Member Article

This week’s North East appointments

Your final North East appointments update of 2016.

Kevan Carrick, North East Business & Innovation Centre (BIC)

Kevan Carrick is returning to one of the developments he helped to set up at the start of the 1990s - but this time as a member of the board.

The principal at Newcastle-based JK Property Consultants has been invited to become a director of the North East Business & Innovation Centre (BIC), headquartered in Wearfield.

Since opening in 1994, the North East BIC has helped more than 3,000 business start-ups and supported the creation of more than 7,500 jobs.

More than 1,000 people work from the 14-acre site just off the A19 in Sunderland, across a range of sectors from science, industrial, creative and digital. In addition to business accommodation, they can access support, advice and mentoring.

Kevan, who attended his first BIC board meeting as a director on 15 December, said: “I was involved in setting up and developing the BIC building from the outset.

“I advised the Tyne and Wear Development Corporation on acquiring the land and on an appeal to the Government for grant support to start the BIC.

“That was in the early 1990s and I haven’t had much involvement in between, but having started the job, it’s nice to be invited to come back.”

Now Kevin aims to use his expertise in advising on, managing and acquiring property in his role as director.

“It’s also about giving back,” said Kevan.“The BIC is where they help start-up companies create growth, and that’s important for the economic health of the region.”

Perfect Image

Technology solutions provider Perfect Image has bolstered its recently-established account management team with four new hires.

Account Managers Susan Peters, Bob McKay, Rowan Blair and Leah Wilson will work to identify new opportunities for its growing portfolio of clients, achieving real business benefits for customers and assisting with business transformation through the intelligent use of IT.

The North Tyneside-based business recently celebrated its 25th anniversary and this is the latest in a series of new positions the company has developed this year.

Andrew Robson, CEO of Perfect Image, said: “I’m delighted to welcome our new recruits to Perfect Image.

“We care deeply about the service we offer our clients and have developed a very talented, highly experienced team to help us continue to excel in providing excellent customer service as our client base grows.”

Abigail Noone, Newtons Solicitors

Newtons Solicitors has recruited solicitor Abigail Noone to join the Dispute Resolution Team in Darlington.

Joining from Latimer Hinks Solicitors, Darlington, Abigail will help to handle commercial and private litigation, insolvency debt collection and crime, to seven solicitors.

She commented: “I’m very pleased to have joined Newtons Solicitors as my appointment gives me a chance to grow as part of a bigger practice now that I have qualified as a solicitor.

“This new role also gives me the opportunity to concentrate on dispute resolution work, which is my main professional interest, as part of a highly experience team.”

Newtons Solicitors, which has its head office in Knaresborough, has had continuous fast growth since it was founded in 2009 and has seen fee income rise by £1m annually for the last three years. The company has 10 offices across Yorkshire and the North East.

Tony Davis, Scott Logic

Newcastle-headquartered software consultancy Scott Logic has appointed Tony Davis as its a new Finance Director.

Originally from Ponteland, Northumberland, 51 year old Tony recently returned to the North East region after a 17-year absence.

During the time he worked for firms including Birmingham’s Catalyst Corporate Finance, and more recently at charity Traidcraft and education and training provider Learning Curve.

Keen photographer Tony, who qualified at Price Waterhouse Coopers in Newcastle and currently lives in Gosforth, will lead a team of four and be based at Scott Logic’s headquarters in the city.

He said: “The role at Scott Logic excited me for a number of reasons. It works at the cutting edge, which is exciting in itself; I love to learn and technology is a new sector for me in my career; but also the company is at a really interesting stage in its growth, and I really wanted to be part of that.

“The people and the working culture at Scott Logic are also fantastic and I’m very much looking forward to being part of the team here.”

Tait Walker

Tait Walker has revealed a number of promotions across its North East offices.

Paul Shields, 36, who has been at the firm since 2007, has been promoted to associate partner. Paul will be responsible for helping to build the accountancy practice’s client base in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, as well as continuing to look after his existing client portfolio.

Paul, who was previously a business services associate, said: “I am delighted to be promoted to Associate Partner. I have been at Tait Walker for over nine years and during that time we have grown our specialist services, which has allowed for personal development and progression of the team.

“I look forward to the challenges within my new role, which will allow me to work more closely with my current clients and alongside the rest of the team to help grow our client base.’

Sanjay Pugal, who joined the firm earlier this year, has been promoted to tax manager. The 26-year-old from Newcastle introduced a new capital allowances service to Tait Walker when he joined, and has already helped many businesses to get significant cash back from the Government.

Sanjay said: “Introducing an enhanced capital allowance service to Tait Walker has been a great experience. The response from clients is very positive and it’s incredibly rewarding to see North East businesses being able to invest more of their money back in to their business.

“We see a lot of growth in this service and I’m really excited to have been promoted to tax manager to carry on the work that I’ve been doing.”

David Richardson, 30, from North Tyneside joined Tait Walker in February this year from Ryecroft Glenton and is now an assistant manager within the firm’s growing Not-For-Profit team.

Finally, the audit team has seen both Lynsey Wilkinson and Nick Hibbert promoted to managers and Claire Hinshaw to senior manager.

