One of the main players behind the transformation of London Docklands into a powerful financial centre is stepping back after nearly four decades.
George Iacobescu is retiring as the chair of Canary Wharf Group next month, to be replaced by the former L&G chief executive Nigel Wilson.
The move comes as a number of high-profile tenants plan to leave the area, but Iacobescu said it was still “a thriving community in the heart of the old East End”.
He added: “With the continuing growth of the tech sector, health and life sciences, new leisure activities and the greening of the Wharf, there are exciting times ahead for the estate.”
Born in Romania in 1945, Iacobescu grew up, like many Romanians at the time, with very little money under the ruling communist government.
He once said his mother-in-law had to bring her own lightbulb to a medical operation. This was the only bulb in her home, and meant her flat was left in the dark for the day.
He initially wanted to be a doctor like his father but was pushed to take up engineering after the latter told him to get into construction because “the world will never stop building”.
Taking his father’s words to heart, he studied civil engineering in Bucharest. After working as a structural engineer in Romania between 1969 and 1975, he was able to leave the country for Canada after getting help from a relative in North America.
While in Canada, he got a job with the developer Olympia & York (O&Y) and was heavily involved in building Chicago’s Olympia Centre skyscraper and the vast World Financial Centre in New York.
His relationship with what would become London’s new financial district began in 1987, when he was sent to London from Toronto by the O&Y founder Paul Reichmann to investigate whether it was feasible to build on the abandoned docklands site.
The site had been designated an enterprise zone by Margaret Thatcher, with her government offering generous tax breaks to investors and promising to extend London Underground lines to the site.
On visiting the site that had been derelict for years, he got lost for more than two hours, and concluded when he got back to Canada that O&Y “shouldn’t touch the site”. Reichmann ignored him, pushed ahead with the project, and Iacobescu was made its construction director.
After four years, his initial misgivings were nearly proved right. Delays to the promised Jubilee line and Docklands Light Railway left Canary Wharf without important transport links, which stymied investment.
After a property crash in 1992, banks refused O&Y credit and it had to file for bankruptcy, placing Canary Wharf into administration.
Reichmann was able to persuade investors to support him to buy back Canary Wharf in 1995 for £800m. By 1997, Iacobescu had become the chief executive, a role he would hold until 2021, while also taking on the chair role in 2011.
During that time, Canary Wharf has grown to become one of the largest urban regeneration projects in Europe, now containing 6,000,000 sq ft (1,500,000m2) of office and retail space, and the main workplace for 120,000 workers before the Covid pandemic. His services were rewarded with a knighthood in 2012, becoming the only Romanian-born British citizen to receive the honour.
However, his tenure has not been without its challenges.
He was at the helm when Canary Wharf Group floated in 1999 and was also in charge in 2004, when an 11-month bidding war led to Morgan Stanley taking control of it from the the investment fund Brascan, which had the backing of Reichmann.
He also led Canary Wharf Group when it was bought by Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth fund and Canadian Brookfield Properties for £2.6bn in 2015. The deal would take it private again.
His biggest hurdle in recent times has been the pandemic and the increase in working from home, which has hit the office market. This has prompted announcements by the likes of HSBC, which had occupied its own tower since 2002, and Clifford Chance that they would leave the area.