Geoff Farge

Geoff has 37 years experience in the field of vertical transportation during which time he has worked in technical, sales, marketing and managerial roles with Otis, a global leader in the lift and escalator market.

He began his career in the industry in various positions including field roles and repair estimating and order processing, rapidly rising to the position of sales engineer.  Geoff specialised, whilst in Sales Engineering, in traffic analyses and the gathering of on-site data through the use of in-house data logging equipment.

In the seventies Geoff continued his education part time, firstly at Woolwich College and finally at Greenwich University studying Engineering Systems to degree level. In the early eighties he furthered his career moving into a Marketing role helping to develop new products to meet the rapidly changing demands of the lift and escalator market.

In 1988 he was appointed Sales Manager of the Service Sales team in the West End of London and quickly developed an extensive knowledge of all market sectors in general and of the retail and hotel sectors in particular. The success in London enabled Geoff to progress on to Key Account Management in 1992 where he developed and maintained strong relationships with some of the most prestigious UK customers, many of whom were national retailers. 

In addition to his account management experience he has been involved in project management of major modernisation projects in the UK. Further career development with continued demonstration of leadership skills led to an expansion of this role with the whole Key Accounts team.  He was appointed Manager of Key Accounts and Business Development in the Service Operation for the UK early in 2008, becoming a senior manager in Otis Limited.  Geoff joined Lerch Bates as a Director in May 2011 with the Business Development brief.

Expertise

Lift Equipment Specification

• Competent in producing specification documents for new lift equipment in both new and existing buildings, tendering and tender evaluation
• Competent in undertaking surveys of existing lift systems and producing modernisation specification documents for existing buildings, tendering and tender evaluation

Project Management

• Competent to manage complex lift/escalator modernisation projects to achieve completion within budget and target time scales

Maintenance Contracts

• Competent in producing performance based maintenance contract documents and tendering
• Extensive experience in maintenance contracts and large portfolios
• Experienced in designing and producing various types of maintenance contracts

Surveying

• Competent to undertake lift/escalator equipment surveys and produce reports

Risk Assessment

• Ability to undertake and prepare risk assessments

Codes and Standards

• Has general understanding of all standards, codes and practice and regulations
• Ability to undertake and prepare risk assessments

Equipment

• Otis Group Companies
• Evans
• Express

Nadine Tissot

Nadine Tissot joined Schindler Elevators as a mechanical design engineer after gaining her Degree in Engineering. A few years later, Nadine assumed the responsibility of design office manager for new installations and modernisation. She was in charge of supervising special projects for the installation of lifts in a variety of settings, ranging from cruise ships to subways, including many residential buildings. Nadine then moved to Mitsubishi Elevators as a design manager. Her main tasks were to follow up projects with clients and to monitor technical studies.

Nadine joined Lerch Bates in 2011 as a Senior Consultant in Paris and brings 16 years of experience in vertical transportation, both in technical, managerial and monitoring business.

David Brown

David Brown has over 48 years of wide ranging experience in the lift and escalator industry commencing with a five year apprenticeship with Otis covering all aspects of installation and maintenance. On completion of his apprenticeship he continued his training with lengthy spells on the drawing board, in sales engineering and estimating before joining the Otis sales team. David later joined the Express Lift company where he progressed over time from sales consultant to London sales manager to export sales manager before re-joining Otis on their takeover of Express as major account executive until he retired in 2008.

During his varied career with Express/Otis he has travelled extensively and been located in many parts of the world, including Asia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Emirates. David has been involved in setting up agencies, supervising sales and sales engineering requirements for many major offices, towers, hotels and retail centres and handled all disciplines within the industry with the exception of manufacture.

After a  period of retirement David joined Lerch Bates Ltd  in 2011 as Director, Systems Development.

Expertise

High Rise Design

• Competent in the VT design of new buildings – Commercial, residential, hotels, retail centres and in the production of Concept & Schematic Design Reports

Lift System Design

• Extensive experience of traffic analysis and design of lift services
• Knowledge of Double Deck lift design