n NATIONAL commercial property consultancy, Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH), has appointed Paul Bullock to the Chelmsford office as an associate director working in the Business Space team.

Mr Bullock has been tasked with expanding LSH’s share of the agency market in Essex, East Anglia and East London. His role will include completing acquisitions, disposals, agency based consultancy while offering general market advice to existing and new clients. He will work alongside the head of LSH’s Chelmsford office, Stuart Mowle.

Before joining the Chelmsford team, he was a manager at Kemsley’s Chelmsford office, specialising in office agency.

“I was attracted to this role because it offers me the opportunity to work in a variety of sectors across a large geographical area, for a national firm with an enviable brand,” he said.

Stuart Mowle, head of LSH’s Chelmsford office, said: “Paul brings with him an impressive 34 years of experience which will undoubtedly strengthen further LSH’s offering to clients.”

BUSINESS and financial adviser Grant Thornton has appointed Tax Partner Richard Proctor as office managing partner for the firm’s East Anglian offices.

He spent 14 years with KPMG and was made a Partner in 1999. He joined Grant Thornton in 2000 following the acquisition of the Norwich office of KPMG.

His expertise includes advising and developing tax efficient strategies for businesses and their owners. In his new role, he will be responsible for operations at the firm’s Ipswich, Norwich, Bury St Edmunds and Cambridge offices, and for implementing the firm’s strategic plans for East Anglia.

“I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead a very talented group of individuals. We have a team of more than 200 professionals across the region who will be concentrating on providing an exceptional range of audit, tax and advisory services to both existing and new clients,” he said.

Mr Proctor takes over the role as Office Managing Partner from Nigel Savory who held the post for nine years and will remain with the firm as a partner in the Norwich office.

MARTLESHAM Heath-based online consultation firm Consense has appointed David Fletcher as assistant project manager. The appointment represents an era of growth for the award winning engagement specialist and further strengthens Consense’s project management team.

Mr Fletcher, a CIM trained graduate, will assist in the day-to-day management of consultation projects and will provide additional marketing and administrative expertise.

Jessica Topham, operations director at Consense, said: “This is a significant time for David to be joining us following new business wins. His impressive credentials speak volumes and will be key in helping us build on recent successes and maintain high quality output.”

Two directors who were instrumental in the creation of Anglia Farmers have retired from the board. Henry Edwards and Jim Alston, both Norfolk farmers, were respective chairman of the predecessor groups Mid-Norfolk Farmers and Loddon Farmers and each has been actively involved in the day-to-day business of Anglia Farmers during its seven-year history.

“Henry and Jim, with the rest of their previous boards, had the guts to recognise their respective co-operatives had the problem of declining incomes and rising costs,” said George Bell, chairman of Anglia Farmers. “Rather than wringing their hands and doing nothing they were pro-active. Anglia Farmers is the upshot which is proving to be a pretty good solution.”

Part of Mr Edwards’ regular activities at Anglia Farmers has been the chairmanship of the membership executive as well as sitting on the organisers’ committee for the Norfolk Farming Conference. Stepping down from the board will give him more time to help his son run their 2,500 acres farm at Hardingham where his interests include managing the wild bird shoot he started in 1971. He is also involved in church and parish matters. Away from home, he is chairman of the West Norfolk Hunt, president of the Mid-Norfolk Conservative Association and Norfolk secretary of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust.

“It was an honour to follow Robert Pickering and the founder Norman Salmon as chairman of Mid-Norfolk Farmers,” said Mr Edwards.

“Knowing we needed to expand, it was fortuitous to find Loddon Farmers had the same intention. The amalgamation didn’t happen overnight because were many small differences to iron out. But both boards were constructive and with the help of Charles Whitaker of Brown & Co as facilitator, Anglia Farmers was successfully born.

“We then had a stroke of luck to find Clarke Willis was looking for a new challenge just at that moment, and make no mistake we all owe Clarke and our Chairman, George Bell, a great debt for taking Anglia Farmers on from a County group with 600 members to a company covering the whole country with over 1500 members. Quite a story.”

Mr Alston is a director of Calthorpe Farm Limited with 600 acres of arable crops and grass plus a beef-fattening unit. He manages arable operations for Calibre Farming, a joint company managing 1200 acres of arable cropping. His wife Marion runs Jemco Safety Signs serving agriculture and local business. For the past four years he has produced the Anglia Farmers Agricultural Inflation Index which is now widely recognised within the farming industry. His recent role at Anglia Farmers was chairing the risk management executive which set in place improved risk perception procedures and improved methods of dealing with that risk.

“I am proud to have played a part in the development of Anglia Farmers which has become a highly significant buying group. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to seeing it develop further,” said Jim Alston.

The overall retirements, which include that of Robert Markillie earlier in the year, complete the planned transition for the new entrants – Richard Hirst, Robert Salmon and Keith Thompson – who joined the board last year.

STOWMARKET has been chosen for a virtual business service that allows new and growing companies to flourish.

AMS (Re) has launched virtualofficesuffolk (VOS) to bring the benefits of virtual business administration and support to the local entrepreneurial owner/manager. It follows 11 years in the commercial financial market.

Chief operating officer Leslie-Ann Giovnilli said: “The biggest cost of all businesses is their staff bill. VOS removes this by providing a complete range of business services for companies using only our own widely experienced local staff. We have in excess of 100 years business experience in our team and by providing much more than just a personal assistant cover service we hope to encourage owners to work with us to grow their business.

“Looking ahead, in addition to seeking to further expand our client base with growing companies and forge greater links with our local suppliers and business partners, we are also looking into a number of initiatives for our 2010 sponsorship of the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre.

“That said the top priority of VOS is to assist any company which may be suffering in the current market turmoil by offering them our market leading skills in administration support and practical solutions.”

MAYA Ribbands of Jackaman Smith & Mulley Solicitors is moving from the firm’s Diss office to the Harleston branch.

Ms Ribbands has worked in Diss for three and a half years specialising in private client matters. At Harleston, she will give advice on wills, probate, lasting powers of attorney and Court of Protection matters.

Carol Lockett, head of the private client team said she was delighted that the firm is now able to offer a high quality service in this area of law at Harleston.

The firm’s managing partner Paul McGrath said: “This is a very positive move – expanding the services that we offer to the people of Harleston.”