People: Kendrick Homes; PKF Smith Cooper; Prohire
Kendrick Homes’ new Head of Sales has started 2025 with a flurry of new sales and is expecting a strong year for the developer after it launched several new developments.
Kirsty Darby, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the property sector, is setting her sights on increasing the Black Country firm’s revenues over the next twelve months with several high-profile schemes progressing well and new sites in Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire ready to hit the market.
She has considerable experience of the sector and strong personal management and mentoring strengths and will use these attributes to lead from the front when it comes to sales and marketing and branding.
Darby said: “This is an exciting time to be joining Kendrick Homes, one of the UK’s oldest house builders with a great reputation for delivering high quality properties and communities.
“The family-run feel of the business really attracted me to the role and the fact I can help shape the business in its sixth generation of ownership. We can make decisions quickly and our pipeline of new land has a lot of exciting new schemes in much sought-after areas.
“I’m also extremely passionate about ‘women in construction’ and want to use my senior leadership position to get more females interested in working in our sector and with our business.”
Harrison Wright
PKF Smith Cooper has welcomed a new R&D Tax Manager to its Birmingham team, continuing the growth of the specialist team.
Harrison Wright joins the firm from CBTax where he started his career as a Tax Associate and was promoted to Manager in under five years. He has experience in supporting a wide range of companies, working with both the SME and RDEC schemes, in the turnkey delivery of successful and robust R&D claims.
Harrison has specialised in R&D tax relief for almost five years and has gained a deep understanding of how the scheme can help businesses in a variety of industries, including engineering, motorsport, manufacturing, and construction. He also has experience in assessing and identifying the various differing tax treatments of R&D expenditure and can ensure that claims are completed efficiently for clients.
The recruitment of Harrison comes only two months after the hire of R&D Tax Director Felix Key at PKF Smith Cooper and further strengthens the specialist tax service the firm offers across the East and West Midlands.
On joining PKF Smith Cooper, Harrison commented: “I’m excited to meet everyone, hit the ground running in supporting clients and to strengthen the firm’s already thriving R&D services!”
Gary Devonshire, Tax Advisory Partner and head of innovation and property taxes at PKF Smith Cooper, commented: “As the firm continues to grow every year, we are excited to be investing in talented individuals with specialist knowledge and experience. Harrison’s expertise is a great asset to the team and our clients, and I am thrilled to have him onboard.”
Marc Pallagi, Stephen Croxford, Ashley Gunnell, Stuart Haskins and Ian Mansley
Stoke-on-Trent-based Prohire, a provider of sustainable commercial vehicle hire and fleet management solutions, has made five new appointments to its operations team as part of its commitment to providing industry-leading customer service.
Stephen Croxford joins as operations manager to lead the teams responsible for maximising uptime and compliance of the 3,000-strong Prohire fleet, which includes vehicles from its alternative fuels division Progreen. Stephen has over 20 years’ experience in the sector and joins from Hexagon Leasing where he was rental operations manager. Prior to that he was maintenance and compliance manager at Rivus Fleet Solutions.
Heading up Prohire’s dedicated compliance team is Marc Palaggi, who held the same role at Hexagon Leasing for seven years. Mark’s team will proactively liaise with customers and suppliers to make service bookings to ensure that all vehicles are complaint. The team is supported by state-of-the-art digital technology which ensures that each customer has their data, details and bookings available via a single portal.
Responsible for the customer liaison team covering breakdowns and defects is Ashley Gunnell who joins from Enterprise Flex-E-Rent where he worked for six years, most recently as maintenance supervisor for the company’s Ireland fleet. Tasked with maximising uptime for customers, Ashley and his team will ensure customers receive proactive updates on any vehicles that are off the road, ensuring they are aware of the progress being made and when they can expect them to be back in service.
Joining the operations team as workshop controller is Ian Mansley who has 24 years’ industry experience. Ian will be responsible for loading the workshop to make sure productivity and workshop utilisation are at a high, delivering on compliance and customer satisfaction. Ian’s role is pivotal in getting customer vehicles back onto the road as efficiently and safely as possible. Prior to joining Prohire, Ian was VOR team leam leader at Hexagon Leasing.
As rental operations manager for Prohire’s 400-strong Proflex national rental fleet, Stuart Haskins will ensure the full range of light and heavy commercial vehicles are always available for customers. This involves managing the day-to-day duties of the company’s drivers and valets and liaising with workshop control to ensure vehicles are turned around for customers to minimise downtime. Stuart has 13 years’ experience in commercial fleet management, most recently as fleet maintenance controller at Allport Group.
Dean Bailey, operations director at Prohire, said: “Whether a vehicle is part of a fully managed fleet or within our ready-to-rent line, we’re committed to making sure each and every one is available to our customers as much as possible, so that uptime is as close to 100% as we can achieve; as well as fully legally compliant.
“Stephen, Marc, Ashley, Ian and Stuart are at the forefront of offering industry-leading customer service through the best customer journey possible and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them to the team.”
