Dr Katherine Gunderson
Leadership, architectural conservation, strategy, systems, and partnerships.
ABOUT GRAND BEQUEST
About the Team
The people connecting technology, evidence, and social good.
Regeneration succeeds when people can see the same opportunity, understand the evidence, and contribute at the right moment. Grand Bequest brings together leadership, technology, data, finance, impact, community research, and live learning to help empty buildings become places of value and belonging again.
Technology should make better human decisions possible.
Research-backed. AI-enabled. People-led.
LEADERSHIP
Dr Katherine Gunderson
Founder & CEO
DBA · MSc Architectural Conservation · Oxford Executive Education
Guides Grand Bequest’s strategy and brings people, evidence, technology, and capital together around valuable empty-building opportunities.
Dr Katherine Gunderson founded Grand Bequest to build a better system for bringing valuable empty buildings back into use. She combines systems implementation, business strategy, architectural conservation, technology, and impact finance to guide RegenerationOS™ and the partnerships around it.
Katherine holds a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of Liverpool and an MSc in Architectural Conservation from the University of Edinburgh. Her further executive education has included impact finance and real estate at the University of Oxford.
She regularly speaks about regeneration, responsible technology, homelessness prevention, impact investment, and place-based development. Her public engagement has included London Tech Week, Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Liverpool programmes, and Urban Land Institute initiatives.
Education, speaking, and public leadership
University of Liverpool — Game ChangersUniversity of Liverpool — A Start-up with a ConscienceLondon Tech Week — SpeakerLondon Tech Week — Panel / AgendaEdinburgh Futures Institute — EFI HouseEdinburgh Futures Institute — Grand Bequest Research PartnershipUrban Land Institute — PropTech Innovation Challenge
ONE CONNECTED TEAM
One team. Different expertise. One shared purpose.
Each person brings a different view of the regeneration system. Together, the team connects the building, evidence, technology, finance, impact, community, and next decision.
Iyalla Dinney
Technology and product delivery across RegenerationOS™.
Zhao Zhang
Financial data, market evidence, and readiness intelligence.
Sulaiman Adrian
Impact investment analysis and Project Readiness evidence.
Syrine Seket
Community wellbeing research, lived experience, and social outcomes.
Kundan Shedge
Business development, relationships, and opportunity growth.
Eriko Onuki
Live research, rigorous learning, and evidence carried into future decisions.
READABLE PROFILES
People who make the shared picture useful.
Different disciplines, one practical commitment: make the evidence clearer and the next responsible move easier to see.
Dr Katherine Gunderson
Founder & CEO
Guides Grand Bequest’s strategy and brings people, evidence, technology, and capital together around valuable empty-building opportunities.
Iyalla Dinney
Technical Lead
Leads technical delivery and product development across RegenerationOS™, translating regeneration needs into dependable digital workflows.
Sulaiman Adrian
Impact Investment Analyst
Supports impact investment analysis, Project Readiness evidence, and the financial questions that help opportunities move responsibly.
Zhao Zhang
Financial Data Lead
Leads financial data work, helping turn property, market, and project information into clearer evidence for readiness decisions.
Syrine Seket
Community Wellbeing Researcher
Brings community wellbeing research into live regeneration questions so local needs, lived experience, and social outcomes remain visible.
Kundan Shedge
Business Development Lead
Develops relationships and routes to growth, connecting buildings, places, partners, and future delivery opportunities.
Eriko Onuki
Housing Policy Researcher
Contributes current research to Grand Bequest’s live regeneration learning and evidence base across NPF4, CPD2, and other policy frameworks.
TECHNOLOGY ENABLING SOCIAL GOOD
Technology that helps people do more good.
RegenerationOS™ helps people organise evidence, understand the opportunity, see who needs to contribute, and identify the next accountable action. Technology enables the shared view. People bring the judgement, relationships, care, and responsibility needed to move the building forward.
Data
Evidence
Shared understanding
Coordinated action
Social, environmental, and economic value
INDEPENDENT RECOGNITION
Recognition earned
Independent recognition reflects the different parts of the work: technology, environmental and social impact, regeneration, entrepreneurship, and leadership.
Three consecutive UK PropTech Association award years
UK PropTech Association · 2022–2024
Recognised by the UK PropTech Association for three consecutive years.
2022Environmental Impact and Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
2023Second consecutive UKPA award year
2024Tech for Good
Climate & Environmental Impact winner
Winner
Recognised for using financial technology to support environmental improvement and sustainability.
