People: Business support company recruits commercial director; Property investment and development surveyor hire for CRT; and more

BUSINESS support company fds Director Services, which is based in Wakefield with offices in London and Birmingham, has expanded its team with the addition of Gillian Van Laarhoven as the company’s commercial director.  

Ms Van Laarhoven has more than 20 years’ executive board experience across global businesses.  She has worked in SMEs, private businesses and PLCs with revenues ranging from £5m to £500m, successfully identifying, developing and executing strategies, which capitalise on growth opportunities or drive performance improvement.  

fds said her strong financial and business acumen and diverse experiences in leading multimillion projects means she is well placed to support the company with its ambitious growth and development plans.

CEO Jo Haigh said: “I am thrilled that Gillian has joined the team here at fds, her experience alone presents such an incredible asset to the business and will allow us to expand the services we can offer to local and national businesses. We are so lucky to have someone of her expertise on the team and I just can’t wait to see what the future hold for us.”

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CRT Property Investments, a subsidiary of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, has appointed undergraduate Connor Rogers as property investment and development surveyor to support the company over a 12-month period.

Mr Rogers, who is on a placement year as part of his degree studying Property Finance and Investment at Nottingham Trent University, will assist property investment and development director Shaun O’Brien in managing the company’s growing portfolio, while also helping with the delivery of current and future developments.

Mr O’Brien said: “It is great to have Connor on-board, he is already proving to be a valuable asset to the business.

“We have a lot of exciting projects coming up over the next year that will make a massive difference to the coalfield communities throughout England. I’m confident that working on these will give Connor a great insight into the property business and will also showcase how, as a charity, we approach our longer-term sustainability through purchase, development and asset transfer.”

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LEEDS-based design and build contractor Think Utility Services has expanded its maintenance division with the appointment of Rachel Rose as maintenance operations manager.

Ms Rose joins from Kier and will oversee routine testing and emergency call outs for the firm’s maintenance clients nationwide.

Managing director Chris Paddey said the latest appointment would set the scene for further growth of the firm’s maintenance and compliance teams.

“We have won some significant maintenance contracts over the past 12 months including Yorkshire tourism venues Lightwater Valley and Castle Howard,” he said.

“Demand for planned protective maintenance remains strong and Rachel’s role will be to project manage the operational side of our safety auditing, testing, repair and fast response services.

“We will continue to expand our team by recruiting qualified electricians, plumbers and Gas Safe engineers as well as investing further in our successful in house apprenticeship programme.”