AEW hires George from ASL

Former Austin-Smith:Lord associate David George has joined AEW Architects as associate director in the Manchester office.

AEW said George will be part of the independent practice's senior management team. He spent six years at Austin-Smith:Lord, and previously spent five years at BDP. ASL is currently fighting to overcome bad debt issues from an aborted job in Abu Dhabi and made several redundancies last year.

Steve Burne, managing director of AEW, said: "It is a significant coup to attract David to AEW, given his reputation in the marketplace. David's ability and commercial awareness to capture and deliver what a client wants matches perfectly the ethos of AEW. His experience and client contacts are complementary to our own and we are delighted to welcome him to the practice."

George said he was not involved in the redundancies at ASL. He added: "I am confident the synergy between my own and AEW's experience will provide a successful basis for new and continued growth. I look forward to the new challenges ahead."

AEW's key clients include Derwent Holdings, Muse Developments, McDonald's Restaurants, Covanta Energy from Waste, CityHeart and St Modwen.