Louis Armstrong, Chief Executive, The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors


Louis Armstrong has been CEO of RICS since 1998. Founded in 1868, and granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1881, RICS is the world’s largest and most respected professional Real Estate, Standards, Qualification and Regulation organisation. It has an annual turnover of US$110 M; 150,000 members (90,000 fully qualified professionals, plus 60,000 students and trainees) in 146 countries; and some 600 staff working with RICS National Associations in 40 countries. RICS provides the leading international qualification in land, property, construction and related environmental issues.

Louis is an Oxford University graduate, with a Degree in Jurisprudence; qualified as a Barrister; and is a former Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy. He now concentrates on external relations, public policy issues affecting real estate, and on the further international development of RICS as a global organisation. He has spoken at conferences from Australia to China, Malaysia to Munich, and UK to North America on topics as diverse as professionalism after Enron; the impact of terrorism on real estate; ‘winning cities’; global investment trends; and climate change and the built environment.