Property Movers & Shakers August 2023

29 August 2023

Estate Agencies

Former Knight Frank star Harvey Cyzer has joined Mayfair-based luxury agency Oliver Bernard as equity partner. At KF, he headed up the Mayfair & St James’s resi sales team, and subsequently the flagship central London offices including Knightsbridge, Belgravia and South Kensington. Cyzer is one of five new starters at OB, including fellow Knight Frank alumnus Rob Gittins (lettings manager), and advisors Rosa Halliday (formerly of Savills), William Bishop (Marsh & Parsons) and Christian Marks. Read more

Chestertons has bought Chelsea-based boutique estate agency Soames. Soames’ lettings book will now be absorbed into Chestertons. Richard Jacobs, who has worked with Soames since 1999, “will continue to assist Chestertons with the business”. Read more

Savills has named Rico Picenoni as its new head of Global Residential Development Consultancy, filling the shoes of Ryan Itani, who set up his own brand residential consultancy practice earlier this year. Picenoni moves from Savills Dubai – where spent the last two years as a director in the firm’s team of branded residential specialists – to the London HQ on Margaret Street. Before joining Savills, he was head of residential development in the Middle East and Africa for hospitality giant Accor. Read more

Dan Carrington has become Head of Sales at Savills’ Chelsea office, moving from the nearby Earls Court branch. Read more

Christina McLean has been promoted to head up the lettings department in Savills' Bishops Park office in Fulham. Read more

Savills Plc has also appointed a new Chair, naming Stacey Cartwright to succeed Nicholas Ferguson when he retires from the Board at the end of this year. Cartwright has been an independent non-executive director of Savills since October 2018, and Senior Independent Director since January 2021. She was previously Chief Executive Officer and then Deputy Chair of Harvey Nichols Plc (2014-18), and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Burberry Plc (2004-13). Read more

Knight Frank’s Sarah May-Brown has been appointed to the agency’s UK Residential Board. A partner in the Private Office and Head of Private Wealth Intelligence, she has been with the firm for 15 years, working in International Residential prior to spending seven years in the Gulf, where she set up the Middle East Private Wealth team. Read more

Knight Frank’s residential development team has been “significantly bolstered” with a new senior hire; Faith Beeson-Wright joins as a Partner in the Bristol office. She was previously a Senior Planning Manager at Countryside Partnerships (formerly Vistry Group). Read more

Andrew Twagira has stepped up to run Knight Frank’s lettings team in Aldgate. He joined the firm from Stirling Ackroyd in 2018, and made the move to Aldgate in 2022. Read more

Keller Williams UK has named a new Chief Executive Officer, promoting Mark Readings from Regional Director to the top job from 1st October. He replaces Current CEO, Ben Taylor, will become Executive Chairman of the business. The “restructuring” will see Taylor “pivot his focus from the day-to-day development and running of the UK business, to a focus on driving forward strategic wider developments.” Read more

Chestertons has strengthened its new homes offering, recruiting Henry O’Neill, former New Homes Director at Dexters, to its North and East London area team. Read more 

Harding Green has signed Emma Munday, founder of Munday Crowley Property Consultancy, to its ranks of self-employed brokers. Munday previously held roles at the Notting Hill branches of John D Wood and Bective Leslie Marsh. Read more

French self-employed estate agency business iad has made a move on the UK property market, acquiring David Lee in Hertfordshire and outlining grand ambitions to “become the dominant estate agency across Britain”. iad UK will operate from David Lee’s offices in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, which will be rebranded as iad and provide sales, lettings and property management services. Lee O’Brien is Managing Director of the expanding UK business, while David Kirby has taken the title of “Head of Constellation” – which involves leading the existing team of 21 agents. Read more

Independent Home Counties estate agency Hat & Home has recruited Paul Price from Marsh & Parsons to run its newly-launched Ascot office. Price has spent nearly 16 years working in the prime London property market, the last five of which saw him in charge of five Marsh & Parsons offices in West London. Read more 

Winkworth has parted ways with one of its long-standing franchisees in London “due to compliance-related reasons". Nick Goble spent 24 years running four Winkworth operations in Battersea, Kennington and Pimlico/Westminster. Read more

 

Developers

Canary Wharf Group has brought in a new Development Director for its 23-acre residential-led Wood Wharf project in East London. Jack Brewster moves from Grosvenor, where he was a Development Director, to “support the evolution of the Canary Wharf estate.” Read more

Mansion-building specialist The Octagon Group has brought in James Silverthorne as Group Operations Director. He moves after four years with Taylor Wimpey, where he was a project director in the East London division. Read more

Regal London has made a trio of new hires as part of its “wider creative strategy”. The resi-focused developer recently set up an internal creative board, and has now bolstered its digital marketing team with the addition of Tim Hiskett, Deepa Arthur and Lauryn Brown. Read more

 

Professional Bodies

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has appointed an interim Standards & Regulation Board, following the dramatic resignation of the entire Board in June. The new faces are: Nigel Clarke (Interim Chair); Peter Smith FRICS, Chair, CPD Framework Steering Group; Keith Thomas FRICS, Chair, Qualifications and Assessments Committee; Yo-Hann Tan (Independent member); Lynne Livesey (Independent member). Read more

May Fawzy, founder of MF Design Studio, has taken over from Matthew Freeman as the new President of the British Institute of Interior Design. Read more

 

Marketing & Portals

Rightmove has recruited leading AI technologist Kriti Sharma as a non-exec director. Currently Chief Product Officer of LegalTech at Thomson Reuters, she was formerly the VP of Artificial Intelligence at FTSE 100 software company Sage Group. Read more

Forbes Global Properties has installed industry veteran Matt Beall as chair of its board of directors. Beall co-founded luxury brokerage Hawaii Life in 2008. He previously served as President of the Kauai Board of Realtors and as a member of Hawaii Association of Realtors’ executive committee. Read more