The brain drain out of Countrywide continues apace after Nick Dunning Associates announced it has appointed Julian Irby as chief financial officer and a main board director.

Other senior former Countrywide staff at Nick Dunning Associates include Graham Harrison (former MD of lettings) and Matt Hewitt (former chief marketing officer) as well as Nick Dunning.

Irby will start in April and arrives from Countrywide following a 16-year career at the company where he held several roles including as finance director of its lettings division and, most recently, national sales and lettings finance director.

It is not a surprise that Irby has moved over; he worked with Nick Dunning at Countrywide and like Dunning has wide experience of acquiring and merging businesses.

Nick set up his company in November last year after a seven-year stint at Countrywide and since leaving, has embarked upon a programme of acquisitions with the aim of creating a fourth large corporate in the property sector, and says he intends to buy 20 mainly lettings businesses a year for the next five years.

Most recently, it bought up Badger Holdings, parent company of the 26-branch Townends and Regents network.

“I am extremely excited to be joining Nick Dunning Associates, a business with significant private equity backed funding and that is focused on acquiring quality lettings businesses over the next five years,” says Julian Irby (pictured, left).

“I am very much looking forward to working again with Nick Dunning, Graham Harrison and Matt Hewitt as we look to make further acquisitions.”