Property Movers & Shakers August 2022
26 August 2022
PrimeResi brings LonRes the monthly headlines on key property recruitment and business moves from August 2022.
Foxtons star John Ennis is moving to Chestertons, to become Chief Executive Officer. Chestertons’ former chief exec Guy Gittins is due to take over as Group CEO of Foxtons in September. Ennis joined Foxtons in 1999 as a sales neg, before working his way up through the ranks. He took on his current role of Managing Director, Central London & New Homes in 2019, overseeing 14 central London offices and 14 new homes and investment departments. He will officially start his new position on 1st November. Chestertons has also recruited Matthew Thompson as head of sales. He moves from Keller Williams’ London operation, which he joined from Douglas & Gordon last year. Thompson had been Area Director at D&G since 2016, responsible for ten offices, and was previously at Foxtons in Brixton for nine years. Ed Woolgar has joined Russell Simpson as Head of Lettings, taking over from Charlie Woods. Woolgar moves from Strutt & Parker, where he spent the last three years as Lettings Director in South Kensington. Before that, he was Residential Lettings Director at Harrods Estates, and spent a number of years with Chestertons in central London, including spells as Director of corporate and short lets, Lettings Manager in Notting Hill Gate, and a year as an Associate Director managing sales around South Kensington, Chelsea, Earls Court and Knightsbridge. He started his career with Foxtons. Chris Nguyen has been promoted to Head of Lettings at Knight Frank in King’s Cross. He joined the agency from Canary Wharf-based Atkinson Mcleod in 2017. Knight Frank has expanded its regional Residential Development offering, adding a New Homes team in Cheltenham. Sarah McKinnon and Katy Reynolds have been brought in to run the show – both recruited from Savills. Knight Frank has also bolstered its rural team in Devon and Somerset, recruiting Florence Biss as a Senior Sales Negotiator in its Exeter office. Biss previously worked at Winkworth and Savills. Savills has promoted Charlotte Whitmarsh to Head of Lettings in Wimbledon. Whitmarsh joined the firm in 2020, having previously started and run Marsh & Parsons’ Streatham office. Savills has bolstered its resi sales team in Hertfordshire. Associate Director Jamie Gawthrop, Associate Abi Homer and Negotiator Kristy Grimstone have all joined the Bishop’s Stortford operation, which is led by office head Tim Phillips (pictured). Franchised estate agency Winkworth has opened another office in the South-west, moving into the market town of Crediton, near Exeter in Devon. This is the firm’s fifth branch in Devon, and the third for franchisee Chris Baker, who has acquired Carter Geering estate agents. Proptech and estate agency firm nurtur.group (which owns Fine & Country) has recruited OnTheMarket’s finance chief, Clive Beattie, as Chief Financial Officer. Daniel Harrington has been promoted to Managing Director of Global Growth at Fine & Country, while Ashley Harwood has been brought in as a new Business Development Manager. Fine & Country has opened a new outpost in South West London, by the river in Teddington. Elisard Malizi is running the show as Managing Director. He also runs F&C’s Turnham Green Terrace branch, alongside Managing Director Daniel Madden and Principal Director Ben Madden. Finlay Brewer International has recruited a new sales broker for its French outpost. Layan Mahshi previously worked at VIP Condo Brokers in Toronto, Canada, before launching a dating agency. More recently, she spent a year as a real estate agent with MDB Immo on the French Riviera. Leaders Romans Group has acquired the Isle of Wight’s biggest estate agency, Hose Rhodes Dickson. HRD’s three active directors – Matthew White, Marcus Waldron and Jamie Busby – will retain leadership roles within the business. 19-month-old hybrid estate agency The Agency has recruited a new partner. Beth Pollard is taking the brand into Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. Pollard started her property career in 2007, as a negotiator with Countrywide, before moving on to work with other major corporate agencies. She launched her own business, House and Home Bespoke, during the pandemic, providing property sales, lettings, lifestyle management and holiday homes across Leicestershire. Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, a network of top-end independent property firms, has named a new President of Global Operations. Chris Dietz has been with the business since 2011, becoming Executive Vice President of Global operations in 2016; he’s now stepped up to a full presidential position. David Forbes, founder and chairman of the Savills Private Office, and a titan of the prime property world, has died. He lost his battle with cancer and passed away in early August. Ivor Dickinson, the high-profile and much-loved former Managing Director of Douglas & Gordon, has died aged 64. The Royal Institute of British Architects has elected its next President; Muyiwa Oki will become RIBA President-Elect next month, before taking over the two-year presidential term from Simon Allford in September 2023. Oki is an architect at construction consultancy, Mace Group. The 31-year-old will be RIBA’s youngest ever President. The Planning Inspectorate has named Navees Rahman as Interim Chief Executive, filling in for Sarah Richards, who will step down early this autumn, after six years in the role. Luxury design firm Studio Indigo has added Olga Fox as an associate. She joins the Chelsea-based practice from Millier, where her projects included the delivery of the interior architecture and design of The Bryanston in collaboration with Rafael Viñoly. Accouter has embarked on an international expansion, launching new bases in New York and Dubai. Karis Samuelson will be heading up the new operation in New York’s Soho district. Aitch Group has appointed Christopher Chapman as a Senior Land Manager, Phoebe Juggins as Senior Planning Manager and Kenji Holdsworth as Planning Manager. The firm is on track to spend £100mn on land acquisitions across London and the South East of England in 2022. Dame Alison Nimmo DBE, a former chief executive of The Crown Estate, has joined Cadogan as a Non Executive Director. Cadogan has also recruited placemaking guru Giles Semper to drive a raft of new initiatives across Knightsbridge and Chelsea. Semper has joined the business from Go! Southampton, where he played a key role in the city’s bid to be a UK City of Culture 2025.ESTATE AGENTS
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