Meet the Team

Mark is a dynamic, confident, experienced UK Director/Managing Director with a proven track record of success in delivery within private residential property development sector. Providing high-level strategic planning, commercial and operational management control skills to deliver and optimise high-end development projects with GDVs of up to £1,800m.

He is experienced in sourcing new development opportunities, assessing viability, negotiating land purchase, agreeing terms, planning and optimising each project to enhance development profit, obtaining planning permissions, monitoring progress, construction quality/timescales, sales initiatives along with control/strategy and P&L with overall control to ensure each project is delivered, on time, to budget and projected values achieved.

Mark is also the Chair of the Essex Developers and Vice Chair of the SELEP Housing Board, board member of ASLEA delivery board and Opportunity South Essex.

Areas of expertise:

• Housing Development
• Affordable Housing markets
• Land Acquisition and Values
• Supply Chain Development
• Procurement and contracts
• Joint Ventures and Collaboration
• Claim Consultant

Sian will spend a day at your business completing a ‘time-in-motion’ piece to help you identify your opportunities for improvements and innovation. Sian will talk to specific staff about their tasks and bottlenecks in their processes. She will also look at the physical space your team work in. By reviewing how they work and interact with each other, she will be able to suggest how you can improve or innovate in this area. Together you will create a clear list of actions that will enable you to implement an innovation project.

Robert is able to make introductions to a number of major project owners and Tier 1 contractors across the SELEP and adjacent regions. He has connections to low-carbon experts and can also advise on funding sources for private sector R&D-related projects. Robert is also an expert on international supply chain management.

Managing Director with over 43 years’ experience in the construction and development sector, 32 years at Director level within major development businesses including Barratt Homes and Wimpey Homes, providing a complete range of management skills including planning, design, land purchase, commercial, sales and marketing, production, customer services, health and safety and general Managing Director functions in a professional, efficient and practical manner, with integrity.

More recently re-established the Ward Homes brand throughout Kent and South London as one of the major homebuilders and in many cases the preferred developer in the area, building excellent relationships with County, Local Authorities and all major stakeholders.

Nick is the Chairman of the Kent Developers Group and a Board Member of Locate in Kent and currently Director of Nick Fenton Associated Limited. He also assisted the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation in the delivery of the required service provision. 

Areas of expertise:

• Off-site construction methods
• Housing Development
• Affordable Housing markets
• Planning and Development control
• Land Acquisition and Values
• Supply Chain Development
• Joint Ventures and Collaboration
• Self Employment
• Development Finance
• Commercial Development, investment in jobs
• Infrastructure Development
• Problem solving
• Utilities
• Partnership
• SMEs

For over 30 years, Derek was a Managing Director/Owner of a regional SME Contractor with a turnover of £10m with ultimate responsibility for the day-to-day running of the business together with strategic business planning to successfully develop the company as a regional recognised brand and achieve significant business growth whilst riding out three recessions.

Derek successfully serviced a diverse client base including commercial, residential, health, retail, historic restoration, education, new build development and permitted development conversions. He achieved ISO9001 (Quality) and ISO14001 (Environmental) accreditation.

Derek also has considerable experience working with business and public sector groups having served on and chaired commissions and development boards including 5 years as Vice Chair of the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP).

He currently provides a consultancy service for construction businesses, developers and clients delivering advice, guidance and mentoring.

Areas of expertise:

• Supply Chain Development
• Business Strategy and Development
• Procurement and contracts
• Development Finance
• Project Management
• Business Structure
• Marketing
• Entering new markets
• Modern Methods of Construction
• Tendering
• New build development and permitted development
• Public sector engagement
• Quality Control
• Recruitment and succession planning

Brian has over 30 years professional experience in the Housing and Development sector, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Prior to setting up Horton Strategic, Brian worked as Strategic Housing Advisor to Kent County Council, Chief Executive of Swale Housing Association and as Executive Director Kent for AmicusHorizon (now Optivo). He previously held positions at Thanet District Council, English Churches Housing Group (now Riverside), the Corporation of London and Wandsworth Borough Council.

Brian is increasingly working with colleagues in the Kent Developers Group, Developers East Sussex and Essex Developers Group to engage and advocate for the business needs of SME’s. 

As Strategic Housing Advisor at SELEP Brian works with all the local authorities across Kent, Essex and East Sussex to promote delivery of housing and share best practice. In his SELEP role he works in partnership with central government and Homes England to accelerate housing delivery across the South East to facilitate significant economic growth. 

