He joins from rival Warrington-based Rotary Building Services where he rose to group managing director over 15 years with the firm after joining from Crown House engineering.
Briars was made board director at Rotary in 20015 and led the M&E services company through several acquisitions and challenging trading times.
Recent projects included Media City UK, Manchester and the Co-Operative Group’s new headquarters.
He will lead NG Bailey’s Engineering division within the region, reporting to managing director Mike Darlington.
Briars said: “This is the perfect move for me to be joining what I have long regarded to be best company in our field and we are well placed to achieve our goals.”
Mike Darlington, managing director, Engineering, said: “We took a considerable amount of time in selecting the right person to fill this role and Paul has all the attributes and qualities we look for in a leader, in addition to the values that we hold sacrosanct at NG Bailey.”