This week’s Yorkshire appointments

Wake Smith Solicitors has made five new appointments to boost its team in its new Sheffield city centre headquarters.

Solicitor Scott Haslam joins the legal firm’s personal injury and clinical negligence team and is accompanied by fellow former Raley’s colleagues Leigh Cartwright as a residential conveyancing executive and Lauren Hance as commercial property secretary.

Sarah Mallinson also joins as a cashier while Louise Roberts becomes a secretary in residential property.

Scott trained at Barnsley-based Raleys before spending five and a half years at the company while Leigh was with the business for 12 years.

Jo Barnett, HR manager at Wake Smith, said: “We are delighted that all five have joined the team. They will provide additional depth to their team’s skill set at Wake Smith.

“The new workspace at No 1 Velocity has had a really positive impact on recruitment. Candidates have been very impressed when they’ve come along to see us and the feedback has been excellent.

“The new premises provide a way to differentiate ourselves from other firms, helping us to attract high calibre candidates in a very competitive recruitment market.”

Richard Whitelock and Rob Durrant-Walker, Garbutt + Elliott

Leeds and York-based accountancy firm Garbutt + Elliott has appointed two of its tax specialists to head up the firm’s Personal Tax and Business Tax specialisms.

Richard Whitelock and Rob Durrant-Walker have been appointed from within to lead the firm’s tax teams.

Richard will become head of private clients’ tax while Rob will be head of business tax. Together they will manage the team of tax specialists across Garbutt + Elliott’s York and Leeds offices.

Richard has worked with Garbutt + Elliott for over 18 years, and has been a chartered tax advisor for 16 years. He specialises in all aspects of personal taxation planning and compliance, helping individuals to minimise their current and future tax exposure, protect their wealth and plan ahead.

He also advises on Capital Gains Tax and Inheritance Tax planning, property taxation, separation and divorce matters and residence and domicile advice for those coming to or leaving the UK. Richard is also Garbutt + Elliott’s employment taxes consultant.

Rob Durrant-Walker has over 24 years’ tax experience. Rob writes regularly for professional tax journals and contributes to the technical committee work of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, responding to changes in tax legislation.

Rob and the business tax team provide tax planning solutions and advice to businesses including R&D, Patent Box, business restructuring, capital allowances, and property tax issues. Rob also heads G+E’s Tax Support Service for Professionals, providing the team’s tax expertise to smaller advisers.

Lynn Wilkinson, LCF Barber Titleys

Conveyancing lawyer Lynn Wilkinson has joined Harrogate based LCF Barber Titleys, which is part of LCF Law, to head up the office’s residential property team.

Lynn brings a wealth of experience to the position after working across all areas of residential property including sales, purchases, re-mortgages, equity transfers, leases and shared ownership, as well as dealing with non-registered land issues and reconstructing titles.

Lynn said: “This is a great opportunity to move to a forward thinking law firm in Harrogate, which is surrounded by many of the North of England’s most sought after residential addresses.

“The region’s strong housing market, combined with low interest rates, makes this a very busy time to work in residential conveyancing and there’s a lot of potential to expand our market share, which is a challenge that I’m really looking forward to.”

Simon Stell, managing partner at LCF Law, added: “Our residential conveyancing team is already hugely successful in Harrogate and it now boasts a 22 strong team across our office network, making us one of the region’s leading law firms in the conveyancing market.

“Lynn’s experience and knowledge of the market will prove to be hugely valuable and further enhance the service that we can offer to home buyers, property owners and estate agents.”

LCF Law employs more than 130 people across offices in Leeds, Bradford, Harrogate and Ilkley.

Colin Rutter, Callcredit Information Group

Leeds-based Callcredit Information Group, the second largest credit reference agency in the UK and specialist in managing consumer data, has appointed Colin Rutter as Chief Risk Officer and General Counsel.

