People: Lambert Smith Hampton; Skipton Group; Great Rail Journeys; and more
Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) has appointed Heather Aspin and Calum Morris as associate directors within its commercial property management team.
Both Aspin and Morris re-join LSH in Leeds having spent periods with Bruntwood and Q-Park, respectively.
Aspin, having previously joined LSH in 2016 as a graduate surveyor, spent the last two years at Bruntwood where she served as a property management surveyor, advising on service charge budgets across the firm’s northern portfolio.
Morris, who also originally joined LSH as a graduate, spent the last two years at national car park operator, Q-Park, managing its estate in a wide-ranging role.
The pair’s appointment follows the promotion of Greg Barraclough to director as LSH continues to strengthen its commercial property management offering in response to a pipeline of new instructions. The team is now 11 members strong across the Yorkshire region.
Katy Brindley, regional director and head of Yorkshire commercial property management, said: “It is great to welcome both Heather and Calum back to LSH.
“Having worked on the client side for the past few years, coupled with a deep understanding of our business, they are well placed to hit the ground running and continue to develop our offering across the region.”
Chris McCartney, HR director, added: “It gives us all great pleasure to see fantastic colleagues coming back to Lambert Smith Hampton having spent time away.
“We take great pride in our people and spend considerable amounts of time reviewing our talent programmes to deliver best in class experience for our people.”
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Skipton’s Group chief financial officer, Bobby Ndawula, has today confirmed he will be leaving the Society.
Having joined Skipton in 2003, his career has seen him progress through to group finance director and latterly to group chief financial officer for the larger Skipton Group.
Within the group, he also sits on the Board of Connells – the UK’s largest estate agency and property services provider – and is chair of Skipton International – the bank based in Guernsey that aside from traditional banking services also provides mortgages on UK buy-to-let property for expats and residents overseas.
During his time at Skipton, he has significantly grown and strengthened its financial standing.
He said: “After 20 incredible years at Skipton, culminating in spending the past year with our new CEO working on some of the most exciting and far-reaching strategic priorities, it feels the right time to begin handing over the reins and to move on to a new opportunity.
“It’s been an absolute privilege and a very special part of my career to date; and I depart knowing the business is in very capable hands.
“Skipton has such an incredible opportunity to play a leading role in two of the most important aspects of all our lives – having somewhere to call home and being able to save for the future.
“As part of a powerful group aligned to deliver this, Skipton is uniquely placed to make a big difference to people’s lives.”
Stuart Haire, Skipton Group CEO, said: “Over the years Bobby has provided remarkable financial management of our growing business.
“His commitment, counsel and strategic leadership has always been rooted in his profound belief in our customer-focussed purpose.
“To Bobby, finance is much more than numbers – it’s about helping our members achieve their financial goals. We will of course be very sorry to see Bobby leave, but he does so with our very best wishes and gratitude for his service.
“I’m delighted Paul Chambers will be joining the group from Standard Chartered Group.
“Paul has been CFO of Europe and America and is currently the financial controller of the group. Paul has deep financial expertise and a strong track record.
“He has excellent knowledge of both mortgage and advise markets. Additionally, he is well informed about the group, our story, our financial strength, and our unparalleled potential to drive transformative change in the UK housing market and financial services industry.”
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The York-based Great Rail Journeys group (GRJ) has revealed a further strengthening of its leadership team to further drive the digital and customer first strategy.
It will welcome two new commercial leaders in November. Rob Payne joins as chief commercial officer from Papa Johns where he was most recently its UK MD.
He has extensive experience in digital customer, championing businesses including Best Western and Bupa. He will focus on driving digital change globally as well as growing the UK business.
In addition to Payne, the business also welcomes Richard Macklin as director of escorted product and contracting.
Macklin has extensive experience in travel, most recently at Jet2, and will look to further enhance the product and customer experience in the Escorted programme globally.
Dave Riley, GRJ Group CEO, said: “Rob and Rich are fantastic additions to the leadership team both bringing a customer centric and digital first mindset to the organisation.
“Our increased focus on giving customers the choice of how and what they consume is invaluable to supporting the continued growth we are seeing.”
Finally, the business has appointed Neil Sabey and Paul Evans to new leadership roles.
After joining GRJ in early 2023, Sabey will now step up to director of cruise and tour management.
He has extensive experience in both areas and the continued expansion of the GRJ river programme, as well as its strategic importance, means a more prominent leader was required in that area.
Evans also joined the business in early 2023 and will step up to the role of director of go-to-market and change.
His skills as an operational and change leader will be invaluable as the business continues to expand.
Riley added: “Being able to support Neil and Paul stepping up into business-critical areas demonstrates our focus on internal development, and the strategic importance of developing both our breadth of programming in multi-source markets.”
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Sheffield and Hull-based regional procurement specialist EN:Procure, part of Efficiency North Holdings’ consortium of social housing providers, has appointed four new starters to help drive forward its mission to support communities in Northern England.
Aaron Ziemniak joins as commercial and contract support manager, Mohammad Zeeshan Ali as intermediate framework manager, Joe Came as ESG manager, and Alex White as assistant supply chain apprentice.
Emma Mottram, director of operations, said: “It’s an exciting time of growth at EN:Procure, and each of our new team members has fantastic knowledge and experience to bring to the table.
“We’re really looking forward to nurturing their talent and helping them develop their skills and abilities. There’s no limit to the opportunities we have available for those who want to excel in a career in this industry.”
Ziemniak has spent three decades working in the social housing sector and has a deep understanding of the rising challenges faced, and also how to tackle them.
He will be providing commercial input into the various procurement routes provided by EN:Procure, as well as commercial and contractual advice on live projects.
He said: “I was particularly attracted to the values of EN:Procure. Specifically, the impact this role will have in the procurement of works within the social housing sector.
“I’m looking forward to working on my aspiration of helping EN exceed expectations in terms of value for money.”
With nine years of experience in the construction industry behind him, Ali’s new role will see him supporting the wider framework team in understanding and meeting client requirements, as well as evaluating tenders and preparing tender documents.
He hopes his extensive experience and knowledge will also help improve experiences for EN:Procure’s members.
Came will be helping to develop the organisation’s ESG policy, reporting and awareness, as well as supporting social value delivery and net zero progress internally and with Efficiency North members.
He said: “Having a background in social value and sustainability within construction, I’m particularly keen to get involved in policy and strategy work in this new role.”
For White, this is his first role outside of full-time education having recently completed A Levels in Product Design/Design and Technology, and Business Studies.
He will now further his learning and industry experience alongside the team.
