People: Bevan Brittan; Sama Investments

Sarah Innes

National law firm Bevan Brittan has begun 2024 with a senior addition to its energy and resource management team, recruiting its latest specialist in Birmingham.

Sarah Innes joins as a Legal Director from Bexley Beaumont. She brings more than 20 years of experience as well as a track record of advising on high-value complex infrastructure projects.

She also spent two years as senior legal counsel to the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and has held senior roles at her previous firms including Gunnercooke and Clifford Chance.

Sarah is the latest addition to boost Bevan Brittan’s energy offering. Its pre-Christmas new starters included solicitor Ricardo Johnson who also joined the firm’s 100-strong Birmingham team in its new City Centre office in Church Street.

A further reinforcement to the team came as former trainee Natalie Cernuschi qualified as a solicitor at the turn of the year and has now joined the energy practice on a permanent basis.

Nadeem Arshad, head of the Bevan Brittan’s energy and resource management team said: “Energy and decarbonisation projects of all sizes and scales will be at the forefront of all organisations’ strategies for the next few decades and we are certainly seeing a very significant increase in the number of public and private sector leadership teams seeking our advice.

“Sarah brings valuable experience of higher value complex projects which will add important breadth and depth to the experience we already have in a wide range of energy issues in our team, which now numbers more than 50 people.

“The amount of work we will be doing for clients will increase in 2024 and much further beyond that. Whether they are developers, investors, funders, utilities, corporate businesses or public sector bodies, net zero and energy issues will be core to every organisation’s planning.

“That will mean further growth opportunities for the team and further hires to meet increasing client requests for advice in both established markets like EV charging infrastructure, solar and battery, district heating networks and energy from waste, as well as in new sectors such as hydrogen and carbon capture.”

 

Richard Bowen

Sama Investments, a Birmingham-based residential developer and investor, has appointed Richard Bowen as Head of Real Estate & Development.

Bowen brings over 20 years’ experience within the property and development industry, working within residential, retail, leisure, and commercial sectors. Joining from American-based property company, Cortland Partners, Bowen was formerly UK Development Director.

He has also held senior roles at CLS Holdings PLC, and Spenhill Regeneration, responsible for the delivery of Tesco’s mixed-use property portfolio across London and the Southeast.

Bowen will now support the delivery of Sama Investments significant development pipeline across the UK, with a focus on the West Midlands and other regional cities.

Bilal Ahmed, Executive Chairman & Founder at Sama Investments, said: “Richard is an experienced property and development specialist who will enable us to scale and deliver our significant development pipeline. 2024 is an important year for us and Richard will play a key role in supporting our growth.”

Richard Bowen, Head of Real Estate & Development at Sama Investments, said: “Sama Investments has an ambitious portfolio of regeneration projects across the West Midlands and UK, and I am excited to be playing my part in enabling delivery alongside the already excellent team.

“Alongside this, I am looking forward to identifying and progressing new real estate and development opportunities to create further long-lasting value for communities as Sama Investments continues to grow as one of the UK’s most exciting regional players.”

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