Emerging Talent

Hannah Brennen

MDA Consulting

Hannah is an Assistant Quantity Surveyor at MDA Consulting’s Leicester office. She joined the company in August 2016 after previous employment in land management, land acquisition and compulsory purchase. She is currently working towards her RICS qualification, and is hoping to achieve MRICS in 2018. Hannah works on a variety of projects across the East Midlands. She has experience in a variety of sectors including; student accommodation, residential, university buildings, warehousing and elderly accommodation. Hannah has specialist knowledge of cost estimating, cost planning, procurement and contract administration.

Hannah believes that the Emerging Talent initiative will act as a starting block for her professional network, which she hopes will develop as she progresses in her career. Hannah is also looking forward to gaining an insight into the work of other professionals within the property and construction sector.

Joe Reilly

Innes England

Joe is a Graduate Surveyor at commercial property consultants Innes England. He is currently integrated within the professional services team and assists with a variety of work including rent reviews and valuations for local and national clients. He is working towards becoming a chartered surveyor by completing the RICS APC process.

Growing up in Rutland, he is excited about the formation of the Emerging Talent initiative that will help provide valuable professional connections in Leicestershire and Rutland as he progresses his career in the property and construction sector.

Lora Moutafova

Howes Percival

Lora is a solicitor at Howes Percival LLP dealing with a range of construction related matters, including all aspects of construction related disputes, drafting and negotiation of building contracts, appointments and warranties. Lora qualified in 2014 and advises both employers and contractors in construction projects. She also has experience dealing with general commercial disputes in the County Court and High Court, interim applications and insolvency proceedings.

Lora is a member of the Emerging Talent steering group, which she hopes will bring together young professionals in the property and construction sector in the region to facilitate better professional links and to establish an active presence in this growing sector for the years to come.

Melissa Chantrill

Gateley Plc

Melissa is an Associate Solicitor in the Real Estate team at Gateley PLC’s Leicester office and acts on the acquisition of sites for development and subsequent disposals, as well as dealing with landlord and tenant portfolio management and real estate finance for institutional lenders.

Nick Preedy

Willmott Dixon

Nick is a Construction Manager for Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd. He has been there for 8 years now, straight after gaining his BSc Honours degree at Oxford Brookes University in 2009, studying Construction Management. Nick completed his placement sandwich year for a Leicestershire medium building contractor, who asked him to estimate costs, manage works, and agree final accounts with all customers, including some large housing associations. Recently Nick has completed the Biocity Discovery Building in Nottingham, and has previously completed project at University of Leicester, and Leicester Food Park for Leicester City Council.

Nick is responsible for ex England and Leicester Tigers player Matt Hampson's new 'Get Busy Living Centre' in Burrough on the Hill, which is a rehabilitation centre for all sport injury victims, in order to support people such as Matt himself. This opens in October 2017, and hopes to gain local and national press coverage for the Construction Industry. Nick's love for rugby union, football, cricket and especially golf in Leicester leads him to get to know fellow Construction Industry people, and hopes to continue this social and corporate professional building.

Nick has joined the ProCon Emerging Talent Board to enhance his relationships with organisations in Leicester, and homes to build on limited networking experience, in order to reach a significant role and position within Willmott Dixon in the near future.

Neal Tanna

Corporate Architecture

Neal is a Chartered Architect with experience in working across a varied range of sectors early on in his career.

His experience ranges from residential dwellings to University accommodation campuses and state of the art commercial office complexes in the USA.

Having been put forward by Corporate Architecture to be part of ProCon’s Emerging Talent initiative, Neal is looking forward to meeting and sharing knowledge with other construction professionals within the sector practicing in Leicestershire and the East Midlands.

Alfie Simons

Corporate Architecture

Alfie graduated from Southampton Solent University in 2015 attaining a First-Class Honours Degree in Architectural Technology BA (Hons), since graduating he has been developing his career as an Architectural Technologist for Corporate Architecture Limited.

Since joining he has gained experience in working on large Commercial Schemes through to bespoke one off New Build Houses and high-end Residential improvements and extensions. Alfie's has quickly expanded his knowledge base, being entrusted to deliver his first turn key project from concept to completion carrying out a complex remodelling and refurbishment of The British Parachute Association’s Head Office in Leicestershire earning him and Corporate Architecture the accolade that the 'management of the project, by Alfie Simons, was on budget and conducted with consummate professionalism'.

Being a part of the ProCon Emerging Talent initiative, Alfie is looking forward to progressing his career by networking with other professionals in the construction industry in Leicestershire and the East Midlands, sharing his own knowledge of the sector whilst gaining invaluable relationships and insights from other ProCon members.

James Spencer

Leicester City Council

James is an Assistant Highway Engineer for Leicester City Council. After gaining his BA (Hons) from the University of Birmingham, he joined the Council as a graduate. Now working in the Council’s Major Transport Projects team, he assists in the delivery of multi-million pound strategic highway schemes to improve the city of Leicester.

James has specialist knowledge in highway design, both of junctions and links, and traffic modelling, using both junction and microsimulation modelling software.

James sees Emerging Talent as a fantastic way for young employees in the property and construction sectors to integrate and share their knowledge.