Brookbanks hires Thorley as director

Development consultancy Brookbanks has hired Andrew Thorley as operations and executive director.

Thorley spent 14 years at Taylor Wimpey in various roles, most recently as land and planning director. He joined the housebuilder in 2005 on a graduate scheme before being appointed as strategic land and planning manager, and later as regional director for the North West and West Midlands.

In his most recent role, he spent more than a year working as land and planning director across Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cheshire.

Cheshire-based Thorley joins Brookbanks after resigning from his role in August and leaving the company in December. His time will be split between the company’s office in Salford Quays and its headquarters in Solihull, West Midlands.

Thorley said: “Brookbanks is a name that is not too well-known in the North West at the moment, which we’re going to change. [The company] can turn its hand to literally anything. It really drives value into schemes and the technical knowledge held within Brookbanks helps drive value for the people we work with.”

Brookbanks has worked on a variety of projects across the UK, including Colmore Plaza in Birmingham, a city-centre office development, and a Morrisons’ distribution plant off Junction 23 of the M5 in the South West of England. He was unable to say if he would be working on any North West schemes in the immediate future.

Thorley added: “Taylor Wimpey was brilliant for me, I have nothing but good things I can say, but the move was very personal and it’s an opportunity to do something so different that if you get it right, it could be really good.”

Brookbanks’ managing director, Paul Boileau, said: “This is a really exciting time for the company and I am proud to be heading up the strong management team who are delivering an ambitious development and business plan. This year is set to be an extremely positive one for Brookbanks.

“Andrew’s skills in major project delivery and his senior management experience are key because our existing function and the further direction of travel is more about partnerships with housebuilders.”