This week’s North West appointments

Mitchell Charlesworth, the North West accountancy firm, has announced the appointment of Jennifer Curtis as corporate tax manager.

Ms Curtis will be based across the company’s Chester, Liverpool and Manchester offices, and take responsibility for corporation tax reviews. She’ll also play a key role in assisting with the firm’s increasing volume of Research and Development (R&D) tax work.

After completing her formal ACA training in 2012, Ms Curtis worked at another local practice before joining Mitchell Charlesworth in November.

Mitchell Charlesworth tax partner Tim Adcock said: “Jennifer is a strong addition to our tax team. She has many attributes including extensive corporation tax experience and specialist expertise in R&D work.

“Her positive, progressive and ambitious outlook make her an ideal fit for our tax team.

“In recent months, our practice has seen a sharp rise in processing R&D claims largely as a result of educating our client base on the eligibility criteria.

“This is an area where Jennifer brings significant experience helping businesses of all sizes, across a wide variety of industry sectors, to take advantage of tax savings that stem from their investment in the improvement of a product or service.

“Every year an estimated £1bn of R&D tax credits go unclaimed as many companies remain unaware of their eligibility to qualify for tax relief. By expanding our team we will be able to place greater resource in this area to generate larger savings for clients and attract new business.”

George Wright, MSIF

MSIF has announced a new appointment in its investment team.

George Wright joins as an investment manager from NatWest in Southport to provide support to MSIF’s loans team.

He has 31 years’ banking experience most recently as a relationship manager specialising in stressed businesses in the commercial sector.

Prior to that role, he was a commercial manager responsible for a portfolio of businesses ranging from £2m to £25m turnover.

MSIF COO Lisa Greenhalgh said: “We’ve had a busy year and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of things slowing down despite uncertainty surrounding Brexit. It’s been very much business as usual.

“We are now in advanced negotiations to secure additional funding which will strengthen our offering and allow us to invest in even more businesses.

“George is very experienced and brings a different perspective to the organisation which we believe will really benefit the businesses we work with. Whilst initially he will be supporting the investment teams, we’re looking at ways we can utilise his specialist expertise through other roles within the company.”

MSIF was set up in 1994 to initially manage funds from the European Regional Development Fund.

Since then MSIF has invested £163m in over 2006 businesses which has created/safeguarded around 15,000 jobs and brought in over £298m of private sector investment to the region.

MSIF provides loans and equity finance to new and growing businesses of up to around £2m to new and growing businesses across the North West predominantly across the Liverpool City Region.

Jo Foulton, Pete Jones, Catherine Wilson and Gavin Snell, Ellis Whittam

Ellis Whittam, the Chester-based business services firm, has announced four appointments to its board of directors.

Gavin Snell join as managing director, Pete Jones as chief technology officer and Jo Fulton as sales and marketing director, each a newly-created role. Catherine Wilson has also been appointed as director of legal services.

With more than 20 years’ experience, Gavin joins from outsourcing and consultancy firm Firstsource Solutions. He has a track record of growing companies in the UK and internationally, and in his previous role was responsible for a £165m turnover business. During his career he has held senior positions at Capita and Experian.

Pete, who was previously technology director at global insight agency Join the Dots, has more than 15 years’ experience in IT and communications systems management. He specialises in development, support and systems integration, and will lead the development of Ellis Whittam’s technology infrastructure.

Jo, Ellis Whittam’s new sales and marketing director, joins from software company Datel having spent the last eight years leading its business development and marketing strategy.

The firm’s new director of legal services, Catherine Wilson, has more than 28 years’ experience in employment law at both national and international firms. This includes eight years as a partner at Eversheds, where she led the London employment team. Prior to this she was head of employment at Hammonds in Leeds, now Squire Patton Boggs.

Mark Ellis, chief executive of Ellis Whittam, said: “Partnering with LDC earlier this year marked a real statement of intent for the future growth of our business and these hires are the next step in that journey.

“The breadth of expertise each individual brings significantly strengthens the management team and ensures we have the right people in place to grow the business, both organically and through acquisition.”

Ellis Whittam currently employs 165 staff from its headquarters in Aldford, near Chester, including fully-qualified solicitors as employment law advisors and professionally qualified health and safety consultants.

Tom Shepherd, Sigma Capital Group

Sigma Capital Group, the private rented sector, residential development and urban regeneration specialist, has announced the appointment of Tom Shepherd from one of the UK’s real estate and financial giants.

Tom joins the company following 10 years at Deloitte.

As part of the National Capital Markets Team, he was responsible for the acquisition and disposal of commercial land and investment assets, including the forward funding of a several commercial and student schemes.

Tom’s new role will include managing the delivery of Sigma’s growing private rented sector (PRS) portfolio, as well as assisting with the appraising and structuring of new initiatives in this sector.

As one of the UK’s PRS industry leaders, Tom’s investment advisory expertise will be yet another great competitive advantage to Sigma.

Tom, said of his new role: “Sigma is an established leader in the PRS sector, an industry which I consider to be of significant importance considering the current housing shortage and limited affordability for first time buyers.

“I’m looking forward to being part of such a specialist team and applying my wealth of experience gained over the last 10 years.”

With the addition of Tom and 10 other new recruits this year, Sigma now employees 28 people.

Rob Pailin, Assetz Capital

Assetz Capital, the Manchester-based peer-to-peer finance platform, has announced the appointment of Rob Pailin as its Chief Commercial Officer and member of the board of directors.

Pailin joins from RBS Corporate, where was Managing Director of the bank’s corporate business in the North.

As a senior executive at RBS for more than 10 years, Pailin was also Chief Operating Officer for RBS Corporate EU Divestment team, responsible for a wide range of functions including business risk and controls, change management, customer insight, regulatory reporting and management information and analytics.

He has recently been preparing for RBS’s re-brand to Williams & Glyn ahead of its planned IPO.

Pailin’s role at Assetz Capital covers most aspects of the business, and will be working closely with Chief Executive Stuart Law to help achieve the company’s fast track growth plan.

He will also oversee the development of regional offices, of which there are currently three with plans to extend to 10 in 2017.

Stuart Law, Chief Executive of Assetz Capital, commented: “Rob Pailin’s track record in driving the RBS Corporate business was a real attraction to us as a high growth business operating in a highly dynamic and competitive market.

“His knowledge of small and medium sized businesses is second to none, and has an exemplary reputation in building relationships between financial institutions and commercial borrowers.”

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