Squash tournament champions crowned; ABP hires property head; Buttress director runs for RIBA role

"I am so happy that this competition, which started in the 1970s, continues to run," says Chris Dennis, managing partner at Newmark and organiser of the annual national squash tournament for property professionals, reflecting on the success of this year's competition.

The main tournament winner was Richard Winter Property Search, who beat The Crown Estate by walkover at London's Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall earlier this spring, after 19 teams entered the competition. It was the third year of the event after it was paused for COVID.

Having lost to JLL the previous year, Newmark made no mistake this year, beating Colliers 3-0 in the plate competition. If you would like to participate in next year's tournament, please get in touch with Chris Dennis at chris.dennis@nmrk.com.

Dennis added: "Solicitors, surveyors, agents – any three-player team from a company involved in property can enter."

Associated British Ports, the UK’s largest port operator and one of the UK’s biggest commercial landowners, has recruited Rupert Joseland as group head of property. He will lead a team that manages a portfolio of more than 8,600 acres and will also directly head the property team for ABP Southampton, which handles exports worth £40 billion annually.

The company described Joseland as an "accomplished property development leader with over 30 years of experience in delivering large-scale industrial and logistics development", including as managing director at St Modwen, where he spent around two decades. He started on 1 June.

Chithra Marsh, director at architect practice Buttress, is running to be the next Royal Institute of British Architects president. Marsh has more than 30 years’ experience and is based in the firm's Manchester studio. She leads on community regeneration, social value and equality, diversity and inclusion at the practice. Marsh has represented RIBA at regional and national level, including on council, committees and advisory panels. She is also the former national chair of Women in Property. The three other candidates are in the running are Duncan Baker-Brown (BakerBrown Studio), Jay Morton (Bell Phillips Architects) and Austin Williams (Kingston University London).

British Land has chosen managing director and head of Europe at Oxford properties Jo McNamara to succeed Simon Carter as chief executive officer. McNamara joined Oxford, the real estate investment arm of Canadian institutional investment giant Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, as an analyst in June 2010, becoming one of its earliest hires into the European business. She was instrumental in building the London team, as well as contributing to and leading on major investments, including London Wall Place. Prior to joining Oxford, McNamara worked at Hammerson. Carter is leaving British Land to become CEO of P3 Logistics.

Segro has promoted Sean Doherty to managing director, head of investment. Doherty, who was most recently head of investment, UK, will lead investment work across the group, having been there for more than a decade. Segro said he will "play a key role in shaping and aligning portfolio strategy and capital allocation" across its UK, continental European and data centre businesses, reporting to group chief executive David Sleath. The developer said in a LinkedIn post that Doherty's promotion would help to "ensure stronger collaboration and coordination" across all of its investment teams, as well as enable it to deploy with "speed and conviction".

Bidwells hired Laura Jenkinson as head of London planning, ash she leaves Avison Young after 12 years. She will cover the City, Westminster, Lambeth, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Brent, working across office, residential, hotel and industrial.

Jenkinson was at Brent Council and the Government Office for London before joining AY, giving her a "depth of local authority and public sector experience that underpins her advisory work", Bidwells said. She added: "The planning system is under more pressure than at almost any point in my career, with stretched local authorities, accelerating policy change, and a government that wants to see delivery at speed and scale.

Sébastien Bazin, president and CEO of French hotel firm Accor, will not renew his contract and will leave the global company in the next two years. Bazin announced to shareholders at Accor's annual general meeting on 27 May that he would leave in May 2028 or earlier, if a suitable replacement is found. Before starting this role in August 2013, Bazin was managing director for Europe at Colony Capital, one of Accor’s largest shareholders. When Bazin started as CEO in 2013, Accor had 14 hotel brands and approximately 3,600 hotels. Today, it has 44 hotel brands, 5,836 hotels and 881,427 rooms in 110 countries.