The board of directors of Lavastone Properties is made up of 9 Mauritian professionals, and is chaired by Colin Taylor, who acts as Non-Executive Director. The other members have different roles. 4 others act as non-executive directors, one managing director, and 3 independent directors:
Chairman and non-executive Director
Colin holds an MSc in Management from Imperial College, London, and a BSc (Hons) in Engineering with Business Studies from Portsmouth Polytechnic. He is the Chairman and CEO of Taylor Smith Investment Ltd, a diversified group of companies involved in Marine Services, Logistics and Distribution, Manufacturing, Services, and Property. Colin is the Honorary Consul of Sweden in Mauritius.
Directorship in other listed companies: Cim Financial Services Ltd
Managing Director
Nicolas Vaudin holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Hospitality Administration from Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, USA and an MBA from Surrey European Management School, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
He joined the Cim Group as Managing Director of the Cim Property cluster in February 2017. After a rebranding and a restructuring of the Cim Property cluster, Lavastone Ltd became listed on the DEM in December 2018, following which Nicolas was appointed as its Managing Director.
Prior to joining the Cim Group, Nicolas had spent over 6 years at Ciel Properties Ltd and another 6 at PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd.
Directorship in other listed companies: None
Non-executive Director
Sebastian holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and Politics from the University of Western Australia, and a Master’s in Business from Bond University, Australia. Sebastian gained international experience in the UK, working for Quilter Cheviot Investment Management before joining Scott Investments Ltd as Investment Manager in 2017. Sebastian is also a Director on the Board of Cim Finance Ltd, Scott and Company Limited and Scott Health Ltd.
Directorship in other listed companies: None
Independent Director
Shyam is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland. Between 1988 and 2015, he was the Senior Assurance Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd, responsible for a large portfolio of offshore clients in the financial and real estate sectors. Shyam is also a director on the Board of other private sector companies.
Directorship in other listed companies: None
Independent Director
Jose graduated in Economics and also holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations. He has held several senior executive positions in the private sector in Mauritius, before serving 23 years in government at several senior roles, including Minister of Tourism. He has advised governments in Madagascar and Africa, and has also been a Member of the National Assembly for 5 consecutive terms.
Directorship in other listed companies: None
Non-executive Director
Ann Charlotte Vallet currently serves as director on the Board of Taylor Smith Investment Ltd, a privately-owned family business based in Mauritius with some activities in the Seychelles and Rodrigues.
She is also the Chairperson and Manager of Taylor Smith Foundation, an entity created in 2010 through the Taylor Smith Group. The aim of the Taylor Smith Foundation is to promote education and youth development, the empowerment of women and families, sports and the protection of the environment. Ann Charlotte has been working for the foundation for the last eleven years.
Ann Charlotte holds a BTEC National Diploma in Travel & Tourism from “The College for the Distributive Trades” in London and a Cordon Bleu Diploma from "Winkfield Place" in Windsor.
She has held various positions such as commercial coordinator for Mautourco Ltd, assistant to the manager for L’Ile Aux Images, sales coordinator for Air Mauritius and manager of ACV Ltd.
Independent Director
Ruby Saha holds an LLB (Hons) from the University of London and a Diploma in Code Civil Mauricien from Université de La Réunion. She also holds a BA (Hons) degree in Geography and an MSC in Town Planning from the University of Wales.
Ruby is a qualified Barrister at law in private legal practice, with 13 years’ standing at the bar. She has worked as consultant to the Decentralised Cooperation Programme of the European Union and to United Nations Development Programme Mauritius. She has performed the function of Chief Technical Officer at the Ministry of Housing and Land Use Planning of Mauritius.
Directorship in other listed companies: none
Non-executive Director
Philip currently heads the development of a fast growing hospitality technology service “start-up” by the name of www.hospitality-plus.travel.
After completing a BSC in Hotel Management at the University of Surrey (England) in 1989 and an MBA in Corporate Finance in 1994 also at the University of Surrey, Philip moved to Mauritius and headed the Rogers Group’s international development. In 2010, Philip set up a business development advisory firm with projects spanning from property development, energy, logistics, financial services to hospitality and tourism.
Philip is the Honorary Consul of Finland in Mauritius.