Mark Parkinson, HR partner at Tait Walker, said: “It’s great to see so many people rising up the ranks at Tait Walker. We are always keen to promote and develop talent from within the company and this is a great example of that.”

Julia Fox, Deloitte

Business advisory firm Deloitte has promoted Julia Fox to director within its North East-based tax team.

Julia, who has been with Deloitte for almost 20 years, leads a team providing cutting-edge tax expertise to businesses in need of restructuring across the North East, Yorkshire and Scotland.

She specialises in supporting companies, often in financial difficulty, with pragmatic and commercial tax advice on the options open to them to achieve their objectives.

Julia graduated from the University of Newcastle in 1995 with a degree in medicinal chemistry, but shortly after graduating changed career direction and secured an audit role in London with accountancy firm Arthur Andersen. She joined Deloitte two years later when she returned to the North East and married.

During her time at Deloitte Julia has worked in a number of specialist teams, including audit, entrepreneurial business taxation and tax dispute resolution. She has worked alongside the local restructuring team for a number of years.

“Working with a business that needs to change to achieve its objectives can be a high-pressure situation because timeframes are usually tight and there’s so much at stake, but it’s extremely satisfying when you help the business through a successful restructuring,” said Julia.

Stephen Hall, office senior partner for Deloitte in the North East, said: “Julia’s understanding of the tax complexities in a restructuring situation is second-to-none, but she is also happy to roll her sleeves up for her clients and immerse herself in the situation. When your business is facing uncertainty, or a period of change, that’s what you need from a tax adviser.”

Lyndsey Walton and David Aston, Story Homes

North East housebuilder Story Homes has appointed Lyndsey Walton as Sales Manager and David Aston as Production Manager.

The duo will cover the region’s northern sites, including Brierdene and Dove Park in North Tyneside, Oakland Park in Northumberland, Fairfields Manor in Crawcrook and further sites which are due to open in 2017.

Lyndsey joins from Miller Homes where she worked for almost five years. She said: “I have been working in housebuilding for more than 10 years now.

“One of my favourite aspects of the job has always been following the customer journey and feeling part of this exciting time in any customer’s life. To now support the sales team to deliver this for Story Homes, which has a reputation for five-star customer service, is fantastic.

“When the opportunity came up to join Story Homes I was really interested. It’s exciting to be part of an expanding developer and be able to develop and shape the sales team in the region as we further grow and expand.”

Being able to make a difference in a rapidly growing company is also one of the reasons that David Aston wanted to join Story Homes as Production Manager.

He said: “I’ve worked in construction for housebuilders for 25 years, working at Bellway for more than 15. I left to work with Galliford Try to set up Linden Homes three years ago and really enjoyed being involved at such an early stage.

“Story Homes has a great reputation and is really making waves in the North East as it opens more sites. I’m really pleased to join the company at this significant time and look forward to supporting the production team to ensure that the renowned Story Homes quality remains a key priority across each site.”

Simon Loy, Square One Law

Square One Law has hired employment lawyer Simon Loy as a partner.

Simon has recently returned to the North East, after working in Paris for Nissan Europe SAS, as Deputy Head of European Legal Services, Manufacturing, Sales & Marketing.

He has over 20 years’ experience in employment law and employee relations and specialises in restructuring and re-profiling of workforces; executive service agreements and terminations; employee relations including Trade Unions and best practice policy and procedure development.

Simon previously worked for Eversheds until 2014, as Head of its North Eastern Employment Team in Newcastle, so is well-known in the region.

Simon said: “Square One Law provides the platform of a highly ambitious law firm committed to the region, from which I can quickly re-integrate into the North East business community.

“The opportunity to join one of the fastest growing commercial law firms in the UK, with a refreshingly different approach to commercial legal services really sells itself.”

Alex Simpson, Ryecroft Glenton Corporate Finance

Ryecroft Glenton Corporate Finance (RGCF) has promoted dealmaker Alex Simpson, who has advised on a number of high-profile transactions across a range of industry sectors, over the past 12 months.

The 29 year old has spent the past 12 months working as a Corporate Finance Executive and has been promoted to Corporate Finance Manager following his significant contribution to a number of high-profile transactions including the £17.1m sale of MTrec to Trust Tech Inc, the sale of RDW to InterQuest Plc and the sale of Classic Education to Servoca PLC.

Originally from Derby, Alex graduated from Newcastle University with a BA (Hons) degree in Accountancy and Finance. After a gap year where he travelled through South America, Alex returned to the North East to build his career, which began after he was accepted onto Deloitte’s Graduate Scheme. He completed his ACA qualification before joining Ernst & Young.

Alex said: “My first year in corporate finance has been very rewarding and provided me with the opportunity to work on deals for multi-national, listed and overseas companies, as well as Private Equity. It has been non-stop but the hard work has paid off and I’m proud to be part of a firm that is well-respected throughout the industry.”

Bdaily will close Friday December 23 for Christmas and reopen Tuesday January 3, with bulletins back running as normal. We look forward to welcoming back our readers with more appointment news in 2017.