Senior Appointments

We are delighted to confirm that we have made two senior appointments across our people and project monitoring divisions.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Michelle Heaselgrave joins the business as director of people and talent, where she will oversee and refine HR processes following the partnership of Naismiths and Edmond Shipway last year under the Cornerstone Group.

With a strategic background of operating with businesses in a post-acquisition sphere, including seven years at Mercia Asset Management PLC, Michelle will be working closely with the senior management team to accelerate growth and promote consistency across our group’s operations.

Michelle said: “Having worked with companies of different sizes, both publicly and privately owned, this is a real opportunity to make a difference within an expanding business. Joining a people-centric and ambitious team is important to me and I am looking forward to building new relationships, understanding more about the sector and creating an exceptional people experience for our team here.

“When an organisation doubles in size rapidly, as Naismiths and Edmond Shipway have, you need specialist skills and experience, building on the successful foundations in place but also ensuring there is commonality across the group. This will mean not just a review and refinement of the systems we have in place, but also the development of our people plan, which recognises the value and contributions of the team in making this a great business.”

Joining Michelle is new associate director Theo Kidman. Adding to our project monitoring division, Theo will be tasked with managing, assessing and reporting technical risk across a wide variety of projects from the London office. He brings more than seven years of experience within the project monitoring sphere, having operated within Arcadis on loan schemes spanning up to £200m.

Theo said: “My prior experience covers most asset types, including logistics, student accommodation, residential and infrastructure, so I feel well suited to expand on the solid foundations already in place at Naismiths.

“I’m looking forward to helping unlock further growth pathways for the business into large funded projects, while building my leadership skills and evolving our capabilities within the built environment.”

Ben Harwood, chief executive at Cornerstone Group, said: “Michelle and Theo join at opposite ends of the services spectrum within our business, but both will play a crucial role as we expand our national footprint and evolve our company processes as a group.

“This is an exciting period for the firm, with an ambitious and highly skilled team operating across a project portfolio that is as strong as it has ever been. We look forward to integrating Michelle and Theo more closely and evolving our culture of continuous improvement.”

Michelle Heaselgrave, Director of People & Talent

Theo Kidman, Associate Director