He built up the building group

Having started as an apprentice and made his way to the top of one of Scotland’s largest construction groups, Willie Docherty has announced he will be taking early retirement.

The managing director of City Building has successfully grown the former building services division of Glasgow City Council into one of the largest and most profitable construction businesses in Scotland, with an annual turnover of about £200 million.

He said: “It has been an enormous privilege to lead City Building into the commercial marketplace, where it now competes on an equal footing with the private sector.

“I firmly believe that we created the original – and now well proven – model for future public service delivery which does not draw upon the public purse.”

He said the timing was right for a new management structure to be implemented to drive the business forward within its commercial marketplace.

Docherty, a former Institute of Directors “director of the year”, said he will leave the business by the end of the financial year. His replacement has not yet been confirmed.

Still in construction, building industry body Homes for Scotland has strengthened its planning team with the appointment of Nicola Barclay as principal planning adviser.

Barclay has worked for a number of developers over the past 18 years including Stewart Milne, Bryant Homes, Taylor Woodrow, AWG and MacFarlane Homes.

She has also been involved in the support networking group Women in Property for the past ten years and was chair of the Central Scotland branch in 2007-8.

Elsewhere, brand building expert Bob Brannan has been appointed chairman of Vets Now, the Dumfermline-based provider of emergency and critical veterinary care.

A non-executive director at the firm for the past year, Brannan has previously held senior roles at Whyte & Mackay, William Grant Distillers and Ben Sherman. He has specialised in brand building and undertaking mergers and acquisitions in his previous roles.

Richard Dixon, founder of Vets Now, said: “Bob has been a great addition to the senior team.”