The Crown Estate today (1 February 2006) announced two new senior appointments in its rural estate. Nick Harper joins The Crown Estate as the new Head of Asset Management and Development and the new Head of Customer Management is Alan Laidlaw.
Nick joins The Crown Estate from Fenn Wright chartered surveyors in East Anglia where he was a partner working in rural and residential development for nine years. His role will be centred on the asset side of the rural estate, where his work will be part of a wider investment programme at The Crown Estate which is focussing on rebalancing the entire portfolio for better long-term performance. Nick will work closely with Giles Clarke, the Director of Investment and Asset Management, to maximise the value and performance of the rural estate.
Nick graduated from the Royal Agricultural College having studied Rural Land Management. He then spent 16 years working in private practice throughout East Anglia and the Midlands.
Alan Laidlaw has been promoted from the position of Rural Business Manager at The Crown Estate to his new position of Head of Customer Management, which encompasses responsibility for the management of all tenancies and customers of the rural estate. These range from farm, business and residential tenants, to leisure users and wider stakeholders in the rural community and economy. Alan will be based in The Crown Estate's Edinburgh office, but will be responsible for customer management across the entire UK wide rural estate, splitting his time equally between Edinburgh, London and site visits.
Before joining The Crown Estate, Alan was formerly an Associate Director in the New Business department of the Bank of Scotland specialising in Agribusiness; prior to that he was an Assistant Land Agent with Smiths Gore in Dumfries.
Chris Bourchier, Director of the Rural Estate at The Crown Estate, said, "These two key appointments complete a programme of restructuring as we adapt our business to enhance performance in a rapidly changing market. Nick and Alan have considerable experience of rural business and will be working with our customers to achieve mutual benefits."
Nick Harper said, "I am delighted to join The Crown Estate at this exciting time for the organisation. It is a great opportunity to be working with the rural estate team at this time, committed as they are to maximising the performance of this diverse estate."
Alan Laidlaw said, "This new position is a wonderful opportunity for me and I am looking forward to working towards taking the good rural management practices in place across the estate and developing them to ensure the rural estate is at the forefront of proactive land management and remains a landlord of choice."
