Colin Muller

The senior management team at Muller has been carefully developed since the outset and is staffed with industry professionals across all disciplines, the majority of whom have worked together for a period of over ten years.

The type, nature and size of schemes in which Muller management has been engaged vary widely. It has involvement in its own right and in joint venture partnership with the development of office schemes, pub and hotels, industrial and warehouse development, convenience retail food stores, and trade-counter schemes.

Colin has a career in property spanning some 25 years, having graduated from the School of Architecture, Town Planning and Estate Management, Oxford in 1983 with a BA (Hons) and Diploma in Town Planning. Muller started his career in a land acquisition role for Wimpey and later moved to Alfred McAlpine Plc as Director with responsibility for land acquisition, planning and development functions in the north of England region.

In 1990 at the age of 31, he established his own property business which expanded over a period of three years prior to its merger with Linden Plc, a venture capital backed start-up financed by 3i, Mercury Asset Management and Bank of Scotland.

Colin and his co-directors achieved a full market listing of Linden in 1996 as a quoted house builder which went on to establish start-ups in other regions and to acquire a number of private businesses. By 2000 the business had five operating regions with a turnover of £144m, pre-tax profits of £15.4m and net assets of £52m.

Management undertook an MBO in 2001, valued at £250 million, supported by HBOS. Colin exited and started The Muller Property Group of Companies, now a privately owned business with interests in residential and commercial development, investment, strategic land and project management.

Phillip Johnston
Finance and Operations Director

He also handles a variety of development and planning related issues including S106 agreements, affordable housing provision, viability studies, joint venture agreements and leases for Group properties.

With a large number of joint venture arrangements and numerous group companies, Phillip has management of financial forecasting, budgetary control and cashflow.

Phillip has worked as a finance professional in the construction, housebuilding and property sector for over 20 years. With a BSc (Hons) degree in Mathematics and Management Sciences, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Grant Thornton in 1986.

Following an eighteen month secondment to the European Union Commission auditing steel sales, Phillip joined Hassall Homes as Finance Director. On the sale of the Hassall Group in 1997, he moved to Linden Homes and commenced his twelve year working relationship with Colin Muller.

Whilst primarily engaged in the role of finance, he maintained a hands on role in the sales and commercial functions at Linden Homes and was involved closely in financial forecasting, monitoring, reporting and the relationship with external investors and the bank.

In 2002 he joined the Muller Property Group where he is Finance and Operations Director. This role encompasses a broad ranging involvement in all areas of the business including land acquisition, the raising of project finance, residential sales, project costing, commercial property lettings, company secretarial administration and legal matters.

Carl Davey
Development Director

His involvement at Gleeson encompassed experience of both traditional and greenfield site new home production and mixed use city centre multi-storey construction schemes. Carl’s experience spans 30 years in construction management and production which has included a wide range or projects from single high value bespoke homes to £100 million mixed use developments.

Carl entered the construction industry at grass roots level in 1979 as an indentured apprentice to Bryant Homes building constructing division, before embarking on their management training programme.

He held a variety of construction management roles involved in new home building roles as Assistant Site Manager, Site Manager and Project Manager in the Bryant regional businesses between 1979 and 1997. This culminated in his role as ‘Production Manager” and for a three year period overseeing output from sixteen new homes developments and in excess of 500 homes in the Thames Valley region of Bryant Homes.

Carl moved to the North West Region to resolve both qualitative and volume difficulties within the Warrington based operation until 1997 when he joined Colin Muller at Linden as ‘Production Director” charged with managing both Construction and Customer Care disciplines.

Following the sale of Linden he joined Gleeson Plc as Construction Director following which he was appointed Regional Managing Director with a full team of co-directors covering all house building disciplines.

He joined Muller in 2004 as Development Director, responsible for planning, technical, production, project management, health and safety and customer care for both residential and commercial ventures.

Adam Jacques
Acquisitions & Projects Director

Backed by private equity he also launched a sales and marketing business providing customer acquisition solutions to Avis Europe, Carphone Warehouse, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone. With operations in 3 countries, he sold his interests in 2004 turning his attentions entirely to property with Muller.

Focused on sourcing new relationships with equity partners and finance providers to further Muller Group interests, he has recently secured several instructions for wider project development opportunities, identifying workout solutions for stalled property investments on behalf of private and public financial partners.

Adam is a deal-maker with a tremendous track record in extracting value from partnerships in various industries. He joined Muller in 2005 to identify new joint venture opportunities, to combine the group’s own resources with those of others to achieve greater scale of property based interests. Projects to date include several UK and European land and property acquisitions, securing planning approvals for residential and mixed use developments and the planning of a landmark accommodation tower in Central London.

Adam is also responsible for the development of strategic land planning and promotion, creating an extensive portfolio of land with future development potential, resolving planning and technical issues to create future areas of sustainable community and enterprise.

Prior to joining Muller he held senior roles with Royal Sun Alliance and the Cooperative Bank, his first private sector venture was in 'credit hire' resulting in a private equity sale to Helphire plc, before switching to the Caudwell Group and exiting via a trade sale.

Jeremy Blake
Commercial Director

In 1999 Jeremy was appointed Senior Quantity Surveyor and later Commercial Manager at Linden Homes. He joined Muller in 2006 as Commercial Director undertaking a wide and varied workload including cost management of new build and refurbishment projects, forensic cost analysis, claim management, detailed budget preparation and subsequent interim valuations for bank funding, and fulfilling the role of Contract Administrator on behalf of clients.

Jeremy graduated with a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Quantity Surveying from Nottingham (Trent) Polytechnic in 1992.

He initially joined Poole Stokes and Wood as a Graduate Quantity Surveyor and gained valuable broad based experience in private practice. Jeremy worked on a range of development schemes and was involved in the assessment of costs and establishment of cost plans for a variety of schemes including Hulme re-development and the City of Manchester Stadium. In addition, Jeremy undertook the role of Employers Representative in a social housing partnership agreement with six housing associations and the main contractor, Tarmac Contract Housing.

Jeremy left private practice in 1995 and has since held a variety of senior positions for development companies including Tay Homes, Pembroke Homes and Ausbore Investments, involved in a wide variety of commercial, residential and retail developments.