Maestra London Expands the Team Again posted: 15/05/2016 Kitchen photo : the four New Arrivals, L to R Hannah Piercy (Production Designer), Lewis Edwards (Warehouse Manager), Juliet Irvine-Fortescue (Operations & Logistics Co-ordinator) and Edwin Higgins (Technical Manager)
Event technical and production specialist Maestra London expands its team again with the addition of four new people who are joining the busy Dubai and London based Maestra Group operation.
Edwin Higgins joins Maestra London as technical manager, Lewis Edwards is the new warehouse manager, Juliet Irvine-Fortescue comes on-board as Operations & Logistics Co-ordinator and Hannah Piercy is the company's second production designer.
Maestra London MD Justin Hammond comments, We've experienced an incredible start to business since launching the company in January, and the timing of these new appointments is partly a reflection of this, but they were also a key to our planned expansion strategy. We have strengthened our talented and highly motivated team ahead of a busy summer!
Juliet Irvine-Fortescue - Operations & Logistics Co-ordinator
Juliet has worked in the events industry for five years and has a wealth of experience from corporate hospitality to music event management and festival operations, as well as being active in promoting and marketing music events in and around Oxford whilst at university, where her creative, organisational and communication skills flourished.
At Maestra she will assist with day-to-day management and have an oversight of all office, warehouse and staff activities and logistics, aiding smooth transitions via an intelligible information stream between the Maestra teams, the equipment, the clients and their respective events. She will also be recruiting and assigning freelancers to projects and helping to manage the office.
Juliet wanted to work for Maestra because she immediately felt honesty and transparency in Justin's approach to business and management - a characteristic that's impressed several others. His management style and structuring of the company encourages creative thinking, dedication, commitment and a real sense of pride in your team' which is highly motivating .
She's looking forward to working with all these dynamic individuals whose aggregate experience unites a diversity of industry sectors and avenues, and is also really keen on advancing her technical knowledge.
Sports-loving Juliet has been a serious chef since the age of 16 and loves cooking in any spare time she might have.
Hannah Piercy - Production Designer
Hannah studied Art & Design at the University of Leeds as an undergraduate and then a masters in Interior Design at Chelsea College of Art, and immediately before joining Maestra was technical designer for a wallpaper company and an interior design assistant.
As the second production designer on-board at Maestra, she will be working closely with head designer Jenny Woollard creating digital artwork and visualisations of event spaces. She will also work on concept-boards, proposals and the sourcing of props and furniture for events.
She was instantly attracted to the young enthusiastic environment at Maestra and the careful consideration given to design that is applied meticulously to every project leading to the outstanding results that Maestra has been getting for high profile clients like Virgin, Warner Music, DHL and others.
Hannah anticipates focussing more on artwork production than in her previous employment and in engaging fully with the overall bigger picture' design process of an event space as well as working with her lively and interesting colleagues.
Edwin Higgins - Technical Manager
Edwin studied a BSc in Audio Visual Technology at Nottingham Trent University and has 10 years' experience at the sharp end of live events working for leading audio rental company Canegreen and respected events company PR Live as well in hip live music venues like the Electric, Brixton.
At Maestra London, he will be producing technical specifications for all the shows and working on site overseeing get-ins, installations, tech sessions, shows, de-rigs and get-outs.
He wanted to work for Maestra because even in three months, the London office had gained an impressive reputation around the industry for delivering ambitious designs and high standards which matched my aspirations as technical manager.
He's really looking forward to taking his varied experience in sound and AV and applying this to the diverse range of events that Maestra produces.
Lewis Edwards - Warehouse Manager
The busy Maestra warehouse in the new east London premises is a frenetic environment with equipment constantly being moved in and out, and Lewis will be ensuring that the operation is smooth, streamlined and efficient in all ways.
He will also be liaising closely with Maestra's project managers and seeing that all the equipment's test certification is current and in order.
His previous industry experience includes the same role for another AV company, working as an LED screen technician and as a set carpenter.
He is excited about working with Maestra because there is a lot of new kit and latest technologies available, together with a great team and he intends to set standards as high as possible .
With the new premises, Lewis has also had the chance to help design the space from the ground up to be functional, practical and maximise everyone's workflow and time.
In his spare time he also manages to squeeze in a bit of DJ'ing!
Full team shot : MD Justin Hammond is 5th from the right (in the blue shirt)
