This week’s Yorkshire appointments

Accountancy practice Garbutt + Elliott has strengthened its corporate finance offering by appointing two new members to its team.

Nick Barker and Steve Garbett have joined the firm’s corporate finance division and will each take up roles as corporate finance managers at Garbutt + Elliott’s York office in a team led by Tony Farmer, who joined Garbutt + Elliott as a partner in December 2016.

Nick has more than 16 years’ experience working in audit and accounts before qualifying as a chartered accountant, and joining the corporate finance department.

Stephen has over 15 years’ experience in many areas of accountancy practice, including business tax, audit, accounts, personal and corporate finance. He began his career at Garbutt + Elliott and is rejoining the firm after ten years.

Russell Turner, Garbutt + Elliott’s managing partner, said: “Our growth strategy is ahead of plan and appointing two high calibre people, in Nick and Steve, underlines our commitment to delivering excellent corporate finance services to our clients.

“Nick and Steve have over 30 years’ experience between them and are both very accomplished within corporate finance.

“We believe our growing corporate finance division will play a significant part in the success of Garbutt + Elliott in the future.”

Richard Feltham, Garbutt + Elliott partner and head of corporate finance, added: “The addition of Steve and Nick to the corporate finance department will expand our coverage in the region and ensure we continue to develop client relationships through the values, excellent service and great ideas we provide.”

Garbutt + Elliott was established in York over 150 years ago. Today, the firm employs 120 people, including eight partners.

Stacey Pocock and Anna Cattee, Ironmonger Curtis LLP

Ironmonger Curtis LLP, the Sheffield-based commercial and employment law specialist, has extended its range of expertise with the appointment of two new partners.

The law firm welcomes Anna Cattee as a new partner in the corporate commercial department and Stacey Pocock as new commercial litigation partner.

Anna, who qualified as a solicitor in 2011, specialises in corporate law as well as non-contentious construction law.

Her company commercial experience spans multi-million pound mergers and acquisitions, corporate re-structuring and shareholder agreements to terms and conditions and distribution agreements.

Anna is also a Notary Public. There are less than 1,000 notaries in the UK and Anna is one of three now operating in Sheffield. The role of Notary Public is the oldest in the legal profession and focuses on authenticating documents and certifying signatures for use abroad.

Stacey Pocock has 18 years of experience and brings her expertise in dealing with disputes for business owners and private clients to the Ironmonger Curtis litigation team.

Stacey’s legal career includes appointments both in private practice and in-house legal departments of nationally recognised PLCs. She has expertise in dealing with a wide range of matters including debt recovery, construction disputes and business ownership and management disputes.

Trevor Ironmonger, partner, said: “In our 13th year of business, we are very proud of our expertise and experience and believe having Anna and Stacey in the team takes us to a new level.”

Fiona Kingscott, Langleys Solicitors

Langleys Solicitors has appointed Fiona Kingscott to its corporate team.

Fiona joins York-based Langleys from the University of Leeds, where she worked on licensing the IP in research results to the NHS and private sector.

In her role as an IP solicitor, Fiona will specialise in non-contentious IP and commercial law. This includes agreements relating to IT, supply, distribution, trademarks and consumer protection.

Prior to the University of Leeds, she spent three years as solicitor and assistant company secretary at Filtronic plc followed by six years in the IP team at Lupton Fawcett, specialising in non-contentious IP and commercial law.

Tim Cross, head of commercial at Langleys, said: “Fiona is a talented and experienced IP lawyer, who adds further expertise to our corporate team. She is an expert in the many different facets of intellectual property law on which we advise our clients.

“We are a growing business and, as such, we are continually looking to recruit quality people like Fiona.”

Andrew Breckenridge, Gordons

Banking litigation solicitor Andrew Breckenridge has joined Yorkshire law firm Gordons as a partner within its commercial litigation team.

Andrew arrives at Gordons following more than seven years in Leeds with national law firm DWF where he was head of banking litigation. He has over 25 years’ experience as a litigation solicitor.

Andrew acts for banks and other financial services businesses across a wide range of issues such as complex secured recoveries, professional negligence and mortgage fraud, operational loss and claims against lenders including for alleged mis-selling.

Other significant experience Andrew brings to Gordons includes acting for corporate pension scheme trustees regarding commercial property and property litigation.

John Holden, Gordons senior partner, said: “Andrew is an outstanding lawyer with an instinctive ability to provide clients with clarity amongst the complexity of banking litigation.

“He has an excellent reputation regionally and nationally, combined with a real desire to further grow our strong commercial litigation service.

“Andrew’s appointment is a clear statement of our ongoing strategy to continually evolve and enhance our business for the benefit of our clients.

“We look forward to him playing a significant role in the firm’s future.”

James Stobbs, Bradley Thompson, Gary Smith and Andrew Arbon-Davis, JF Finnegan

JF Finnegan, the Sheffield-based contractor and developer, has announced a recent team expansion, with four new appointments.

Richard Hudson takes up the role of general foreman with Andrew Arbon-Davis joining as senior estimator – both returning to JF Finnegan.

James Stobbs is appointed as senior quantity surveyor and Bradley Thompson as assistant quantity surveyor.

