Shake-up at top of Manchester property agencies

A NUMBER of property consultancies in Manchester have had a shake-up of senior positions. The head of Colliers International’s Manchester office, Mike Walker, is to move to rival firm CBRE, where he will become a senior director in the firm’s industrial and logistics team.

Alongside heading Colliers’ Manchester office, Walker also headed the practice’s logistics and industrial agency team in the city. The latter role will now be filled by Julien Kenny-Levick, but Colliers said that it has yet to announce who will replace him as the overall Manchester office head.

Colliers International’s chief executive officer, Tony Horrell, said: “We would like to wish Mike the very best and thank him for his hard work at Colliers.

“Following our recent recruitment push, we have seen a number of external people, as well as internal candidates with the leadership skills to take on the role of head of the Manchester office and an appointment will be made in due course.”

Meanwhile, Colliers has recruited Nicholas Round from the Manchester office of retail specialist Tushingham Moore to become its national head of shopping centre leasing, based in Birmingham.

Savills has also announced that it has appointed Peter Mallinder as head of its Northern region and Patrick Joynson as head of its Manchester office.

The pair were two of three founder members of Savills’ Manchester office in 1996 alongside the firm’s commercial chairman Mark Ridley, but the office now employs 150 staff.

Savills said that current office head Howard Morgan was remaining with the business and would continue to run its building consultancy team in the city.

Mark Ridley, chairman and chief executive of Savills Commercial, said: “We owe Howard a big thank you for driving our team through some of the most challenging markets many will have worked in during their careers, and we are grateful for his leadership and support to the office whilst continuing to head his successful building consultancy team.

“As our northern operation looks to grow further, with Savills Manchester office the largest outside London, it was felt that dual responsibility leadership, with Peter and Patrick at the helm, is the best way of taking the office and region forward.”