With over 25 years of legal experience, Colin Rutter joins Callcredit Information Group from Experian where he was General Counsel and a member of the UK&I, EMEA and APAC Executive teams.

In his time at Experian, Colin set up and ran Legal, Compliance and Government Affairs teams in the EMEA, APAC and UK&I regions, and the commercial team in the UK&I.

Mike Gordon, CEO Callcredit Information Group, said: “With a distinguished legal career that includes extensive commercial, legal, compliance, risk, government affairs and regulatory experience working in the credit reference industry both in the UK and overseas markets, Colin will provide critical guidance as we look to double the business over the next five years and expand into international markets.

“He will be a valuable asset to our leadership team and I look forward to working closely with him.”

Colin Rutter added: “After almost 21 years at Experian I am looking forward to taking on a new leadership challenge. Callcredit’s longstanding leadership in innovation and talent are tenets of an organisation that is poised for growth and long-term success.”

Mohammed Shah, Oliver Newman and Sarah Mills, Dynamic Networks Group

The Leeds-based Dynamic Networks Group has appointed three new recruits to its IT team.

Oliver Newman joins the IT, networks, systems and automation business as IT sales director from Specialist Computer Centres (SCC). Mohammed Shah takes an IT support role and Sarah Mills joins as accounts manager.

Oliver brings over a decade of business development and IT account management experience to the firm, through roles with organisations including BT Engage IT, Capita IT Services, ICM Computer Group, Proact Group and SCC.

His work, both with SMEs and in larger IT user environments, includes managing large scale complex IT projects alongside managed hosting, managed support services, consultative solutions, hardware and software rollouts for organisations such as Manchester United Football Club and comparethemarket.com.

Mohammed Shah is an experienced technical support professional, with network engineering experience and a background ranging from first line to more complex third line IT support with organisations including Hermes Parcelnet, SSP Ltd and Serco. At Dynamic, he is responsible for ensuring complex technical IT queries are resolved in line with service level agreements.

Sarah is an accomplished finance manager who has previously held roles in the IT, manufacturing, retail and print industries.

Nadia Prince, DS.Emotion

The Leeds office of creative agency DS.Emotion has appointed Nadia Prince as Account Director.

Nadia brings over 12 years’ agency experience working for major retail operators such as Asda, Argos and Well Pharmacy.

At DS.Emotion, Nadia assumes responsibility for brand development and marketing strategy for clients including Civica and Silverstone whilst also supporting a business development drive to achieve growth targets in the north.

Matt Button, Director at DS.Emotion said: “We are delighted to welcome Nadia to the team in Leeds. She has a very strong background in retail marketing which supports a major growth area for us.

“I am sure Nadia will bring tremendous benefits to the business through her extensive contacts and sector knowledge.”

DS.Emotion was established in Leeds 24 years ago and now operates nationally with studios in London and Manchester as well as Leeds.

The business specialises in property and place marketing and has delivered successful campaigns for destinations including Trinity Leeds, Carnaby Street London, Portman Village London and The Rock Bury. Key clients include Grainger Plc, Hill, Land Securities, Muse, Berkeley and QHotels.

Keith Lees and Lindsey Gaimster, Bhayani HR & Employment Law

Sheffield law firm Bhayani HR & Employment Law has appointed two new specialist employment advisers.

Keith Lees joins as an employment advisor, bringing a wealth of experience with him. Commercially astute, Keith has significant management experience within the private and public sectors.

He has worked with large corporate businesses such as Wincanton, Lloyds Banking Group and Halifax PLC; public bodies, such as the NHS and Social Services, and SMEs on a wide range of HR issues, ranging from ‘day to day’ people management to developing successful people strategies and solutions.

Lindsey Gaimster joins the firm as an employment law solicitor. Highly experienced in HR and employment law matters, Lindsey qualified as a solicitor in 2012. She advises employees and employers on a wide range of employment law issues, such as unfair dismissal, discrimination, TUPE and employment tribunal proceedings.

