RICS appoints new West Midlands chair; Helical promotes six; Goodford joins Railpen

Richard Crow, partner at Rapleys’ Birmingham office, has been appointed chair of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in the West Midlands. Crow is described as being a proactive member of the regional organisation, hosting events, delivering presentations and helping with the target of achieving 100 new female RICS-qualified members.

He has been a senior member of Rapleys’ Birmingham office at 120 Colmore Row for more than three years.

In his new position Crow will "help to drive the RICS member interaction regionally, to bring forward new ideas to encourage the next generation into the industry and deliver quality support to the wider surveying network".

Central London development-focused real estate business Helical has promoted six people including Fran Young, who becomes senior asset manager. She joined Helical in 2012, and is a member of the asset management team. Other team members to be promoted include Rob Sims to the newly created role of chief investment officer; Matt Redgrove to senior development executive; Lesley Dodd to group financial controller; Martin Bramhill to head of tax and Lucy Miller to property and finance executive. Helical CEO Matthew Bonning-Snook said: "A commitment to investing in our people and platform has been a central underpin of our success over the years."

Railpen, manager of the £34 billion pension scheme for railway staff in the UK, has appointed Emma Goodford to lead life sciences and innovation leasing across its Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor portfolio.

Goodford has more than 35 years’ experience at Knight Frank, including as head of life sciences and innovation, and retired from the partnership in March. The firm said it has recruited Goodford to establish long-term relationships with tenants to "execute Railpen's strategy for maximising the experience standards across its commercial properties, and establishing an ecosystem that fosters interaction among tenants and supports business scalability."

Simon Shaw will become group chief executive at Savills after it was announced that Mark Ridley will step down from the role after 29 years. Shaw is currently group chief financial officer after joining in 2009 and will start his new role at the beginning of next year. He is a member of the group’s global and Asia-Pacific, EMEA and United States regional executive committees, while also being responsible to the board of Savills for Savills Investment Management. The firm said Ridley “will remain available in a senior advisory role supporting the business" after he retires at year end. He said in a statement that he looks forward to working with Shaw to "ensure a smooth transition".

Blackstone has confirmed that Guido Piñol will lead its new pan-European logistics operator and developer called Proxity. Piñol most recently led Office First, a leading German real estate investor and manager, and is joined by colleague, Jonas Kriebel, who joins from the same company to become chief financial officer.

Yvo Postleb, former country head Germany at Cushman & Wakefield, completes the platform's senior management team and will serve as the company’s chief operating officer. The company, run out of Frankfurt, is expected to be fully operational by 2026 and is set to recruit more staff across Germany and other European markets.

Walker & Dunlop has expanded its London-based brokerage and capital markets advisory team by making Javier Villanueva managing director. He will report to Claudio Sgobba, senior managing director and head of EMEA capital markets, and will be responsible for leading the structuring and execution of capital solutions across all property types and jurisdictions throughout Europe and the Middle East. Prior to joining Walker & Dunlop, he was managing director, acting as head of investment management at Martley Capital. He also spent around 10 years with Eastdil Secured. Sgobba said: "Javier brings along with him deep expertise and a great network."