DTZ Manchester, a UGL company has strengthened its Consulting team with the recruitment of Ben Pretty as a Senior Consultant and promotion of three team members as part of a recent round of global promotions across the firm. Neil Riley has been promoted to Associate Director, Heather Standidge to Senior Consultant and Josaphine Ford joins the team as Consultant following qualification as a Chartered Surveyor. In addition to the new appointments and promotions, Ben Hunter has moved internally to support the team’s work on delivering the Government’s Free Schools programme.
One of four new appointments to the office, Ben Pretty joins from a Leeds-based regeneration and property consultancy practice and has over seven years’ consultancy experience, having commenced his career at Deloitte. Ben is a member of the RICS Management Consultancy Professional Group and has significant experience of providing strategic advice to public sector clients on a diverse range of real estate challenges to deliver financial efficiencies, corporate objectives and wider economic outcomes.
He is experienced in the project management and delivery of a wide variety of strategic consultancy commissions from initial feasibility studies/options appraisals through to strategy and business case development and project delivery/funding mechanisms. Previous clients include the Homes and Communities Agency, Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and other public and private sector organisations. At DTZ, Ben will initially be supporting existing consultancy contracts including those with Manchester Metropolitan University, Lancashire County Council and Preston College.
Neal Riley specialises in providing property advice to all parts of the UK public sector which currently includes leading DTZ’s work on the Government’s Free Schools programme.
Heather Standidge has been promoted to Senior Consultant. Heather joined DTZ in 2009 and will continue to advise both public and private sector clients on a range of development focused projects across the north west region.
Josaphine Ford has successfully completed her APC and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor. She joins the team to advise on a broad range of clients in the education sector.
Caroline Baker, Manchester based Director of Consulting said: “This appointment and trio of promotions demonstrates DTZ’s confidence in Manchester’s Consulting team. It indicates the strength and breadth of our consulting offer, which we believe is unrivalled in the market.”
Fellow Director, John Keyes, added: “The fact that we are able to grow at this time reflects our continued strong reputation in advising in our core markets, including in the education sector and the local government sector. It also reflects our proven track record in areas such as student accommodation. With the recent re-appointment of DTZ to the Government’s Consultancy Framework for estates services, we are well placed to grow further over the coming period.”
Ben’s appointment is one of four new appointments across a diverse range of teams in its Manchester office. David Legat has joined as Associate Director to the Retail Agency team. The office has also made two appointments to its Residential, Land and Student Valuation and Agency team with Steve Smith joining as Senior Surveyor and Oliver Moorhouse as Surveyor.
Mike Mitchell, MD for the Regions outside London and Head of the Manchester office commented: “Ben is one of four appointments to the office, three of which, including Ben’s, are for new roles and are in response to clients requiring continued quality services provided by DTZ. This is a clear indication that certain markets are improving.”
