KEN HAWLEY has been appointed managing director of building and architectural firm the LHL Group.

He is the founder of Hawley and Partners, of Leeds and Doncaster, which merged with Lightly and Lightly, in York, to form the LHL Group last month.

As the first managing director of the business, Mr Hawley will finalise the merger of the two businesses and oversee the group's 40 staff, based in five offices in North, West and South Yorkshire.

He is a former chairman of the Yorkshire branch of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a past president of its building surveying division.