Exodus continues at F+A as midlands boss joins Gleeds

Franklin + Andrews has lost its property director for Birmingham following a string of departures at the firm. Geoff Woods re-joined Gleeds last week as a partner in the Manchester office.

He follows former F+A director Spencer James, who left F+A’s property division this summer to join Gleeds’ London office.

Woods was with F+A for just over two years as a divisional director overseeing property in the Birmingham area. He said: “Gleeds has a strong business model, it is a leading cost consultancy and a strong independent business. F+A is not independent any more, is going through a merger and it will take a number of years to work through.” Mott MacDonald merged with F+A in 2002.

In recent weeks F+A has lost the head of its London property division, Tony Farmiloe, to Gardiner & Theobald, where he starts next month as a partner. He joins ex-colleagues Kevin Arnold and Tony Venn, who both left F+A after the merger. Another F+A property director, Paul Hazell, has moved to AYH. Senior QS Kamarul Salleh has also left to join CM Parker Browne.

Guy Leonard, who heads the Mott MacDonald division that oversees F+A, has said that “rebalancing” was taking place within the property division.

At Gleeds, Woods will focus on the transport, commercial, health and education sectors and manage a team of around ten people. The Manchester office has around 75 staff in total. Woods is charged with expanding the team and taking it into wider areas, including property, transport and infrastructure, where most of his experience lies.

He said half of his time will be spent on Manchester Airport, which has awarded Gleeds a ten-year framework deal to deliver its capital expenditure programme, understood to be worth several hundred million pounds.

Woods worked for Gleeds’ Warrington office from 1996 to 2003, where his projects included the £40m Birmingham NEC scheme.