John David Burns CBE (born May 1944) is a British chartered surveyor and property developer, founder and CEO of the FTSE 250-listed Derwent London.
[3] In 1961, Burns joined Hillier Parker as a property negotiator.
In 1974, he became a senior partner in the estate agency Pilcher Hershman.
[2][4] In 1984, Burns was looking for a shell company to manage his property interests and chose the Derwent Valley Light Railway Company, which was then the owner of a few disused railway stations and valued at £1.5m.
[2] In 1997, his daughter Claire married the billionaire property developer Richard Livingstone.