Oxford North appoints new managing director

Oxford North, the new £700 million innovation district in Oxford, has appointed Simon Ruck as its new managing director and Kevin Reid as its new energy and engineering manager as part of the strategy to build the on-site management and facilities team ahead of opening in mid-2025.

Simon has more than 25 years’ experience and has joined from Brookfield-owned Advanced Research Clusters (ARC) where he was director, asset management at Harwell Campus, Oxfordshire.

Prior to this he was vice president, asset management at Brookfield Office Properties and development director at Brookfield Developments. Simon has also worked for Grainger, Multiplex Developments and Bovis Lend Lease.

Kevin Reid has more than 35 years’ experience and has joined from EMCOR UK where he worked at the Riverlabs Campus and GSK Campus in Ware. Prior to this he worked for CBRE, Baltimore FM and Jaguar Building Services.

Simon and Kevin will be based at Oxford North and have joined ahead of the planned opening. The project is to deliver one million sq ft of new labs and workspace, 480 new homes surrounded by public parks and amenities, and is a 15-minute cycle ride from the city centre.

Phase 1a is under construction and totals 160,000 sq ft (15,000 sq m) across three buildings. The Red Hall will house the ground floor café, co-working and break-out spaces, community and presentation space, and on the four floors above incubation and grow-on office space, and 1 & 2 Fallaize Street, will be the first two laboratory and office buildings. Works have recently started on Fallaize Park and the market square.

Oxford North Ventures is the joint venture company of Thomas White Oxford, the development company of St John’s College, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Stanhope.

David Camp, chief executive officer, Stanhope said: “We warmly welcome Simon and Kevin to Oxford North. Simon’s exceptional experience in delivering estate, operations and asset management, particularly in the life sciences and biotech space will mean that our future companies will benefit from his extensive expertise. Kevin’s impressive track record has meant that he is able to start working closely with our consultant team and construction partners to ensure we are creating a low carbon innovation district, following a net zero carbon pathway, to reduce the carbon footprint for our future occupiers. We will continue to expand the on-site team as we head towards opening this globally significant new place for Oxford.”

Simon Ruck, managing director, Oxford North Ventures added: “‘I am very excited to be joining Oxford North and cherish the opportunity to help grow a community at the forefront of innovation in Oxford. The buildings, surrounding landscaping and amenity that will form the new innovation district have been carefully designed specifically to boost science and tech discovery and be a place open to everyone. This combined with world class partners within the JV make for an amazing venture.”

Savills estate management and MRG Global acted on behalf of Oxford North Ventures.