David Stewart Howitt (former staff)
David Stewart Howitt (UK) is the executive chairman of Castle European Estates, a specialist emerging markets asset management company focusing on the transition economies of eastern Europe. He has been actively involved in transition and emerging Europe for over 15 years, including working for organisations as diverse as the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was responsible for implementation of policy aimed at the restoration of all property to their rightful owners. He is intimately familiar with property rights and land issues throughout the region and has also dealt with market and political reform processes whilst working for the European Commission. Fluent in Serbo-Croatian, David is recognised as an expert on the region and is a regular speaker on transition, investment and real estate in the region. On returning to the UK in 2000 he worked for a period for the London School of Economics and Political Science before becoming a founding director of Emerging Markets Advisory Corp Ltd (EMAC), a specialist emerging markets fund management company. He left EMAC in 2008 to become Castle European Estates' full-time Executive Chairman. David is one of ESI's founding members.