Richard Gabelich
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Richard has over 25 years of corporate, legal and commercial experience, including over 18 years of experience working in the student accommodation and property sectors in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand.
Richard’s experience makes him ideally qualified to advise on all aspects of property and student accommodation asset management as well as general governance, fund management, compliance, and leadership matters.
Together with Martin, Richard has developed and won new business with the leading developers, universities, operators and innovators in the UK student accommodation market. He has developed lasting relationships as a trusted asset manager to institutional capital for over £500m of property projects and over 2,000 PBSA beds under management.
JOURNEY
Prior to SFG, Richard worked for global student accommodation provider Campus Living Villages (CLV) for over 12 years in various roles from managing the global investment fund vehicle out of Australia to running the UK business as Chief Executive Officer.
During his time as CEO, Richard led a team to operate and develop high-quality student accommodation in partnership with some of the UK’s top universities, and as a part of CLV’s global executive team also worked with universities in the Australia, USA and NZ.
Whilst in Australia, Richard oversaw all global investment and fund management activities, as well as fund raising activities to existing and potential new investors including responsibilities for governance, compliance and company secretarial matters. He also acted directly on a number of key developments and acquisitions of public procurement university-led student accommodation concessions.
Richard also has over 10 years' experience as projects, commercial and banking lawyer at Australian private equity/family office, Transfield Holdings and major law firms Minter Ellison, Hunt & Hunt and Kensington Swan.