Ridley, 60, joined the board in May and succeeds Robert Jervis, who retires at the end of next month. Jervis will stay as head of the expert witness division and remains a director and major shareholder.
Ridley was a key player in developing Faithful & Gould into one of the UK's top quantity surveying practices. After the sale of the firm to Atkins, he took a position on the management board.
Ridley has said he plans to expand the dispute resolution specialist's repertoire to include quantity surveying and cost planning.
He has said he will base his model for acquisitions on the purchase of quantity surveyor Silk & Frazier by Faithful & Gould in 1998. "It was an excellent buy; it was in a different sector and region and the partners fitted into the culture. It was a smaller Faithful & Gould.
"We are looking for smaller and medium-sized businesses that want to expand a bit, to get involved in a bigger pot. They will not necessarily be quantity surveyors."
NBA announced annual results to the end of June earlier this month. It made a pre-tax loss of £121,000, compared with a profit of £278,000 the previous year. Group turnover was £2.34m, a fall from from £2.87m.
Despite the downturn in the results, managing director Peter Elliott-Hughes was upbeat about the forthcoming year.
He said: "The current year has begun well after the mixed performance in 2002/03.
"NBA has opened with a strong order book for all of its operating companies."
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