University mentor awarded Outstanding Alumni Award

10 Jul 2015

Property development director returns to campus to advise business school, inspire students – and now to collect award

Commercial director for high-end property development firm Ronson Capital Partners, one of Europe’s leading property development companies, Lisa Ronson and her family have a long-standing relationship with the University.

The Gerald Ronson Foundation, set up by her father, property developer Gerald Ronson, has been a generous supporter of the University and Lisa currently serves as a member of Manchester Business School’s Advisory Board, counselling the School on its strategy and engagement with business.

Lisa herself arrived in Manchester in 1987 to begin an undergraduate management sciences degree, from which she successfully graduated in 1990. After graduation she joined the graduate programme of BZW bank in South East Asian equity sales, covering the UK, European and US financial institutions.

She spent eight years at the bank, latterly in New York, before returning to London in 1998 to take up the role of marketing director at Heron International Plc, the property development business managed by her father.

Today, Lisa leads the interior design, branding, marketing, PR, sponsorship and advertising for Ronson Capital Partners developments, as well as Heron’s leisure portfolio, which includes major developments in Spain. 

Lisa is a great supporter of the University and has returned to speak to undergraduate students about both the property and marketing sectors.

In partnership with other organisations, she is very involved in supporting undergraduates from universities across the UK, including Manchester, helping them prepare for the workplace and find work placements.

Lisa also gives her time to a number of other charitable and community activities, including being a trustee of the Development Board of the Natural History Museum, a trustee of the Gerald Ronson Foundation, as well as the JW3, a North London Jewish Community Centre, and Traine Traide, which assists and trains people back into the workplace.