One of the Midlands’ leading technical consultancies has announced a bold vision for the future by strengthening its board of directors and unveiling a new brand identity.
MEC Consulting Group, formerly M-EC Development Technical Consultants, has promoted Tim Rose to Regional Director (Leicester) while adding Rob MacDonald as Regional Director (Birmingham) and Dave Stockton as Director – Civils & Structures. In addition to its name change and new appointments, the firm has updated its branding and website to reflect this new phase of growth.
MEC’s Managing Director, Alex Bennett explains: “Since becoming MD in the final quarter of last year, I’ve had the opportunity to review our business goals and reprioritise. Key outcomes from this exercise were the need to broaden client awareness of the full suite of services we offer, and to expand our work with housebuilders and developers.
“To achieve this, we have deliberately recruited from within the housebuilding industry, appointing two well-connected and respected professionals in Dave and Rob. Both have two decades’ expertise working for regional developers and national PLCs, meaning they have an inherant understanding of the quality and service required, and are entirely commercially minded. This, coupled with our collaborative approach, is what we believe will set MEC apart.”
Assuming responsibility for MEC’s ten-strong Civils & Structures team is Dave Stockton, a qualified civil engineer whose career encompasses consultancy roles and working directly for housebuilders including Bellway Homes and Countyside Partnerships.
Dave comments: “The directorship at MEC appealed because I could help shape the redirection of the business and bring fresh insight into the design standards and value engineering that developers expect. Being a multi-disciplinary consultancy also means we offer a ‘one-team’ service, which can significantly increase speed of development delivery, so is an added advantage.”
Heading up MEC’s relaunched Birmingham office is Rob MacDonald. Aside from short spells with a consultancy and local authority, Rob’s career has been entirely in residential development, undertaking senior technical and director roles at Taylor Wimpey, Cala Homes and Wain Homes.
“I’ve known and worked with MEC for around 13 years so when I became aware the company was looking to re-establish its presence in Birmingham, the opportunity was too good to miss,” said Rob. “Birmingham’s property sector is thriving. The city has plenty of exciting developments underway as well as ambitious plans for continued regeneration. I’m looking forward to connecting with many of the region’s developers and helping facilitate schemes that will provide quality new homes and places of work.”
Established in 2009, MEC has offices in Leicester, Birmingham and Brighton. Flagship schemes include the SUE allocated site at Elmsley Heath, Mansfield which is set to provide up to 800 homes; a 294-bed BTR scheme at 100 Broad Street, Birmingham; a mixed commerical and retail scheme in Ely, Cambridgeshire; the extension of the Leicester Riders basketball arena; and involvement in muliple residential schemes within the emerging Worcester Parkway development area which will eventually deliver 10,000 homes.
“Our team has a wide breadth of knowledge across multiple disciplines so we are keen to build upon our reputation as a ‘safe pair of hands’ as we embark on our next phase of growth,” adds Alex. “With new leadership now in place, clients can be assured they will receive timely, robust and considered advice as well as a senior point of contact for the duration of a project.
“All of this means our future looks very positive. We have the official opening of our Birmingham office to look forward too, which presents opportunities for recruitment and to achieve our target of employing a team of 50 specialists by the end of the year, plus in December we will celebrate 15 years in business, which will be an extremely proud milestone for us all,” concludes Alex.