Property Movers & Shakers June 2022
1 July 2022
PrimeResi brings LonRes the monthly headlines on key property recruitment and business moves from June 2022.
Guy Gittins has left the top job at Chestertons to join rival firm Foxtons – where he started his property career. He is due to take over from Nic Budden as Group CEO from 5th September. Budden has already stepped down from the role he’s held since 2014. Non-Exec Director Peter Rollings – a former Managing Director of Foxtons and CEO of Marsh & Parsons – is interim CEO until Gittins takes charge. Chestertons’ long-standing Head of Lettings, Richard Davies, has taken charge of the company as Interim Managing Director following Guy Gittins’ surprise departure. Knight Frank has promoted 75 employees to partner level, and 127 to Associate across the business services, commercial and resi divisions. The total of 201 is the largest number of promotions in the firm’s recent history. Carter Jonas has promoted six of its people to Group Partner level and created 17 new Partners. Those stepping up include David Ruddock (Group Partner, Residential, London), Kirsty Watts (Partner, Residential, Cambridge) and Edward Westmacott (Partner, Residential, Newbury). LSL’s estate agency boss, Helen Buck, will retire form the business in March 2023. The search for a new Executive Director (Estate Agency) is underway. Prime Central London property firm Aldersley London has recruited a Sales Director for its new residential sales division, bringing in Barnaby Goss from Marsh & Parsons 25-office Fisher German has merged with five-office commercial real estate firm Matthews & Goodman, creating one of Britain’s biggest property consultancies. The combined business – which will trade under the Fisher German brand – has a turnover approaching £60mn, employs over 750 people, and operates from 29 offices. Andrew Bridge is Managing Partner at Fisher German. Savills has installed a new head of sales at its recently-opened branch in Teddington, SW London. Daniel Killick has taken on the director-level role, after making the move from Chestertons. Property industry heavyweight Peter Everett is returning to the “sharp end” of estate agency, joining Savills as head of the Rickmansworth office. Everett started his career in the same town nearly 40 years ago. He went on to spend a decade with Hamptons, rising to become Head of Sales from 2017 to 2020, responsible for the 49 office network outside of London. More recently, he was Head of Agency at proptech firm Offr, then spent a year as Commercial Director of Savills-backed hybrid estate agency Yopa. Savills has also added another experienced name to its Private Office team, giving Harry Goodson-Wickes, head of the firm’s Northern Gulf operation, an additional role. And Savills has opened two new outposts on the French Riviera, in Cannes and St Tropez. The Cannes office is being run by Sylvain Boichut, who recently joined Savills from John Taylor. The new Saint-Tropez office is the second office in the town, and will be headed by Elodie Marchi – who recently re-joined Savills following a stint at Beauchamp Estates. Former Jackson-Stops lettings manager Emma Mills has joined broker-model estate agency Harding Green in Hampshire. BNP Paribas Real Estate has promoted Stephanie McMahon to the newly-created role of Head of Strategy, reporting directly to CEO Etienne Prongué. Vanessa Hale has stepped up to become Head of Research & Insights, and Matt Henderson has been recruited to run Strutt & Parker’s residential research division. Strutt & Parker has also bolstered its national county house department with two new recruits. Annabel Blackett and Alice Luxmoore-Styles have both joined the Chelsea-based division at associate-level. Upper-end Connells Group-owned estate agency John D Wood & Co has moved into a new HQ, taking up residence at 15 Belgrave Square in Belgravia. Connells Group has recruited a new Chief Technology Officer, hiring Julie Chapman from FTSE 100 gambling giant Entain, which owns Ladbrokes, Coral and Foxy Bingo. JLL has recruited David Duke to head up its international resi division in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Duke spent 17 years at big-name firms including Savills, Marsh & Parsons and Strutt & Parker, before launching his own venture – Duke Associates – in 2018, focusing on sales and acquisitions across London and the South. Dom Scott, Managing Director of Foxtons’ mortgage business Alexander Hall, is to leave the firm next month. He’ll be handing over the leadership reins to Tom Davies on 15th July. Major planning consultancy Lichfields has recruited a new Planning Director, as the firm marks its 60th anniversary. Ben Simpson moves from GL Hearn, where he was a Director. West End law firm Seddons has made a trio of moves within its Real Estate department. Rob Brooks in the Real Estate Finance team and Nick Mann in the Residential Real Estate team have been promoted to partner level. At the same time, Commercial Real Estate partner Christian Taylor re-joins Seddons, after eight years away with JMW LLP. The boss of super-prime London property developer Northacre, Niccolò Barattieri di San Pietro, has resigned from the company after nine years “to pursue a new business venture. Walid El Hindi, a Northacre board member and CEO of Real Estate at SHUAA, is taking over the leadership role in the interim, alongside the wider senior management team. Two of Central London’s biggest landowners are set to merge, creating a £5bn West End property empire comprising some of the capital’s most famous locations. Capital & Counties Plc and Shaftesbury Plc have reached agreement on the terms of an all-share merger to create “Shaftesbury Capital Plc”. Housebuilder Berkeley Group has named its new chairman. Ex-Schroders chief Michael Dobson will be taking over from Glyn Barker, who took the reins on an interim basis in July 2020 following the passing of the firm’s influential founder Tony Pidgley . The Earls Court Development Company has hired a number of big-hitters to help deliver its vast regeneration project. Aoife McEvoy has joined from Battersea Power Station Development Company, where she spent five years as development director. Ben Giddens has been recruited from Argent Related, where he was development director. Benedict Keehan has made the move from EcoWorld, having led the final two resi phases of the new Brentford Football Stadium regeneration as well as a resi development in Tulse Hill in JV with Network Rail. Former Foster + Partners associate director Sharon Giffen is also on board, bringing over 20 years of experience leading design on large masterplans and mixed-use schemes. Michael Sears and Mish Liyanage have stepped up to lead Propertymark’s lettings and sales divisions, joining Boards of the ARLA and NAEA. Sears is Managing Director of Sealeys Estate Agents. Liyanage is Managing Director of The Mistoria Group. The Government’s housing agency, Homes England, has recruited its first ever Chief Operating Officer. Kirsty Shaw is currently COO of the Care Quality Commission. She will move to Homes England in September, to work alongside CEO Peter Denton.ESTATE AGENTS
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