March 24, 2017
In Palmer Capital’s 25th Year it seems right that such an industry legend be included in Property Week’s Power 100 list. Ray Palmer has been at the forefront of the industry for nearly 50 years having being a founding partner of Lambert Smith, the Chief Executive of Lambert Smith Hampton and the founder/Executive Chairman of Palmer Capital. In 2016, Ray oversaw £100’s of millions of transactions which included Palmer Capital’s best ever deal at Discovery Park which achieved a profit of over 1000% on cost.
In 1964, Ray started his career in property at the age of 16 and worked initially for Edward Erdman, nowadays Colliers, and Allsops, before in 1969 becoming the CEO of the niche business, Lambert Smith, at the tender age of 21. When Ray joined the firm it only had 6 members of staff but over the following 20 years, with Ray as CEO, it grew to have more than a 1,000. The business also spread from just a single London office to having offices in the USA and continental Europe. During these years, Ray is possibly most famous for selling the company three times, and buying it back twice. He also mentored the careers of Tony Gibbon (GM Real Estate) and Nic Byrom (LSH) amongst others.
In 1993, he left and set up Palmer Capital Partners Limited, a business investing in start-up property companies. Of the 10 companies he backed over the following years, he remains the chairman and shareholder in almost all of them to this day. These companies include some of the best regionally focused property companies, such as Wrenbridge Land, the leading South East developer. They also include some of the most innovative businesses, like Colworth Park, one of the UKs most successful science parks. Over his two decades of backing property companies, Ray has helped to create more than a dozen property millionaires, over £75m of profit for Palmer Capital shareholders, and over £200m of profit for investors.
Ray has created a legacy not only for his own many achievements, but also for the achievements of the people whose careers he has created. No one else in the industry has had the same level of success as an entrepreneur whilst also creating other entrepreneurs. Many entrepreneurs have made fortunes in the industry but few have enabled others to do so.