Lindsey previously worked in Doncaster for several years, and was a founding member of Doncaster Junior Lawyers (a division of Doncaster Law Society) and served as its national representative for a number of years.

Jay Bhayani, managing director of Bhayani HR & Employment Law, said: “When I set up the business, on my own, at the end of 2014, I saw the need for, and had a vision of creating, a unique law firm with a holistic offering of employment law and HR services.

“The formula I’ve developed has worked – perhaps more quickly than I’d expected – and I’m delighted to have grown the business with such a great team so quickly.”

Sarah Biggart, AMT Group

AMT Group, the Leeds-headquartered independent vehicle leasing and rental business, has appointed Sarah Biggart as business development manager for its vehicle rental division in the South.

Sarah’s experience includes business development roles with The Parts Alliance where she spent two years as a Servicesure sales manager. She was also lead business development manager for Unipart Automotive for three years; and multi-site branch manager & fleet cluster manager for Europcar’s Anglian region for six years.

Based at AMT’s Enfield rental facility, in her new role, Sarah will work closely with the operations manager to assist with the development of local branch sales and marketing with a focus on raising awareness of AMT among daily rental companies, motor dealerships and leasing organisations.

Andy Crinson, general manager of AMT Vehicle Rental, said: “With a strong background in business development within the motor sector, Sarah will play a key part in building the AMT brand and raising awareness of our expertise in the prestige and specialist vehicles sector with clients and potential clients across the South.”

Sarah commented: “I’m looking forward to taking on this challenging role. AMT is an exciting company which is expanding rapidly and is committed to providing exceptionally high levels of customer service.”

Stephen Scott, Nabarro

Stephen Scott, real estate dispute resolution partner at Nabarro, has been re-appointed as divisional managing partner of the firm’s Sheffield office.

Stephen will manage the day-to-day running and strategy of Nabarro in Sheffield and will play an important role in representing the firm in the Yorkshire & Humber region and beyond. He will also continue to lead the firm’s real estate dispute resolution team in Sheffield which is recognised as a tier one practice by the Legal 500 and Chambers directories.

Graham Stedman, senior partner at Nabarro, said: “I would like to congratulate Stephen on his re-appointment. Over the last three years our Sheffield office has gone from strength-to-strength under his leadership.

“It has established itself as a centre of excellence for legal advice across a range of areas including real estate investment, leasing and asset management, environment and health and safety, litigation, corporate, and clinical negligence and professional disciplinary work.

“Sheffield now operates seamlessly with our London and Manchester offices in the UK and is also home to many of our business services staff.”

Stephen Scott added: “Following a period of consultation among partners, it is a privilege to be appointed by the Nabarro Board to continue to lead the Sheffield office. We are central to the future of firm and to providing clear no-nonsense legal advice to businesses at the heart of the Northern Powerhouse as well as nationally and internationally.”

Nigel Farr, Earthmill

Yorkshire renewable energy firm Earthmill has expanded its specialist CHP team with the appointment of a new heating design engineer.

Nigel Farr has joined the business to focus on Earthmill’s newest area of expertise, combined heat and power (CHP), which delivers high efficiency renewable energy to farms and businesses across Yorkshire, Cheshire and Mid and North Wales.

Mr Farr has 27 years’ engineering experience, including five years in the renewables sector, working for environmental technology businesses including South West-based Eco Nrg.

Steve Milner, Earthmill managing director, said: “Although still relatively new to the UK market, CHP is taking off fast, particularly among high energy consumers such as pig and poultry farmers.

“Its ultra-high power efficiency comes from the fact that CHP captures, and then uses the heat created by burning woodchip biomass to generate electricity, in a very streamlined process which can be as much as 90 per cent efficient.”

He added: “As the CHP side of the business grows we expect to be making further hires and will be on the look out for candidates with the right renewables industry skills and experience that will help us meet customers’ demand for expert advice and installation.”