services as its third core product (after TV and telephony).   

Since then Peter has focussed on smaller businesses and has been involved in three IT / Internet start up companies, two of which have been sold to plc’s and one which he continues to run.  He has also been Finance Director for an aviation company and is currently helping manage and grow an aerial photography company as well as his involvement with Tonsley.