People moves: Bruton Knowles appoints head of rural services

This week’s appointments and promotions Bruton Knowles has appointed John Amos (pictured, left) as head of rural services. He will oversee both the rural team in Gloucester and the John Amos & Co Leominster office, which was acquired by BK in 2020. Property litigation specialist Helen Close (pictured, centre) has joined Davitt Jones Bould as an associate. She previously served as litigation counsel to Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure. Helios Real Estate has appointed Zoe Thomson (pictured, right) as the development director for its European logistics programme. Based in its Vienna office, she will be responsible for strategic development and all group legal services. Social housing provider Aster Group has appointed Andy Isted as an operational strategy officer as part of its customer service division. He joins from Peabody Housing Trust where he was director of transformation. Knight Frank’s commercial team has appointed Roger Young as head of valuation and advisory and Emily Miller as head of UK fund valuations. The new leadership team will be led by global head of valuation and advisory Caroline Bathgate. Emma Winning has been named as head of equity in the capital advisory team. She previously spent 10 years in commercial real estate functions at Deutsche Bank and was general counsel at Related Argent. Leon Johnson has joined Precede Capital Partners as an associate director of credit and Sonali Mullick has joined as a senior legal associate. Cushman & Wakefield has appointed Annelou de Groot as its new head of Netherlands from IWG. She succeeds Jeroen Lokerse, who has taken on the role of head of product innovation. Pan-European logistics real estate specialist Verdion has strengthened its Nordics business by appointing Fredrik Salman as an investment manager. He joins from Round Hill Capital. Connells Group has launched Connells Living, headed up by newly appointed Connells Group PRS director James Thornett, who has over 20 years of industry expertise. Connells Living will provide end-to-end support to PRS investors. JLL has appointed Victoria Harfield as head of financial accounting in its property and asset management business. Middleton Advisors has appointed ex-Savills chief operating officer Juliette Stacey and Zephyr Energy finance director Chris Eadie to its advisory board. Michael Dunn has been appointed as interim chair of the board of LCR, the government’s regeneration and placemaking expert. Before joining LCR in 2019, he was the group finance director of St Modwen Properties. Nicola Bruce has been appointed as a non-executive director to the board of MJ Gleeson, where she will head the remuneration committee and serve on the audit and nomination committees. Bruce has served on the boards of Hanover Housing Association and Anchor Hanover Group. Churchill Retirement Living has appointed Alan Edgar as its regional managing director for the East of England. He also joins Churchill’s operations board. Sirius Real Estate has hired Chris Bowman as its chief financial officer. He moves from the UK investment banking arm of Berenberg. Prior to that, he spent seven years in investment banking at Liberum. Europa Capital has appointed Ed Crockett to the newly-created role of head of residential investment UK and Europe. He joins from Savills, where he has spent the past 13 months as a director in the operational capital markets team. Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has added partner Luke Mines to the firm’s corporate real estate and funds team in London. He joins from Morrison Foerster. Gleeds has appointed Barry Keogh as director of its new Dublin operation. The expansion will extend the business’s reach in the Republic of Ireland market and support the existing office in Belfast. Christie & Co has appointed Pierre Ricord as head of consultancy for hotels. The former Hilton Worldwide director will lead the Christie & Co UK and European hotel consultancy teams. Former Colliers head of London retail agency and Shackleton co-founder Rob Fay has set up a new retail advisory firm called Londonsuper, providing services such as dual tenancy and pivoting shop fits to support the London market’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Rendall & Rittner has appointed Jo Watson as head of new business and promoted John Osborn to business development manager to expand the company’s portfolio in the build-to-rent and retirement living sectors. Montagu Evans has promoted to partner, Ally Campbell in planning, Will Hyslop in commercial and agency and Emily Patey in property management. Click here to submit an appointment for inclusion in EG’s People Moves To send feedback, e-mail sharon.harnett@eg.co.uk or tweet @EGPropertyNews