GALLICO has appointed GERRY MULCAHY as commercial director at Athlone Towncentre. Since March 2006 he has been centre manager at Manor Mills in Maynooth, Co. Kildare. And MICHAEL FLANAGAN has been appointed operations manager. For the past seven years he has worked as duty manager/retail park and leisure manager at the Blanchardstown centre in Dublin.

LISA FISHER has joined shopping centre marketing, graphic design and digital media specialists THE ALLEN DESIGN GROUP. She has over 10 years of experience in marketing and consultancy.

CHURSTON HEARD has appointed VICTORIA GOULD as senior surveyor in its Northern Home Counties team. She joins from Colliers CRE and will deal with The Eastgate shopping centre, Basildon, The Vancouver Quarter in King's Lynn, Palace Gardens, Enfield and The Marlowes shopping centre in Hemel Hempstead.

LUNSON MITCHENALL has recruited JASON HAXTON as a rent review surveyor from CWM. He will operate within the rent review team working primarily on the shopping centre instructions.

MULTI DEVELOPMENT has appointed GIOVANNI LAZZARI as commercial director, responsible for its €750m Italian property portfolio. He joins from Milan-based Progetti Commerciali.

MICHAEL WILSON has joined the SECURITY INDUSTRY AUTHORITY as chief executive. He takes over from Andy Drane who was acting chief executive. Before joining the SIA, he was chief executive of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority, and before that was chief executive of the Defence Vetting Agency.

EMMA MCCREADIE has joined TOOLBOX MARKETING from Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College where she worked as a marketing executive specialising in student recruitment.

Consulting Engineers HOARE LEA has promoted STEVE DELVIN to partner. He joined Hoare Lea's Poole office in 1999 as a graduate engineer. He was promoted to associate in 2005 and now, at the age of 31, has become one of the youngest partners of the firm.

HENRIK MADSEN has joined MACARTHURGLEN as its new regional director for the UK. He has a strong track record in the fashion industry at brands like Mui Mui, French Connection and Kasper Europe. He was most recently the vice president at Kenneth Cole Productions.

CATHY CONWAY has joined DRANSFIELD PROPERTIES as PR and marketing manager. For the past five years she has been a freelance consultant.

IAN SULLIVAN has joined PRUPIM to focus on the property investment for the newly-launched M&G Secured Property Income Fund which invests primarily in UK commercial real estate with fixed or inflation-linked rental uplifts. He joins from Drivers Jonas where he was head of north of England investment.

THE JUNCTION has appointed LOIS WILLIAMS as responsible business manager. She will be responsible for the development and implementation of the company's Responsible Business strategy, with a particular focus on investing more strategically in the local community and formalisaing The Junction's environmental management system. She was previously at leading corporate responsibility consultancy, The SMART Company.

IAN GREGORY has been appointed as technical manager at ductwork cleaning specialist INDEPTH HYGIENE SERVICES.

SAVILLS has expanded the retail team at its Grosvenor Hill office in London with the appointment of SARA JONES as a senior surveyor. She has over seven years' property experience at DTZ and Nelson Bakewell. Director Chris Blair said: "I am sure Sara will prove an asset to the department." At the same time as this appointment ANNA STEWART has joined the Savills in-town retail team as a surveyor.

SIMONS DEVELOPMENTS has appointed DI HARVEY as a development surveyor. The Simons portfolio includes town centre/edge of centre mixed use and shopping centre schemes together with retail warehousing developments. She joins from The Junction, Capital & Regional's retail park fund.

Manager of the month

Mark Rycraft was appointed as centre manager at the 550,000- sq ft Middleton Grange shopping centre in Hartlepool in April 2006. For the first three months he managed two centres totalling more than a million sq ft and 120 miles apart.

During his first month in the post, he set up and approved a £2.6m service charge budget and in his first seven months he implemented a restructuring of the entire on-site team, before going on to retender and then implement the £1.6m facilities management contract.

This process included the creation of a new tenant liaison manager's post. This does not preclude the centre manager visiting the mall's 150 individual retailers, but it does give them an immediate point of contact and has greatly improved lines of communication.

Tenants trading poorly are offered opportunities to improve footfall and trade by using space in the mall free of charge or by dressing the windows of vacant units. For example, three retailers were invited to sell flowers from the malls on Mothers' Day with great success and profitability. He has also revamped the leasing processes for the centre's market hall, cutting out the arduous and expensive process of drawing up agreements and leases and allowing start-up businesses and market traders to take space on an easy-in easy-out basis.

Outside the centre, Rycraft has assisted Hartlepool's charities, including the town's Round Table, the hospice, the women's refuge and the ShopMobility scheme in raising over £200,000.

Since Christmas 2007, footfall at Middleton Grange has been consistently up year-on-year, so far by an average of 3 per cent.

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