Robin Howeson promoted to head of auctions at Savills 

Savills has promoted Robin Howeson to head of Auctions, effective from 1 January 2022.

Currently a senior director within Savills Auctions, Howeson takes over from Chris Coleman-Smith who founded the team 23 years ago.

Howeson led the migration of Savills Auctions into a new live stream online format at the start of the first national lockdown in March last year.

Over the last 18 months, the auctions team has completed 17 remote sales, raising over £500m. The team added five new recruits in this period and is expected to expand further in coming months.

Paul Mooney, who joined Savills with Coleman-Smith, and Jeremy Lamb, who joined from BidX1 in April 2020 complete the senior management team supporting Howeson.

Coleman-Smith will continue to play a prominent role in the team in his new role as consultant auctioneer. He will continue to service his existing clients, make the occasional appearance on the rostrum and continue to represent Savills Auctions on the RICS Auctions Working Group.

Coleman-Smith said: “When we founded our auction department over twenty years ago, we couldn’t imagine the phenomenal period of growth we’ve experienced to become a market leading property auctioneer. Over the last 18 months, this success has only accelerated, growing turnover and market share, with Robin playing an absolutely key role in this. While stepping back from running the team, I’m not going far and am looking forward to continuing to work with our many loyal clients.”

Howeson commented: “I’d like to thank Chris for his incredible vision and commitment in building such a strong business, and am delighted that he will continue to play a prominent role in our team.  I am excited at the opportunity to continue to grow Savills Auctions as our clients entrust us to help them sell an ever wider range of properties by value, geography and sector.”

Brian Shaw joins Addland as chief technology officer

Addland has appointed Brian Shaw as chief technology officer.

Shaw, who joins from Hometrack, has over 15 years’ experience in technical design, implementation and integration of core systems spanning various domains including proptech, banking, healthcare, media and IoT. Previous roles include Head of Technical Architecture at Hometrack and Senior Architect at Virtusa.

Shaw follows a string of new recruits at Addland.com’s Notting Hill headquarters, many of whom have joined from within the industry such as Rightmove, Hometrack and Zoopla. The appointments are part of the company’s expansion programme within the UK land market as its service offering continues to grow, covering all land types from development and brownfield sites through to smallholdings and farms, as well as country houses and equestrian homes.

Shaw said: “Addland represents a once in a decade opportunity to create a service that supports the entire land industry – not an opportunity I could miss.”