It's not just large office deals that James Shillabeer, director at Bray Fox Smith, has landed recently, but big carp too. The South East agent has netted some of the area's largest deals this year, including pharma giant Johnson & Johnson's 97,000-square-foot letting at Legal & General's Tempo Maidenhead.

Another deal hooked by Shillabeer this year was Epson's circa 31,000-square-foot prelet at The Clarendon Works in Watford, owned by Regal London. But his landing skills extend outside the office with the lettings broker a keen angler. He tells CoStar News that his passion for fishing was passed on from his father, who first helped him cast a line aged 11. Shillabeer says: "I've just become an obsessively serious fisherman and typically, when the weather is warmer, I go at least once a week, and this is at night.

"I might turn up at 6 o'clock on a Thursday evening and wrap up at 7:30am on a Friday morning – then I'm back in front of the laptop by 9:00am. Over the last 15 years, I've been fishing some serious syndicate waters, typically gravel pits and old quarries. My current syndicate is the Chilston Stour down in Canterbury, Kent, and the biggest fish in there is just shy of 50lbs."

Shillabeer, who covers the whole of the South East for work, says you must "work hard" to catch the biggest fish; something he did this summer when he netted a 63.5 lbs carp at the Gigantic fishing club in Saint-Christophe-Dodinicourt, France. It is the biggest of the circa 900 fish in the 22-acre lake. He isn't coy to highlight the transferable skills between his two passions.

"It is almost quite similar to when I'm homing in on a particular building and a requirement that I think I'm going to land and going to put in the net. It's similar to when I get a bite and I have to land the fish. I enjoy the whole chase and completion of a deal. So in a lot of ways real estate has its similarities to fishing."

LentaSpace, the London-focused flexible workspace operator, has recruited the former chief executive of Argyll as its managing director. Tim Giles brings more than 30 years' experience of the flexible office sector, having worked at Argyll for two decades, leading the business through its post-purchase period. After that, he moved on to Beaumont, another workspace operator, where he served as chief operating office for circa six years, helping it to expand to nine schemes. He joins LentaSpace, which manages a portfolio of 13 buildings across the capital and has been operating since 1981, to work with its chairman Mark Gibbor.

Emma Goodford, Knight Frank’s head of life Sciences and one of the South East's best known real estate advisers, plans to retire from the partnership next March, ending a 37-year career at the company. Since joining as a graduate in 1987, Goodford has worked across several teams, starting in the West End agency before moving to the South East business space team. She made salaried partner at 26 and became a proprietary partner in 2006. From then, she led the national offices team and, between 2014 and 2017, created initiatives to drive occupier business across the firm’s global platform. She also worked with the firm’s US occupier services partner, Cresa.

Cushman & Wakefield has added to its UK healthcare team with the appointment of former CBRE senior director Peter Farnes, who joins as a partner. Farnes will help the agency "bolster its market presence across the sector". He was at CBRE for 12 years and has a "strong track record of portfolio transactions as well as single asset acquisitions and disposals across the healthcare spectrum", his new employer said.

He will work closely with Tom Robinson, whose role as head of healthcare includes valuation and markets, as well as other key figures such as Amy King, head of seniors housing.

CBRE has appointed Paul Surgeon as a director in its rating team, who joins from Montagu Evans’ Manchester office that he helped establish in 2014. At his former employer, Suregon formed part of the leadership team for town centres and repurposing department stores. He also worked for Lambert Smith Hampton.

CBRE added Surgeon has experience 14 years' experience dealing with complex rating issues and specialises in advising large owners, developers and occupiers. He has represented both private and public sector clients, advising on major town centre regeneration schemes including in Durham, Chester, Bootle and Swindon.

Hayley Miles has joined Gerald Eve from property regeneration consultants Aspinall Verdi, becoming a development partner in its Birmingham offices. Miles has more than 22 years of experience in the property industry, including at her last firm where she worked for just under three years, most recently as a director. She also spent time at JLL between 2017 and 2019.

Miles joins Gerald Eve's planning and development team, having worked on the Birmingham Levelling Up Zones, High Street Digbeth redevelopment, and masterplans for towns such as Chelmsley Wood and Wednesbury. The firm also recruited industrial veteran Charles Spicer earlier this year.

Edmond de Rothschild's real estate investment management business has made DJ Dhananjai its chief investment officer in the UK, while adding two others to its senior team across Europe. Based in London and reporting to Edmond de Rothschild REIM UK’s chairman John Partridge, Dhananjai will lead Edmond de Rothschild REIM’s business in the UK, which deals in the residential sectors including affordable housing and build-to-rent. Robbert Zoet is also hired in London as head of real asset distribution for REIM and will manage Fabrice Lefevre-Sory, who joins the Paris office as a senior real asset sales.