People: Keepmoat; Persimmon; Skipton Group; and more

Doncaster-headquartered homebuilder, Keepmoat, has appointed Steve Lister as regional construction director, to head the construction arm of the business in the Yorkshire West region.

He brings significant experience of growing and scaling business operations, as well as building construction teams to support success and overarching business plans.

In his new role he will focus on placemaking and design to provide quality homes in locations with strong transport links for people across West Yorkshire.

With almost 30 years of experience in the housebuilding industry across a series of senior roles, most recently with Bellway Homes and Barratt Homes, Lister has extensive knowledge of delivering key construction vision projects.

He said: “I am very excited to be part of Keepmoat and to head construction in its Yorkshire West region.

“At a time of significant growth across the area, with the recent relocation to a larger office to accommodate the growing team, the business is committed to creating fantastic construction projects with design and placemaking at their heart.

“Since moving into the housebuilding space in 1997, I’ve developed a passion for driving growth, developing teams and achieving exceptional results.

“I am looking forward to deploying the experience I have gained to grow the Yorkshire West region over the coming years.”

Chris Clingo, regional managing director at Keepmoat, Yorkshire West, added: “I’m really pleased to see Steve join the regional team to play a key role in developing our business and his significant experience will be crucial in enabling us to continue to build on our success.”

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York-based developer, Persimmon, has appointed Paula Bell as an independent non-executive director with effect from 1 September 2024.

She will be appointed as chair of the Audit & Risk Committee on 1 October 2024.

Bell has extensive board experience both as an executive and non-executive director of large UK publicly listed organisations.

Since 2016, she has held the position of chief financial & operations officer of Spirent Communications, where shareholders recently approved a recommend offer from a strategic buyer.

She has been a non-executive director and chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at Keller Group since 2018 and was previously a non-executive director and chair of the Audit Committee at Laird from 2013 to 2018.

Prior to Spirent, Bell was chief financial officer at John Menzies and group financial director at Ricardo, as well as holding senior finance roles at BAA, AWG and Rolls Royce Group.

She has wide sector experience including construction, property and manufacturing environments.

As confirmed on 30 April 2024, Shirine Khoury-Haq has notified the Board of her intention to step down as an independent non-executive director of the company to focus on her role as group chief executive at The Co-operative Group, with effect from 30 September 2024.

Roger Devlin, chairman of Persimmon, said: “It is my pleasure to welcome Paula to the Board of Persimmon. Paula’s extensive commercial and operational experience in finance leadership roles at large UK listed firms, combined with significant Audit and Risk Chair experience, make her an excellent addition to the Board.

“On behalf of the Board, I would again like to thank Shirine for her contribution to all aspects of Persimmon’s business. I wish her every success for the future.”

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Connells, part of the Skipton Group, has appointed Helen Charlesworth as its new group CEO.

Helen Charlesworth has worked across various sectors including retail, hospitality and estate agency.

Her most recent role was managing director at Stonegate Group, the UK’s largest pub company, where she spent eight years leading the group through excellent profit growth, completing a number of successful acquisitions.

She said: “I am thrilled to be joining the team at Connells and am looking forward to getting back into estate agency.”

Stuart Haire, Skipton Group chief executive, added: “I am happy to welcome Helen as Connells’ new group CEO and look forward to working with her to help Connells onto even more exciting successes.

“I would also like to thank Richard Twigg for the excellent role that he has played over the last 12 months as interim CEO – Richard will revert to his former role of chief finance and commercial officer following Helen’s induction.”

Charlesworth will join Connells Group at the end of September 2024.

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Prosperity Law has welcomed a new commercial director.

Jonathan Kay will take on a strategic role for the growing firm, bringing with him a wealth of experience and expertise.

His role will span all four of the firm’s offices, which include a base in Leeds, with the aim of building on Prosperity Law’s continued commercial success and growth.

He has held senior roles at a number of firms – including head of real estate, alongside other senior management positions.

In conjunction with the senior management team, part of his new job will involve the ongoing advancement of the business, including key hires and acquisition opportunities for Prosperity – continuing the firm’s ambitions to scale and diversify its already wide service offering.

Kay said: “Prosperity has enjoyed a number of successes of late, which speaks to the entrepreneurial and ambitious nature of the teams and specialists there.

“I’m commercially driven but just as interested in people and what they bring to a firm.

“As well as the strategic work I’ll carry out for the business I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues to really drive forward our collective success at Prosperity.”

Managing partner, Ed Smethurst, said: “We’ve made a number of key hires in recent years to head up different departments across all our offices. Jonathan’s appointment marks a real commitment to our ongoing commercial success and desire to grow the business

“His unique skillset will undoubtedly help us unlock our potential to scale, all whilst offering the exceptional legal advice and client service that Prosperity has become known for.”