Leading Midlands property and construction consultancy Wakemans has announced the launch of a new Specialist Support Services division, bringing together a comprehensive suite of commercial, dispute resolution and project advisory capabilities. Industry veteran, Richard Lyndon, has been appointed as Executive Director to lead the development and launch of the division.

Wakemans, one of the Midlands’ leading property and construction consultancies, has announced the launch of a new Specialist Support Services division, a dedicated offering designed to significantly extend the firm’s capability in commercial dispute resolution, project risk advisory and supply-chain financial management. The new division sits alongside Wakemans’ established service lines and reflects the firm’s continued investment in deepening its offer to clients across the UK. To lead the development and launch of the division, Wakemans has engaged Richard Lyndon as Executive Director.

“The launch of our Specialist Support Services division represents an important step in the development of Wakemans. It deepens our capability in areas where clients increasingly need specialist support and ensures we can offer a genuinely comprehensive service from a single, trusted partner. Engaging Richard to lead this division brings significant expertise and credibility to the offering from day one.” – Dean Watson, CEO, Wakemans

The new Specialist Services division has been established to meet growing client demand for expert advisory support at the points where construction and development projects encounter their greatest commercial pressure. Whether that means navigating a contractual dispute, managing a claim, recovering margin on a distressed project or providing embedded commercial resource to a supply chain stakeholder, the division is structured to intervene effectively at every stage of the project lifecycle. Its expertise spans the full range of dispute resolution disciplines; from quantum, delay and disruption analysis, through to forensic investigation, insurance claims support and formal ADR advocacy, as well as independent project auditing, risk advisory and funding / financing monitoring. For clients who need specialist capability embedded within their own operations, the division can also provide through short or longer term support assignments in-house commercial, legal, contractual, procurement and project controls support on an outsourced basis.

Richard brings some four decades of industry experience spanning construction, engineering, energy, oil and gas, and international capital projects, with a career that has taken him from private practice quantity surveying in the UK through to board-level executive roles across Europe, North America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. He holds several academic and professional qualifications in Law, Finance and Management. Over the course of his career, Richard has accumulated more than 22 years in international in-house leadership positions in construction, engineering and OEM manufacturing equipment and energy groups, so not only brings deep experience with client-side representation but so too from a commercial contracting approach.

He previously served as a Director of Wakemans in the 1990s, where he founded and led a specialist division delivering litigation support, insolvency management and project recovery services, giving him a deep understanding of the firm, its values and the clients it serves. It is that experience and established relationship that makes him ideally placed to lead the new division.

“I am delighted to be re-engaging with Wakemans and to be leading the launch of this new division. The firm has an excellent reputation and a strong client base, and I see significant opportunity to develop a specialist advisory capability that will add real value in the market. I look forward to building again something that reflects the quality and ambition of the wider Wakemans business.” – Richard Lyndon, Executive Director, Wakemans

The breadth of the Specialist Services offered also enables Wakemans to provide deeper, more integrated support to its existing client base, ensuring that clients who already work with the firm across its core disciplines have access to specialist advisory capability when projects demand it.

“This new division reflects the natural evolution of our business and our ambition to offer clients more. Richard’s depth of experience in complex commercial and advisory work is exactly what is needed to build this service to the standard our clients expect. We are delighted to be working with Richard again in this capacity.” – Shaun Baugh, Joint Managing Director, Wakemans

With a client base that includes some of the UK’s most recognised names across industrial & logistics development, hospitality and commercial property, including Travelodge, Indurent, Stoford, DHL and Hillwood, Wakemans has built a strong reputation for delivering complex, high-value projects across a range of sectors and markets.