After serving his joinery apprenticeship with JF Finnegan in 2005, Richard remained with the business until 2011. Richard returns to the business following roles with construction firms in the UK and Australia and is currently supporting on key contracts in the Sheffield region.

Andrew Arbon-Davis also re-joins JF Finnegan after 18 years, during which time his career progressed at Loach Construction and Development Limited in Nottingham, being responsible for pre construction activity.

An experienced quantity surveyor, James previously worked for Henry Boot Construction on diverse projects across several sectors and his experience and technical knowledge spans a wide range of areas from civils and groundworks, social housing and refurbishments to school projects, commercial new builds and mixed use developments.

Bradley, who has a BSc in Economics and completed his first year Masters in quantity surveying in Sheffield in 2016, previously worked as a sales negotiator and residential valuer for a leading estate agent. He will be developing his quantity surveying role within the JF Finnegan team.

Gary Smith, managing director at JF Finnegan, said: “It is an exciting time to expand the business, as we approach the new and varied projects in the pipeline for the forthcoming months.

“We bolstered our client base in 2016 and delivered impressive schemes, including a private membership club for Costco UK next to Wembley Stadium and industrial units for Ackroyd & Abbott in South Yorkshire and a new Sheffield headquarters for Westfield Health.

“We enter 2017 with a positive outlook for the 12 months ahead and are delighted to be welcoming both familiar and new faces to the JF Finnegan team.”

Chantelle Akdemir, AA Global

AA Global, the Hull-based language and translation business, has the appointment of a new business development officer.

As AA Global’s business development officer specialising in the private sector, Chantelle Akdemir is tasked with raising the company’s profile across the north of England.

Chantelle, daughter of AA Global CEO Kirk Akdemir, has been working from the company’s Worcester office for nearly three years.

AA Global expanded into Hull five years ago, and Kirk has since doubled the permanent workforce to more than 20, increased the database of interpreters and translators to around 14,000 covering 500 languages and dialects.

The company’s work is divided between the private and public sectors and it holds a number of significant contracts with local authorities, health authorities and purchasing organisations.

The company is also a corporate supporter of the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce International Trade Centre.

Kirk said: “We opened in Hull in anticipation of the buzz which the city and surrounding region is now experiencing and we are being rewarded for our confidence in the area.

“We also operate around the world – during 2016 we serviced another international convention for Toyota – and the focus of Chantelle’s work will be to build that private sector business by linking with clients directly and by representing us within organisations including the Chamber and the Bondholders.

“Chantelle has been heavily involved in our production department and she will be drawing on her comprehensive understanding of all our processes in looking after the needs of our private sector customers. She also has considerable marketing expertise and heads our social media activities, which is another area that we are looking to develop.”

Aidan Sutcliffe, Malcolm Hollis LLP

Independent commercial building surveying firm Malcolm Hollis LLP has promoted Aidan Sutcliffe to senior chartered building surveyor at its Leeds office.

Aidan is experienced in a range of traditional building surveying activities including the procurement and delivery of construction projects for owners and occupiers within the commercial office and industrial sectors.

Aidan works with a range of clients including McDonald’s restaurants and London & Cambridge Properties.

Aidan’s promotion comes off the back of the appointment of Dan Horsley as Building Surveyor.

Julian Bisson, partner at Malcolm Hollis in Leeds, said: “The promotion of Aidan demonstrates our commitment to nurturing and retaining the industry’s best talent and it also recognises the hard work and commitment shown by Aidan throughout the year.

“It is the dedication of our people that has enabled the firm to grow from strength to strength and we look forward to another great year in 2017.”

Peter Canetti, Troy Foods

Troy Foods, Leeds-based vegetable and salad producer, has appointed Peter Canetti as managing director of its salads division.

Peter, who has worked in chilled food manufacturing for 26 years, joins from Walkers Deli, part of the Samworth Brothers Group, where he was production director. Prior to that, he spent six years with Greencore, latterly as general manager at its Spalding Food to Go operation.

In his new role, Peter will be responsible for leading Troy Foods’ salads division. He aims to further grow and develop the salads business both by seeking new opportunities with current customers and also by winning new customers as the company continues to expand its range of dressed salads which includes coleslaw, potato and pasta salads.

It also offers a wide selection of savoury dips, sandwich fillings, snacks and speciality salads.

James Kempley, general manager of Troy Foods, adds: “With his impressive track record holding a number of senior roles in chilled food manufacturing with some of the biggest names in the UK, Peter brings a wealth of experience.

“We believe he will make a valuable contribution in helping us to achieve our aim of building Troy Foods into a £100m turnover business in the next five years as we continue to invest in our manufacturing facilities and team in order to reliably deliver quality and service to our customers.”

Troy Foods supplies freshly prepared vegetables for ready meals and retail packs to the UK’s major supermarkets; and for processing value added lines such as dressed salads, dips and mayonnaise and dressings to retailers and food service groups.

As well as a head office and vegetable processing site on Royds Farm Road, Leeds, Troy Foods also has a salad and mayonnaise production facility on George Mann Way in Hunslet and a distribution hub on Intermezzo Drive in Leeds. The business employs around 600 people.