Two former directors return to McCarthy Stone

Former directors Brendon O’Neill and Kim Caldwell are returning to work at retirement housebuilder McCarthy Stone. 

O’Neill became divisional managing director for the firm’s Southern region on 17 April and Caldwell will be its new group sales & marketing director on 12 June.  

Since 2020 O’Neill has been regional managing director at Persimmon, a job he went to after nearly three years as divisional managing director at McCarthy & Stone’s south division. He has held similar roles at Barratt and Bovis. He replaced Shane Paull, who became the company’s chief operating officer on 3 April.

McCarthy Stone’s Southern division covers the area from Hampshire across to Cornwall and south Wales, and is one of its four operating regions and South Wales. O’Neill will manage the division’s 14 open and selling sites as well as its 13 sites in development. He will also be responsible for buying 12 new sites a year. O’Neill will report to chief executive John Tonkiss and manage 

Caldwell worked at McCarthy Stone for 16 years from 2002 and worked across several roles, including marketing director and resales director. She has been sales director at Bellway Homes for nearly five years. Kim will report to Paull and will take charge of McCarthy Stone’s group-wide sales and marketing activity, and is expected to drive sales growth. This includes delivering the brand strategy of the group, which completed 1,210 new units last year and is currently selling across 100 developments in England and Wales. Caldwell will also progress the company’s move into rental and other tenures.

Tonkiss said: “It is great to secure the return of Kim and Brendon. They have a deep understanding of our business and the retirement community sector, and were both strong performers when they were with us before. They bring huge experience of the housebuilding sector and will help deliver our plans to grow our business back to building and selling more than 2,000 new properties a year.”