Winkworth shores up business ahead of tougher regulations

Winkworth is beefing up its franchise proposition and refocusing its compliance and training activities with the appoint of Tara Tan to its main PLC board.

Tan is a qualified solicitor with over 20 years’ experience and first joined the Winkworth team in 2001, becoming a Director of Winkworth Franchising Limited (WFL) in 2004 as Director of Legal and Business Affairs.

GENERAL COUNSEL

She stepped down from WFL and left the Company in 2006 to focus on other interests but re-joined in 2012 as a consultant and in 2014 was appointed to work full time as General Counsel before re-joining the Board of WFL in 2020.

Tan has been tasked to provide ‘strategic and transactional guidance’ to the business development team and the day-to-day commercial operations team as well as continuing to work on brand protection, network compliance and training.

Simon Agace, Non-executive Chair of Winkworth, says: “Tara represents a fresh approach to helping franchisees manage compliance by combining training with a more aligned compliance team consisting of industry, legal and financial professionals.

“The aim is to offer better protection to Winkworth and its franchisees in a competitive industry facing increasing regulation.”

Tan adds: “Winkworth is a heritage brand to whose success I and many at Winkworth, both as franchisees and franchisor, have devoted our careers. For me it has been almost 20 years of close involvement with the company so I am delighted with the opportunity to further develop and grow the business.”

AGENT & HOMES

Elsewhere, Agent & Homes has appointed a professional investor and former asset manager Guy Bowles as a Non-executive Director.

Bowles founded and ran Ingenious Asset Management until 2016 – growing the company to a business managing £2 billion of client assets. Since then he has concentrated on investing in start-up and early stage companies.

Rollo Miles, Agent & Homes Founder, says: “I am delighted that Guy has joined us, both as a director and an investor. He brings a wealth of experience to our board and a hugely impressive track record of success. We are a stronger company as a result and I have no doubt he will contribute massively to our plans for growth.”

Bowles adds: “I have a total belief in their business model and I know that their approach will grow to be a huge part of the estate agency market.

“I have a strong affinity with their ethics and Rollo has built an outstanding team with a strong agent-centric culture. As an investor in the business and as a board member, I look forward to supporting their ambitious plans for growth.”