Fast growing London and Dubai based event technical design and production specialist Maestra has welcomed four new team members in London, in time for the busy autumn and winter season.
Justin Hammond, Managing Director of Maestra London, commented: “We are delighted to welcome everyone on board, and have been really impressed with the calibre of people interested in making a commitment to working with Maestra at this very exciting time in our development.”
Lizzie Bishop joins as Senior Project Manager, Alice Dapling comes on board as a Senior Production Designer; Sirajuddin Mohammed is focussed on the financials and accounts, while Jenny Bumanglag strengthens the operations division.
Lizzie Bishop
Lizzie was attracted to Maestra and impressed with it being “a young company with lots of bright sparks”.
She graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Geography, then started off her career in events as an Events Co-ordinator for Wise Productions, specialising in delivering technical production in unique London venues such as palaces, art galleries, museums and skyscrapers.
Her role as Senior Project Manager puts her right at the heart of the Maestra action, where she will be managing events from concept and idea through to full completion and delivery, working alongside the innovative technical and design teams. Her work will encompass anything from high profile London-based awards events, through to a diversity of large international conferences.
Lizzie finds the team “exceptionally creative, supportive, kind and fun”. She was also keen to work with a company with a strong international portfolio, which will provide fresh challenges and enable her to learn and expand her horizons.
Lizzie is known for her excellent organisational and communication skills and is ideal for co-ordinating complex production scheduling and logistics in a calm and collected manner.
She loves the people and the dynamics of live events, the vibrancy of the industry in general and the chance to harness new, fresh and interesting ideas and technologies in pursuit of offering a superlative guest experience.
Lizzie spends her spare time socialising, watching theatre and walking through cities at night, imbibing the buzz and the energy of urban life. She also plays the trumpet and enjoys skiing.
Alice Dapling
Alice studied Interior Architecture at Cardiff Metropolitan University (UWIC) and worked in an architectural practice before moving to London in 2012, where she worked at Event Concept for over five years before joining Maestra.
Here, she joins two other experienced and highly imaginative designers and will be producing creative concepts and design proposals including CAD visualisations and renders, 3D modelling, developing pitches, sourcing props and furniture, and creating visual content and graphics. She will also be working on site to co-ordinate the delivery of events and environments.
Alice wanted to work at Maestra after seeing the portfolio of work and realising she would be part of what is clearly a strong and autonomous design team. She really likes the people involved and appreciates the opportunity to travel and work on Maestra’s many international projects.
She has a keen eye for detail and is a perfectionist – by her own declaration, “sometimes to the point of annoyance”!
The best parts of the job for Alice include seeing all aesthetic elements unite to produce a stimulating live event environment, and she relishes the pace, freneticism and fast-moving world and the challenges of having to quickly transform a room or a place into a transitory space with its own unique atmosphere.
Offsite, she loves food – eating more than cooking – anything to do with architecture and design, being out and about in London, the theatre…and also skiing. Together with Lizzie and Justin also being keen skiers, Maestra looks set to soon have its own skiing team!
Jenny Bumanglag
Jenny has been passionate about live events since she was very young, transfixed by watching them on TV, and visiting the theatre and many music concerts where she loves the drama and vibes!
Always wanting to work in this industry, she chose to study a degree course in Live Events and TV at the London College of Communication.
A recent graduate, Jenny’s university projects included producing live talk shows, creating set models and hosting fundraisers for awareness campaigns. She also loves being hands-on with arts and crafts.
As Operations & Admin Assistant, she will be working closely with Operations Manager Juliet Irvine-Fortescue, and ensuring the sometimes mind-boggling logistics of an event run smoothly – which includes the very unglamorous tasks of running spreadsheets, plus organising and booking crews and suppliers. These are all areas where her organisational talents and attention to detail are hugely beneficial!
She wanted to work at Maestra to learn more about the design and production aspects of an event, within the lively and creative working ambience which is helping the company’s success to flourish.
In her own time, Jenny enjoys travelling and participating in adventure activities, and she is also a big foodie.
Sirajuddin Mohammed
Having a well-organised accounting department is vital for busy event companies, and Siraj was seeking a challenging position in a high pressure, intense – but fun – setting…so Maestra ticked all his boxes!
Before arriving at the Maestra London office and warehouse space in Greenwich, he worked as a volunteer for Buckinghamshire NHS Trust in the accounts department where he cut his teeth in learning everything from bank reconciliation to maintaining ledgers. He also volunteered at the Langdon Foundation which helps enable Jewish people with learning disabilities to lead independent and fulfilling lives, again in the finance department, reporting to the financial controller helping to prepare budgetary reports.
Siraj came to the UK in 2012 to study for his Masters in International Finance at the University of Westminster and graduated in 2013. Before then, he studied Mathematics to undergraduate and graduate levels in India – so he knows a thing or two about numbers!
He didn’t have any previous event industry experience prior to starting at Maestra, but the company vibe really appealed to him as he wanted to collaborate with other young, talented, hardworking individuals all dedicated to delivering outstanding results.
Siraj keeps all the accounts in order at Maestra London and also assists his manager, who works at the Maestra Dubai office, in preparing statistics and performance reports. He really appreciates having major responsibilities in a company culture, allowing him to excel at these tasks without being micro-managed.
Maestra is a fast-growing company, the pace is energetic, positive and invigorating, and Siraj brings the attributes of calm, logic and – literally – calculation to the table. He’s a great fit!
In his spare time, he’s a cricket enthusiast and enjoys watching movies – both Hollywood and Bollywood productions – as well as following what is happening in the stratosphere of global finance.
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