A site manager from Suffolk is celebrating after winning a prestigious national house-building award.

Nicos Charalambous, site manager at Taylor Wimpey’s Concept development in Red Lodge, near Bury St Edmunds, was presented with a Seal of Excellence award at the National House-Building Council (NHBC) Pride in the Job Awards.

His latest success comes after he was awarded an NHBC Quality Award for the second year in a row earlier in the summer, in recognition of his outstanding commitment to producing high-quality new homes and maintaining exceptional standards in every aspect of building work.

The Seal of Excellence awards are presented to the top 130 site managers split by region, selected from the 430 Quality Award winners of the year. He now goes forward to the competition’s Supreme Gala Final on January 16 at the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel, London, where the national champions will be announced.

Caroline Carter, managing director for Taylor Wimpey East Anglia, said: “We are delighted with Nicos’ thoroughly deserved Seal of Excellence award for his work at our stunning Concept development at Red Lodge.

“I would personally like that thank Nicos for all his hard work, and congratulate him for this fantastic achievement. Everyone at Taylor Wimpey East Anglia will be supporting him as he moves forward to the Grand Final next year.”

Pride in the Job is the only UK-wide awards scheme that recognises the significant contribution of site managers who achieve the highest standards in new home construction.

The award recognises Nicos’ dedication to building high-quality homes for new homebuyers and provides purchasers with the assurance that the development has top-quality homes and excellent customer service.

: : East Anglian construction firm SEH French has taken on design co-ordinator Kerry Finch.

Kerry joins the Ipswich-based company from Pick Everard where she has spent the last 10 years. In her new role, Kerry will be involved in the design and build and partnering projects, working closely with the project team, co-ordinating the design elements and contributing to value engineering projects.

Kerry will use her architectural and project management experience to increase the efficiency of each of these processes, while providing another viewpoint within SEH French’s experienced construction team.

Director Simon Girling said: “We are delighted to welcome Kerry to the team. Her appointment signals a fresh injection of ideas into what is already a brilliant team. Kerry brings with her a brand new skillset and we are looking forward to seeing the benefits of her knowledge and experience.”

Kerry said: “Taking this career change and stepping over the fence into the world of contracting, I couldn’t be happier to be working as part of a team I have known during my career, including delivering various projects together in the past.”

: : Tore Mercan has been appointed by Colchester-based Cobb Europe as director of sales and technical service for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Tore, who began his career in the Turkish poultry industry in production and then technical roles, has combined technical and commercial roles in subsequent appointments.

“We are thrilled to welcome Tore to the Cobb Europe team,” said Roy Mutimer, regional general manager. “I know his knowledge and experience will bring great value to our customers through his own efforts and also by his leadership of our sales and technical teams. This is a great appointment for Cobb Europe that will benefit our customers and help grow our market share in this region.”

Tore said: I’m delighted to take up this challenging position and I will be devoting all my efforts to continue providing the world class sales and technical support. I look forward to meeting customers and distributors in this fast growing region.”

After graduating in animal science at the University of Ankara, Turkey, he spent five years with the country’s largest integrator, the Koy-Tur group, working in all levels of production from pedigree to processing. He joined Aviagen in 1998 and worked initially in Turkey where he was head of technical services from 2000 to 2006, then taking up a Western European technical role and from 2009 to 2013 being Indian River commercial and technical manager for Asia, the Middle East and Africa. He was then appointed Aviagen regional technical director for Eastern Europe and CIS countries.

He lives with his family in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is planning to move to East Anglia where Cobb Europe in based.

He succeeds Pelayo Casanovas who moved to Shanghai in January as general manager of Cobb’s Asian region covering Asia, the Pacific and Australasia.

Cobb-Vantress, Inc. is a poultry research and development company engaged in the production, improvement and sale of broiler breeding stock. Cobb is the world’s oldest pedigree broiler breeding company.

: : LB Group has taken on Andrew Dix as LB Insolvency’s new director.

Andrew takes over the reins from Peter Byatt, who led the business for 11 years.

The directors believe Andrew will bring the new energy, new ideas, and new skills to LB Insolvency, based in Chelmsford.

His long history of insolvency experience dates back to 1992. Andrew has a vast experience in all types of insolvency, covering a range of diverse sectors including retail, both high street and online, construction, manufacturing, property, engineering, restaurants, charities, medical and software specialists.

On the personal insolvency side, Andrew has been involved in many bankruptcies and Individual Voluntary Arrangements. He has dealt with all types of cases, from celebrities to professionals.

Andrew also provides advice across the range of insolvencies, from those struggling with debt, creditor pressure, pressure from finance companies or the bank and HMRC, and advises creditors and stakeholders throughout each stage of the process ensuring available options are discussed and explored.

: : Gotelee Solicitors has welcomed Sarah Williamson to its conveyancing team as a conveyancing executive.

Sarah, who will based at its Felixstowe office, started her career in family law 2002 then moved into conveyancing in 2003. She worked for a local firm in Ipswich for a number of years, building a good reputation for her attention to detail and friendly client relations. She is experienced in freehold, leasehold, new builds, transfers of equity and re-mortgages.

Sarah said: “When the chance to join Gotelee came along it suited me perfectly. I have recently relocated to the Felixstowe area, so to work with a quality firm like Gotelee and be in my local community was the ideal opportunity.”

Catherine Abbott, who leads the firm’s residential conveyancing team across all offices, said she was delighted to have Sarah on board.

“She has many years of experience in conveyancing and will be a great addition to the growing Gotelee property team. Sarah is well known locally and is looking forward to building relationships with agents, and Gotelee’s new and existing clients, in the coming months. Great news all round,” she said.