Our Management Team
Ashley Whittome: Managing Partner
Following co-founding the business in 2002 with David Saville, Ashley has 19 years of experience as the managing director of the UK ACE management and investment business, focussed on UK industrial / business park property investment.
He has 14 years of investment banking experience (Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Drexel Burnham Lambert), focussed on global M&A and financing work culminating in the position of Managing Director in Investment Banking for Credit Suisse.
He also has 20 years of experience as the owner and a managing director of an Australian property development business, primarily focussed on residential projects and including industrial and mixed use schemes in Western Australia and South-East Queensland.
Ashley gained an MA at Edinburgh University and an MBA with Distinction at Wharton Business School.
He grew up in a family property business focussed on E. Anglian town high street retail development.
David Saville: Managing Consultant
David is a consultant chartered surveyor and has worked in commercial property since 1982.
In 2002, he co-founded the UK ACE management and investment business, focussed on UK industrial / business park property investment.
He is a contracted consultant to several international property companies including the ACE business in the UK and Australia.
In 1992, he joined his father John Saville at Saville Gordon Plc (SG). At the time the company was a £30m listed conglomerate. Within 10 years he and his team transformed the company into a ‘pure play’ FTSE 250 industrial property group. This involved the growth through acquisition to c. £500m of industrial property (c. 170 industrial estates, 14m ft² , 2,500 occupiers/tenants). SG was ultimately sold to Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund for £200m in 2002. Shareholders who supported the rights issue in Spring 1997 at an issue price of 55p were rewarded with 122p five years later.
He also has experience of investment, management and partnership in Australian property development projects in Western Australia and South-East Queensland.
Michelle Gardner: Partner responsible for Property Management
Michelle has over 35 years of property management experience having built up and run the property management department for Bruton Knowles where she was responsible for a team of over 40 staff managing a diverse portfolio of properties for corporate, private, institutional, charitable and public sector clients throughout the UK.
She set up and leads the team that has principle responsibility for the day-to-day management of the ACE portfolios of properties.
Her team is responsible for the collection of rents, insurances and other monies due, as well as service charge budgeting and administration, all of which are integral to the successful performance of the investment.
Her team is also responsible for proactive management of properties to optimise performance and for maintaining the investment and the quality of the buildings themselves. This includes working with our tenants to maintain good relationships and ensuring compliance with lease covenants.