Leading, international multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy, Hilson Moran, has appointed Chris Balch as non-Executive Chairman. Chris is an expert in planning, development and regeneration. He will undertake his new role with Hilson Moran alongside his current position of Professor of Planning at Plymouth University, where he is Chair of the Management Board for the Institute for Sustainable Solutions Research (ISSR). Previously, he held various senior positions at DTZ, which culminated in the role of Managing Director UK & Ireland.
Chris’s professional experience includes the development and funding of complex and large scale projects. He has been involved in millennium projects such as the Lowry in Salford, The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and the Odyssey project in Belfast. He was Chair of the Basildon Renaissance Partnership and contributed to planning, economic and development strategies for major transportation and infrastructure projects, such as the East London River Crossing and the Channel Tunnel rail link. His international experience includes advising on the Dubai International Finance Centre and the National Plan for Bahrain.
Chris Plummer, Managing Director of Hilson Moran, said: “Hilson Moran is a substantial organisation and we see the commercial advantage in having a non-Executive Chairman with broad experience in the property industry. Increasingly, our work is focused on the early stages of projects, assisting clients with developing strategies and masterplanning, and Chris’s unique blend of commercial acumen and academic expertise will assist us in enhancing our service offering to clients, as well as complementing perfectly the existing skills of our board”.
