Colin Read FRICS

Managing Director
Senior Valuer UK

Colin is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He established Drummond Read Associates in 1992. Prior to this he had gained experience at Sotheby's in Chester and London before running auction rooms in Hampshire and Somerset.

He formed Drummond Read Associates whilst being employed as a full-time senior lecturer on the BA Fine Arts Valuation degree at Southampton Solent University, where he specialised in valuation and saleroom management, auction law and professional practice.

Colin identified the need in the marketplace for a valuation company that could provide authoritative reports and valuations at a calibre required by the legal profession and those organisations requiring an informed valuation and report in complex and litigious situations.

He and his team have provided specialist reports to insurance companies, loss adjusters, the police, the legal profession, and international government agencies.

He has undertaken valuations for probate purposes for over 30 years including high net worth estates. A sensitive and discerning approach is provided where estates are contentious and complex. In these situations not only a professional report and valuation is required but also direction. Issues such as dispute resolution, co ordinating equitable distribution of chattels within the family, inventories for storage and shipment to beneficiaries etc are required.

Colin also assists Private clients departments where solicitors are acting as Power of Attorney.

The development of Drummond Recruitment, the first specialist Fine Art recruitment company, enabled Colin to set up an enviable, reliable and first-class network of consultants within a variety of specialist disciplines.