Property Movers & Shakers March 2023

13 March 2023

Estate Agencies

Foxtons has acquired four-branch estate agency Atkinson McLeod, which operates across Central and East London with a strong focus on lettings, for £7.4mn. Read more

Savills stalwart Riyan Itani has moved on from the business to launch his own venture – a specialist independent consultancy for the branded residential sector, called Global Branded Residences. Itani spent 18 years with Savills, rising from Graduate Surveyor in the Cambridge office to lead the Global Residential Development Consultancy out of the London HQ. Read more

Knight Frank has brought in Savills’ Sarah-Jane (SJ) Bingham-Chick to head up its sales operation in the South Hams and Cornwall. Bingham-Chick spent the last ten years at Savills, rising from associate director to director and head of residential in 2017, covering Devon and West Somerset. She was previously a manager at Devon-based agency Marchand Petit. Read more

Charles Jordan has been brought in to lead an expansion of Winkworth’s new homes division throughout London, followed by a roll-out across the regions. He has joined from London agency Fraser & Co, where he handled prime new developments. Read more

Savills has recruited a new team member to its Private Office. James Moor moves over from the agency’s country house department to take up the new position of Global Relationship Manager, based out of the Private Office hub on Sloane Street. Read more

Savills has boosted its operation in Newbury, Berkshire with two key hires. Deborah Giacobbi has been brought in as head of residential sales, having led the sales team at Hamptons in Newbury for the last seven years. Victoria Anderson-Stewart has also joined the branch, returning at associate director-level after spells in the USA and at Knight Frank. Read more

Ashley Conaghan has joined Savills as Head of Client Services, moving from Johns&Co - where she established the client services department while overseeing the estate agency’s international offices. Read more

And 305 of Savills’ fee-earners in the UK have been promoted. A total of 117 people have moved up to Associate, 110 to Associate Director and 78 to Director level across the various business divisions. Read more

Marsh & Parsons – which was acquired by Dexters earlier this year – has created a new “Client Management Director” role, recruiting Fiona Mongey from Bective to ensure the estate agency “continues to offer the highest level of customer service to its clients. Read more

Well-known West London estate agency Douglas & Gordon, which started life on Sloane Square back in 1958, has reportedly called-in administrators. This comes a year after Foxtons offloaded the sales arm of the business and its branches to CEO James Evans, having absorbed the profitable lettings portfolio. Read more

Rokstone founder Becky Fatemi has been selected to join the Summers Global Team at Compass, the top-ranking brokerage in the US, to cover Prime Central London for the 16-strong network of super-prime international brokers. Read more

Chestertons has appointed a Chief Data Officer to bolster the estate agency’s use of property market analysis to give it a “competitive advantage across the London sales and lettings market.” David Colvin has been promoted from Head of Web and Data to the CDO role. He was previously Head of Market Analysis at John D Wood & Co, then moved to Chestertons in 2016. Read more

LSL’s Non-Exec Chairman, Bill Shannon, will retire in May. The Plc has started the search for a successor. Read more

 

Buying Agencies

Charlotte Strang has launched a new buying agency, Strang & Co, covering the Bristol, Bath, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire area. She was formerly an Associate Director at Savills in Prime Central London, having started her career with the firm as a Graduate Surveyor in 2008. Read more

 

Developers & Design

Luxury property development and design firm Banda has brought in a new Partner to “drive forward new areas of growth”. Tom Dailey spent the last 15 years with Knight Frank, most recently as Head of Prime Development Strategy and Finance. Read more

London-based design house Morpheus & Co has brought in a new Managing Director and Associate Director to oversee an international expansion drive. New MD Antonio Quesada, originally from Spain, has been heading up the architectural department at Kelly Hoppen Interiors for the last five years; he was previously at Hill House Interiors. Winyu Chantadara is in as AD, responsible for overseeing the creative direction of the studio. Read more

Property developer Far East Consortium – which runs the Dorsett hotel brand alongside resi- and mixed-use schemes – has hired an ESG Manager to steer its sustainability agenda. Faye Dasi-Sutton has a remit to “drive the business towards carbon-neutral construction and operation” and to “drive positive social and environmental change” more generally. She previously worked as Environmental Manager at the London Stock Exchange Group under EDP UK. Read more

 

Planning & Consultancy

JLL has hired Benjamin Hobart to head up its resi development team covering the City, East and North London. Hobart has spent the last four years at Savills, building the firm’s resi development offering in East and North London. Read more

Oxford-Cambridge Arc property consultancy Bidwells has appointed a new Chief Operating Officer to steer the 184-year-old business through its “most transformative decade yet.” Kelly Bream previously spent nine years as Operations Director at housebuilder Berkeley Group before moving to Navana Property Group as COO, then co-founding build-to-rent consultancy VervLife in 2021. Read more

Planning and development consultancy Montagu Evans is “increasing its focus on the housing sector”, and has recruited a residential land specialist to help the process. Richard Thomas moves from Cushman & Wakefield, where he was a partner leading the London and South East land team, with responsibility for Residential, Student and Co-Living land transactions. Read more

 

International Women’s Day - 8 March 2023

PrimeResi asked leaders from across the property sector to share their inspirational career stories and favourite words of wisdom, to mark last month’s IWD 2023… Featuring Liza-Jane Kelly, Head of London Residential at Savills; Priya Rawal, Founder and CEO at The Luxury Property Forum; Linda Morey-Burrows, Founder and Principal Director of interior design and architecture firms MoreySmith and StudioMorey; Camilla Dell, Managing Director of buying agency Black Brick Property Solutions; Jane Cronwright-Brown, Head of UK Lettings at Savills; Jo Eccles, Founder and Managing Director of prime London buying agency Eccord; Phillippa Dalby-Welsh, Head of Savills Country Department; Mel Constantinou, Regional Partner at Knight Frank; Polly Ogden Duffy, Managing Director of London estate agency John D Wood; Juliet Goldin, Associate Director of advisory and property management company Rhodium; Becky Fatemi, CEO and Founder of PCL estate agency Rokstone; Charu Gandhi Pominkiewicz, Founder & Director of interior design studio Elicyon; Jane Wagner, Director of development management consultancy Walton Wagner; Megan Steele-Knowles, Group Brand and Communication Director of construction firm Knowles; Sally Maier-Yip, Founder and Managing Director of international marketing firm 11K Consulting; Ahlya Rafique Fateh, Managing Director at design studio Louise Bradley Interiors; Toyah Simpson, Consultant at PR & communications firm Maison Communications; Grace Willcocks, Head of Commercial at interiors collective Burbeck Group; Laura Conduit, Partner at London law firm Farrer & Co LLP; Sarah McIntyre, Head of Lettings at Knightsbridge estate agency Harrods Estates; Jenny Naylor, Founder & Director of independent consulting firm Graf London; Claire Sa, Co-founder of architecture and design practice De Rosee Sa; Rossana Miles, Associate Director of London and Winchester-based architects ADAM Architecture. Read more