Another senior Mapeley executive has quit the property outsourcing company.
Managing director Phillip Russell has stepped down, less than a month after deputy chairman and co-founder Robin Priest left Mapeley.
Russell was hired three years ago from Nomura’s former outsourcing arm Servus as part of a recruitment drive to create a permanent team at Mapeley, after it took over the running of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise estate in April 2001.
The business has seen a string of departures since then: London Underground finance director Patrick Butcher joined Mapeley’s board at the same time as Russell, but left at the end of 2003; and former Jones Lang LaSalle CEO for the Americas Bob Spoerri came in as chief executive in 2002, but left after just one year.
Russell had been put in charge of the operational side of the Mapeley business and, more recently, was responsible for new business initiatives.
He sat on the executive committee with Priest and new chief executive Jamie Hopkins.
Mapeley – which is owned by Soros Real Estate Partners, Fortress Investment Corporation and Delancey Estates – has not won any new contracts since the £1.5bn Inland Revenue outsourcing and £460m Abbey National sale-and-leaseback.
Hopkins is understood to want to build up the business with straight property deals, alongside outsourcing contracts.
References: EGi News 07/06/04