He currently serves as non-executive director on the Board of CIM Financial Services Ltd and is also a member of the Corporate Governance and Conduct Review Committee of CIM Financial Services Ltd
Alex holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Finance from the University of Manchester. He joined Lavastone Properties as Finance Manager in March 2020 and subsequently became the Financial Controller of the Group in October 2021. Before joining Lavastone Properties, he worked as an Accountant within Medine Limited’s property cluster from May 2017 to March 2020. Prior to that, from August 2013 to April 2017, Alex was a Senior Associate within the assurance department at PwC Mauritius, where he was in charge of external audit assignments in sectors ranging from property and hospitality to textile, life insurance and petroleum.
Alex is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales (ICAEW).
After graduating with a Diploma in Tourism and Hospitality Management in 2009, Amaury gained experience as an Assistant F&B Manager working for several hotels, including La Pirogue and Preskil Island Resort. Amaury spent 2 years in Dubai working in yacht management services, before joining Lochiel Property Services Ltd in 2014.
Amaury joined Lavastone Properties as Field & Property Manager in 2017. In his current role, he is responsible for the land development and maintenance of the Group’s land assets in the South and West of Mauritius.
David joined Lochiel Property Services Ltd (now Lavastone Services) in 2018 as Facility Manager. A few months later, he was promoted to his current role as Facility and Project Manager.
He obtained his PFE in Value Engineering from Université des Mascareignes (Limoges) in 2014 and brings several years of experience in Civil Engineering. He began his career at PAD& Co Construction, where he chaperones several large-scale projects. He then joined Cogir Ltd for the So’Flo project and the extension of Charles Telfair Institute, after which he joined Enatt/Ascencia Ltd as the Operations Manager for the Phoenix Mall and Bagatelle Mall projects.
François graduated with a Civil Engineering Degree from Université Paul Sabatier, France, in 2010.
He then pursued his studies for a further 2 years, to obtain a Master’s in Engineering Management from Curtin University, Australia.
François started working for the Taylor Smith Group in 2013, and gained experience in property and facilities management.
He was promoted General Manager of Lochiel in 2017, responsible for the property and facilities management of Lavastone Properties and the Taylor Smith Group.
Kursen holds a BSc (Honours)in Quantity Surveying and an MSc in Property Studies from the University of Cape Town. He began his career as a Professional Quantity Surveyor at RLB in Cape Town for four years, before joining Medine Group in 2018 as a Junior Development Manager for another four years. He was initially responsible for the development and operational strategies for Cascavelle Shopping Mall, before being assigned the masterplanning, development and governance duties of Uniciti Smart City. He also worked on green energy projects and land management for the Group. Over his career, he has acquired a wide range of skills in the financial, legal and technical aspects of the supply side of the property sector.
Kursen joined Lavastone Properties as Development Manager in December 2021. He manages new developments, such as the masterplan for the Group’s land bank in the South West, pursues development and acquisition opportunities, and is also involved in the Group’s carbon footprint reduction strategy.
Leena brings over 10 years of experience in real estate. She began her career as Financial Controller at W D King Group in the UK, where she discovered a passion for the property industry while overseeing the finance and asset management department. Being part of the executive team, she played a major role in the development of a holiday resort in the Turks and Caicos Island.
She then spent four years as a Client Account Manager at LaSalle Investment Management, a leading real estate investment management firm investing in UK direct property on behalf of pension funds and other institutional investors.
Leena joined Lavastone as an Accountant and Asset Executive in December 2017, before filling the position of Lead in 2019 and being promoted to her current role of Property Manager in 2021.
Coralie Nicolin is the Commercial Administrator of Lavastone Group since March 2018.
She has worked for more than 10 years in a Family Artisanal Business as Sales and Administrative Coordinator. She was responsible of the supply chain cluster and stock control. She participated in the setting up of the production sector and was responsible for monitoring of deliveries. She also worked as Sales Executive in the Wine and Spirits sector from 2015 to 2018 concentrating on the development of the corporate portfolio.
Samantha has been in the office administration field since the last 11 years and has a profound knowledge in Professional IT skills, having acquired first class certificates in processing techniques in 2010. From 2007 through to 2018, she gained much experience professionally by assisting her superiors within the company and is recognized for her commitment. She joined Bluelife Limited; a real estate development company in Mauritius in 2011 as Front Office Assistant and was promoted to the post of Administrative Assistant following her dedication and hard work. She was thereafter involved in the management of an offshore office in Mauritius namely Attafrica Ltd from 2014 to 2018.
She has completed her ABE Higher Diploma in Business Management and has already acquired certifications in Customer Relationship and Human Resource.
