A life sciences specialist has been appointed the new managing director for Oxford North ahead of its planned opening next year.

The £700m ‘innovation district’ will comprise one million sq ft of new labs and workspace and 480 new homes surrounded by public parks and amenities.

Simon Ruck has joined from Brookfield-owned Advanced Research Clusters where he was director of asset management at the Harwell campus in Oxfordshire.

Prior to this, he was vice president of asset management at Brookfield Office Properties and development director at Brookfield Developments. He has also worked for Grainger, Multiplex Developments and Bovis Lend Lease.

Oxford North Ventures is a joint company involving the St John’s College development firm – Thomas White Oxford – as well as Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Stanhope.

As well as Ruck, Oxford North has also recruited Kevin Reid as its new energy and engineering manager. He has joined from M&E specialist Emcor.

David Camp, Stanhope’s chief executive, added that more appointments were on their way: “We will continue to expand the on-site team as we head towards opening.”

Oxford North’s flagship Red Hall building, which was designed by Fletcher Priest and is currently being built by Laing O’Rourke, will run across 4,000 sq m while the first phase also includes two further laboratory buildings with a combined floorspace of nearly 11,000 sq m. It is scheduled to complete by the middle of next year.