News

New London and Central London Planning leads among series of promotions

We have announced our new Head of London Planning and Head of Central London Planning, as part of a series of 23 promotions.

Director, Alex Christopher has been promoted to Head of London Planning while Director, Laurence Brooker becomes our new Head of Central London Planning. The announcement comes as part of a wider recruitment and promotion drive in our London office, including the continued growth of our recently launched Business Cases and Funding team.

As Head of London Planning, Alex will provide overall leadership for the team of 18 people, advising on a broadening range of projects across Greater London.

Laurence Brooker, who joined us from Westminster City Council seven years ago, will take on the newly created role of Head of Central London Planning. Laurence will lead our growing business in the central London market on the back of an increasing number of projects in the heart of the capital.

Reflecting our growth across the capital, Samuel Brown has been promoted to Associate Director and Alice Hawkins and Lauren Thiede-Palmer to Senior Planner.

Our Business Cases and Funding team have also made a promotion. Launched in July this year, the team has already secured projects with commissions to develop business cases. Its lead Andy Rumfitt has been joined by Associate Director, Bindu Pokkyarath and Ada Brahimi, who has been promoted to Senior Consultant.

We have also made promotions across our Leeds, Manchester, Southampton, Birmingham, Reading and Belfast offices.

These include Cat White (Planning), Gavin Amos (Economics) and Andrew Malcomson (EIA) who have all been appointed as Directors.

Other promotions include:

• Hannah Knowles, Associate Director, Planning, Reading
• Camilla Duckworth, Associate Director, Planning, Birmingham
• Fiona Lee McQueen, Associate Director, Planning, Birmingham
• Amy Gaskell, Associate Director, Planning, Manchester
• Olivia Carr, Associate Director, Planning, Manchester
• Paul Forshaw, Associate Director, Planning, Manchester
• Rebecca Merridew, Associate Director, Landscape & Design, Manchester 
• Jessica Fok, Associate Director, Strategic Communications, Belfast
• Tom Ellis, Senior Planner, Economics, Manchester
• Alice Wells, Consultant, EIA, Leeds
• Joanna Turner, Finance Director, Manchester
• Carol Maughan, Director, Company Communications & Digital Innovation, Manchester
• Iona Stonehouse, Senior Marketing Manager, Manchester
• Minal Patel, Financial Controller, Manchester

The promotions strengthen our offering across Planning, Economics, EIA, Urban Design and Strategic Communications services, as well as business support teams.

Speaking about the promotions, Chief Executive, Dave Trimingham said:

“As we embrace agile ways of working and continue to grow as a business, it is fantastic to recognise the commitment and progression of numerous colleagues.

“These promotions cover a number of our services and also reflect the vital contribution of our business support services. As an employee owned business we all share in success and work hard for each other to ensure the best possible service for clients.”

1 December 2021