Basepoint Business Centres has appointed Alison Morrissey as centre manager of Basepoint Ipswich.

Alison has spent the past five years working for an enterprise agency where she specialised in commercial property. As part of her role, Alison was running several business centres across south Suffolk and Essex, working closely with large, established companies or offering support to start-ups.

Basepoint specialises in the development and operation of managed business, innovation and enterprise centres. These centres provide comprehensive accommodation and support infrastructure packages to new and early-stage companies. The company operates both wholly and part-owned centres as well as managing facilities on behalf of public sector bodies.

Alison said: “Joining the Basepoint team in Ipswich will allow me to use my experience to help support the future growth of the centre, as well as maintaining its high profile through networking and communication with the licensees.

Basepoint is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ACT Foundation, a leading grant-making charity dedicated to improving the quality of life of those in need. The ACT Foundation derives its income from a substantial and diversified property portfolio of which Basepoint is a major constituent.

: : Construction services firm ISG has strengthened its senior management team with the appointment of Liam Duffy as regional director for its East business.

Liam brings a wealth of industry experience to ISG, with a thirty-year career spanning senior roles with national contractors, working on high-profile projects in the education, health, commercial and residential sectors. He is a former framework director within the housing sector and has extensive framework delivery experience for customers including the Home Office, Metropolitan Police, the Ministry of Justice and BT.

Based in the company’s Ipswich office, Liam will combine a focus on securing additional framework and repeat business opportunities, with an emphasis on ISG’s core strengths in the East region. He will play a key role in the delivery of projects awarded from the recently announced £5 billion Education Funding Agency (EFA) framework, where ISG was successfully appointed in four regions, including the East.

The company is also engaged in its second project as part of the Suffolk County Council framework, working on a £4.7 million scheme to build a new Special Education Needs (SEN) school in Ipswich. The regional business also possess an impressive major project capability, with a large-scale housing and regeneration project in Ipswich for Genesis Housing Association and a £13.5 million office development for insurer Amlin in Chelmsford currently on site.

“This is an excellent opportunity to play a major role in developing ISG’s successful and dynamic business in the East region,” said Liam.

: : An Essex auctioneer has become president of his profession’s governing body, the National Association of Valuers and Auctioneers (NAVA).

Paul Bridgeman, 38, who works for property experts Dedman Gray Auction, assumed the role at a ceremony in London’s Savoy Hotel. Mr Bridgeman, who lives in Tiptree, joined NAVA in 2009 after passing the organisation’s technical award in real property auctioneering. A year later he joined the professional body’s committee and was elected vice-president in June 2013. Now he is to lead the 300 members of his UK-wide association for the next year.

He said: “My aim as president will be to increase the membership in all areas of the auction profession and push for improved standards to which auctioneers work. I also plan to introduce regional NAVA meetings for anyone working in any discipline of auctioneering, not only property, the first of which will be in Essex.”