Harworth Group has appointed Haroon Akram as Director of Strategy, Investment & Business Development and Dan Needham as Development Director.
As Director of Strategy, Investment & Business Development, Akram will report to Chief Executive, Lynda Shillaw, and work across the business to develop and deliver Harworth’s growth strategy, which was announced in September 2021.
Initial areas of focus will include optimising product mix across Harworth’s major projects, identifying opportunities for organic and inorganic growth, and maximising value from Harworth’s Natural Resources portfolio.
Akram is a Chartered Accountant with over a decade of real estate advisory experience. Most recently he worked within Deloitte’s Real Estate Consulting team, where he specialised in estates strategies across the private and public sector, asset value release and generation, and business case development for strategic land acquisitions.
In his role as Development Director, Needham will be responsible for progressing a number of Harworth’s strategic land and major development sites, reporting to Chief Investment Officer, Jonathan Haigh.
Needham is a Chartered Surveyor with 30 years’ experience in delivering commercial and mixed-use schemes across the Midlands and North of England. He was most recently Development Director at Muse Developments, the urban regeneration arm of Morgan Sindall Group plc, where his major projects included a mixed employment and residential development at Harrier Park in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire delivered in partnership with Rolls-Royce plc; Forge Island in Rotherham, a leisure-led scheme developed in partnership with Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council; and the 22-acre Doncaster Civic & Cultural Quarter.
Lynda Shillaw, Chief Executive at Harworth, commented: “Haroon and Dan are excellent additions to the Harworth team, and bring with them extensive real estate and development experience. These appointments are key to realising our growth strategy and fundamental to delivering our purpose of creating sustainable places where people want to live and work.”
Haroon Akram, Director of Strategy, Investment & Business Development at Harworth, said: “I am pleased to be joining Harworth at such an exciting time for the company, as it embarks on an ambitious growth strategy. Harworth’s strong sense of purpose and its consistent track record of delivering both financially and for communities are what really attracted me to this role, and I look forward to working across the business to unlock the full potential of our unique skillset and extensive portfolio.”
Dan Neeham, Development Director at Harworth, said: “Harworth has established itself as one of the leading development and regeneration specialists in the UK. I am thrilled to be joining the company and look forward to helping Harworth deliver its pipeline of regionally significant projects across its regions, creating sustainable new jobs, homes and communities.”