Nick Medhurst – Chairman

Nick’s career has spanned across investment banking specialising in property, and private sector housing for social housing needs.

Nick joined Orchard & Shipman in 2003 and was Chief Executive until January 2008 during which time he was closely associated with the development of the Company’s social housing activities. Since then he has been Group Chairman with particular responsibility for representing the Board both within the Company and externally.

For the first part of his career, Nick worked in property market analysis and investment banking in London, Western Europe and the Middle East with companies which included Commercial Union, GT-Management and MMG. His primary role involved the structuring and negotiation of property related transactions including mixed use developments, public/private sector partnerships and corporate financing.

John Taylor – CEO

John has worked in social housing for 20 years within local authorities, RSLs and private sector organisations.

In March 2008 John was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Orchard & Shipman Plc. The property services group currently manages over 4,000 properties for 8 local authorities and private landlords.

John started his career as a general needs Housing Officer in St Marylebone HA in central London. Two years later he joined Notting Hill Housing Group in the early 1990s John specialised in the provision of temporary housing and property leasing as the Group’s Housing Strategy Manager.

After 6 years building the service into the largest operator in the country John established a housing development and finance consultancy; Henderson Taylor Partnership. The company was involved in a diverse range of projects from regeneration projects in the Coalfields to working with property developers on S106 agreements.

After 5 years John left the company to join Genesis Housing Group as a Deputy Director of Pathmeads HA. His brief included operating a 6,000 unit temporary housing business, a maintenance contracting company and a residential lettings business.

Chris Shipman – Director

Chris Shipman together with John Orchard founded Orchard & Shipman in 1988.

With over 30 years in the residential property market and nearly 10 years in the public sector area Chris has experienced a great deal of change in terms of client expectations and the economic and political environments in which we operate.

With a continual focus on the need for the company to be creative and adapt to its environment and the needs of its customers, Chris has largely been responsible for the development of new services and strategic development. However, with a strong senior management team in place his role has increasingly become one of ensuring the appropriate support and resources are available for the business to continue to flourish.

John Orchard – Director

John founded Orchard & Shipman in 1988 alongside Chris Shipman.

John is a sales professional and in the early years ensured that Orchard & Shipman were highly effective at selling and letting properties. As the business expanded John increasingly concentrated on training and managing the sales teams and with a natural eye for detail ensured that our processes were efficient and properly documented.

John now works as a director on the plc board and is often involved with the implementation of new services.

Adrian Gillooly – Director

Following graduation from Loughborough University, Adrian qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in 1997. He later joined the Boots Group Plc as an internal auditor and then moved into a decision support role within the marketing business of Boots the Chemist. The opportunity arose to join Inn Partnership, a pub company owned by Nomura and controlled by Guy Hands, as the Financial Controller. Following a successful business re-engineering and disposal, Adrian moved south to join the Berkeley Group Holdings Plc, as Finance Director for their Commercial Property Division.

At Berkeley, Adrian was instrumental in the development and ultimate disposal (to Land Securities) of the prestigious Gunwharf Quays development in Portsmouth. He also played a major part in the negotiation and implementation of £1bn offshore Joint Venture with a major shareholder of the Group to leverage opportunities in the commercial and residential property market as the credit crisis and economic downturn began to bite in 2007.

Adrian joined Orchard & Shipman plc in June 2008 as Group Finance Director.

Helen Tindall – Director

As Director of Corporate Services, Helen is dedicated to ensuring that employees are not only motivated and inspired in their employment with us but are truly aligned to our vision and our values.

To achieve this, a key part of her role is to ensure that an effective framework for recruitment, development and the retention of staff is upheld, within a fair and transparent environment.

Helen also works closely with all the Company’s Directors and Managers, to shape our working processes and assist in creating a culture that together improves the Company’s capacity for change and will enable us to live up to the Company vision.

Helen’s career began in the banking world, but after a few years she moved into Sales for an Optical Company where she became a Project Manager dealing with all their key clients and running a team of sales and service engineers. In 1990 Helen joined Campsie, looking after HR, office management and special projects; these ranged from office refurbishments to the replacement of the entire IT structure. She also dealt with many of the key clients and suppliers, oversaw advertising and marketing and finally trouble shooting

Claire Aspinall – Director

Claire’s career spans over 15 years in the property industry, working with major brands in both residential and commercial property.

As Director of Marketing and Communications Claire is responsible for the ongoing development of the Orchard & Shipman Group plc’s brands .   Claire also plays a pivotal role in ensuring that through accessible communication channels, relevant and detailed information is available to all existing and potential customers and partners.

Claire joined the board of directors in 2011

Samantha Male – Director

Samantha has substantial experience of the property industry. With a degree in Building, Samantha joined Harrods Department store as a Quantity Surveyor before moving into the public sector. Samantha gained operational experience leading a number of teams in social housing, including general needs, short term leasing and supported housing before moving into Business Development and specialising in developing new business areas.

Samantha has successfully set up a Residential Lettings Agency and has provided consultancy advice for a number of other Housing Associations with regards to short term leasing schemes. More recently Samantha has led on the amalgamation of 4 Housing Associations, covering 48,000 residents and delivering both operational and cultural change to 1,600 staff.

Samantha joined the Orchard & Shipman Group as Group Commercial Director to primarily develop and manage two new companies; Orchard & Shipman Care and Support Ltd and Orchard & Shipman Homes Ltd.

Malcolm Harrison- Director

Malcolm has worked in Property Consultancy for over 24 years, following qualification with West End Firms, he joined a multi disciplinary Surrey Practice and helped expand its services to include Project Management, Architecture and Mechanical and Electrical divisions, after 11 years he left to set up his own Practice which he ran for 10 years, undertaking Building Surveying and Project Management work across the commercial sector.

In April 2010 he merged his business with Campsie and became Managing Director, his wish is that Campsie build on its reputation to provide excellent property advice across the Thames Valley, and introduce our Sales Offices into new locations.