Cléo Folkes, a Dutch national, took up her current role as Research Manager at St Martins, the global property-investment arm of the Kuwait Investment Authority, in mid 2008. At St Martins she is responsible for global research and strategy, which encompasses overseeing house-views, quarterly reporting, producing the annual report, the investment process & associated risk including setting hurdle rates, performance calculation and analysis and bespoke in-depth research projects.

Cléo joined from Spark Europe, a Pan-European investment advisory, and prior to this she worked in private equity for Terra Firma/Deutsche Annington, at property consultancies (DTZ, Savills, CBRE, Allsop, Knight Frank), and at Investment Property Databank in various positions. Cléo has a wide range of experience encompassing many aspects of property research, strategy, investment and interim-management. Current and previous market focus has been across asset classes and on a Global level as well as on a Pan-European, German, Dutch and UK-only basis.  She speaks fluent English, Dutch and German. Cléo hold an MA in Economic Geography.