View the 2023 winnersCulture category winner
Awarded to Dr Katherine Gunderson and Grand Bequest
Recognition for a woman-led Scottish business using technology and entrepreneurship to help bring empty buildings back into use.
Read the award announcementGreen StartUp of the Year
Winner
Recognition of Grand Bequest’s environmentally focused regeneration model.
View the 2023 winnersEmpowerHer Award recipient
Award recipient — Dr Katherine Gunderson
Supported Katherine’s participation in the Oxford Real Estate Programme and further development in real-estate investment and fund design.
Read Katherine’s reflectionINDEPENDENT REPORTING
Featured journalism
Independent reporting has followed Grand Bequest’s development from early conservation technology to its current use of AI, data, and project evidence.
Grand Bequest | Regenerating Empty Buildings With AI and Data
A detailed interview with Katherine on Grand Bequest’s origins, its regeneration mission, and its use of AI and geospatial data.
Read the DIGIT featureEdinburgh Startup Creates Tech to Help Conserve Historic Buildings
Coverage of Grand Bequest’s early data-science development and work supported by The Data Lab.
Read the early technology featureCHECKABLE AUTHORITY
Selected public evidence
Venture Studio from Crisis invests in Grand Bequest
Crisis announced its investment in Grand Bequest to support technology that can help transform empty buildings into social and affordable housing opportunities.
Read the Crisis announcementSelected for the REACH UK technology scale-up programme
Grand Bequest was selected as one of seven companies in the 2023 REACH UK cohort.
View the cohort announcementLIVE RESEARCH
Research connected to real places
Empty-building regeneration crosses housing, homelessness, heritage, climate, finance, data, planning, public policy, community wellbeing, and local economic development. Our research helps connect those perspectives to real places, better evidence, and practical decisions.
RegenerationOS™ in action
Circularity, feasibility, and investment readiness for net-zero cities.
Belonging Multiplier
Empty buildings, temporary accommodation, safer journeys from school, and the conditions children need to belong.
Turning places into pathways
How empty buildings can connect local people to skills, jobs, enterprise, and long-term opportunity.
RESEARCH PLACEMENTS AND COLLABORATIONS
Research with a route into practice
We welcome students, researchers, professors, universities, and practitioners who want their work to contribute to better decisions around real buildings and places. Tell us what you are studying, the stage you have reached, and the kind of contribution or collaboration you have in mind.
Where there is a strong fit, we will connect you with the most relevant Grand Bequest team member, help shape a useful next step, and explore how the work could connect with a current regeneration question.
- Housing need, homelessness, and temporary accommodation
- Empty-building data and decision intelligence
- AI as an enabler of accountable public and professional decisions
- Regeneration finance, viability, and blended capital
- Heritage adaptation, circularity, and embodied carbon
- Community wellbeing, lived experience, and social value
- Planning, public policy, and systems coordination
- Local economic development, skills, jobs, and enterprise
- Impact measurement and social return on investment
- Introduce your study or research interest
- Share your institution, stage, and timing
- Explain the contribution you hope to make
- Explore a practical next step with the team
- Connect the work to a real building or place where appropriate
WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE
Find your place in the work
People come to Grand Bequest from different starting points. Choose the path that best reflects what you want to contribute, and we will help route your enquiry to the right person or platform.
Research, study, and academic collaboration
For students, postgraduate researchers, professors, universities, and practitioners interested in placements, dissertations, theses, research briefs, applied projects, or longer-term collaboration.
Placements, dissertations, and theses
Tell us what you are studying, your institution and stage of study, the timing you are working towards, and how you hope your work could support regeneration in practice.
Interested in joining the team?
We are building a multidisciplinary company around regeneration, technology, data, finance, impact, research, community, and delivery. We are not always actively recruiting, but we welcome thoughtful introductions from people who believe they could strengthen the work.
Grand Bequest grows by bringing together people who can see different parts of the system and still work towards one shared outcome. Relevant experience may come from technology, data, regeneration, finance, investment, research, housing, heritage, community work, design, delivery, or another field that helps places move forward.
Current vacancies will be described clearly when available. General introductions are welcomed through the form below.
Champion a building or place
For residents, owners, community members, and local champions who know a building or place with unrealised potential, the clearest first step is to explore the building pipeline through RegenerationOS™.
Professional and delivery collaboration
For councils, building owners, investors, funders, designers, contractors, research organisations, technology teams, and other potential partners who want to explore a specific opportunity or contribution.