We Bolster Our Management Team

We have bolstered our Management Team with the recent appointment of Associate Director Chris Lenehan and HR Manager Karey Wardhaugh. The senior appointments come off the back of another successful year, which saw our practice securing B Corporation Certification.

Chris Lenehan joins from DMWR Architects, where he gained experience across a range of sectors including industrial warehousing, self-storage, retail, residential and town centre masterplanning. Chris will play a key role in delivering our extensive portfolio of industrial projects nationwide.

Karey Wardhaugh joins from creative marketing agency Shoot the Moon, where she was Head of HR and Talent. Karey is a CIPD qualified HR professional with extensive experience in the design industry. She will oversee all aspects of our People Strategy on behalf of the practice.

Chris said of his new role: “With the recent B Corp announcement, it’s an exciting time to be coming onboard.”

Karey added: “I’m thrilled to be joining AEW. The practice has established a great people culture and I’m looking forward to working with the team to support AEW’s plans for growth.”

Andrew Rainford, Managing Director of AEW, said of the appointments:

“We’re delighted to have both Chris and Karey join us and help bolster our Management Team. These appointments will reinforce our expertise and experience in the commercial sector, whilst ensuring we maintain the highest standards of recruitment, employee care, and people development. We’re aiming to build on the success of 2022, which saw us celebrate our 30th birthday, announce two new Directors and achieve a 30% increase in net turnover.”

The senior appointments form a key part of our plans for continuous improvement and growth, as was gaining B Corporation Certification. B Corps are companies that meet high standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency. We bring the total number of UK-based, architecture and design practices with Certification to 16.

Andrew added: “The B Corp Certification recognises the ethical and sustainable way we have conducted our business internally and externally for over 30 years. The application process required a real team effort over several months and it’s great to see that hard work pay off. With so few UK-based, B Corps in the ‘Architecture design and planning’ industry, we’re delighted to now be counted amongst this leading group.”