Brian is a Board Member at West Kent Housing and Co-opted Member Kent Housing Group Executive Board. He also works through Horton Strategic with Institutional Investors, SME’s, Housing Associations, and larger developers in an advisory capacity.

Areas of Expertise

• Affordable Housing
• Housing Development
• Joint Ventures and Collaboration
• Public private sector partnerships
• Planning and Development Control
• Off-site construction
• Sustainability
• Self-Employment
• Development Finance

Peter was the Operations Director at Kier for 10 years. During the period, the office he was responsible for bid approximately £1,000m of work of which £398m was secured and delivered profitably. Responsibilities included: preparing the 3-year business plan for the profit centres; Safety Health & Environment; marketing & HR. He was responsible for operations – deciding which projects to bid, overseeing submissions of expressions of interest, tendering, construction and post contract.

In 2012 Peter was also appointed as the Chair person to Judge the over £100m Category of the Construction Manager of the Year Award (CMYA) by the Chartered Institute of Building, CIOB. It was the first time a category of this value had been staged. He is currently vice chair on the Professional Membership Review Panel for the CIOB.

After 34 years working for a main contractor, Peter set up a management consultancy business in 2015 to “give back” to the sector and to see SME businesses flourish. Since 2015 he has been supporting construction related businesses and develops bespoke programs for them, so they can see the impact in a short period.

Areas of Expertise

• Business Strategy and Development
• Organisation and structure
• Procurement and Contracts
• Supply Chain Development

Fred's mentoring package is designed for businesses with little or no knowledge of search engine marketing or optimisation. Fred can help you to learn the basic techniques that will make a big difference to getting your business website found on Google. For our more experienced businesses Fred can offer a 3-hour package helping to audit your current website with suggestions for potential improvement of the SEO and your search engine result placements.

Paul has over 38 years of experience; from land identification through the procurement process and development phase to after sales care, Paul has worked to a multitude of contractual arrangements from both the client and developer contractor perspective. Also having worked on small- and large-scale projects, including regeneration and affordable housing, has provided Paul with the experience to support business acumen and commercial perception. Paul has acted in roles previously such as Land Buyer, Area Manager and Regional Land Director. 

Having served on a regional board of a National Developer as Director for Land, Planning and Technical enabled Paul to take an active role in strategic direction, business planning and executive responsibilities, and see progress and growth from his area of business whilst maintaining productivity and morale of a team of 14. 

Paul took an active role as a Business Board Champion for Housing and Development on the South East Local Enterprise Partnership and Kent and Medway Economic Partnership. He was also a Member of the Housing Infrastructure Steering Group. He continues to attend developer and housing group meetings, workshops and working groups, enabling him to keep an up to date knowledge of challenges, emerging policy as well as opportunities and funding for the sector.

Areas of expertise:

• Off-site construction methods
• Housing Development
• Affordable Housing Markets
• Planning and Development Control
• Land Acquisition and Values
• Supply Chain Development
• Business Strategy and Development
• Procurement and contracts
• Joint Ventures and Collaboration

Mark is a highly experienced and passionate generalist HR Director with over 25 years of progressive experience formulating and delivering transformational strategic vision and cultural change within large and SME businesses.

Human Resources is a vast and complex field and navigating these complexities can be taxing and stressful for small businesses. Coming from a construction background Mark has a unique understanding and experience of leading in the construction sector and delivering people related business focused solutions. 

Mark worked at Board level as a Group HR Director (and Civil Engineer) for 15 years, growing a number of construction businesses in Essex from £30m turnover to a listed plc turning over £150m. At the heart of this growth and success – a clear people strategy and the passion to deliver this alongside transformation programmes embedding continuous improvement into the culture of the business.

He works with a wide variety of people ranging from Board Directors, Operational and support teams, graduates and aspiring HR Directors leaving a legacy of process, coaching and understanding in every business he has supported.

Areas of expertise

• Business Strategy and Development - developing a people and culture strategy
• Leading change - business improvement and business restructures
• Getting the people foundations right – processes and policies
• Employee branding/attracting and retaining the right people
• Training plans and developing career paths
• Managing and measuring people performance
• Employment relations cases - HR & Employment Law
• Coaching/mentoring your HR support/leadership team
• Succession planning
• Health, Safety and wellbeing