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This week’s North East appointments

A roundup of the latest appointments from across the North East.

Honor Massarella and Lowri Bond, Siglion

Siglion, the business charged with regenerating some of Sunderland’s most significant sites, has made two senior appointments in the form of Honor Massarella and Lowri Bond.

Siglion is leading the redevelopment of the former Vaux Brewery site in the city, as well as a leisure-led, mixed-use development at Seaburn and a residential development at Chapelgarth.

Honor joins Siglion from Igloo Regeneration, which is the management company responsible for the day-to-day running of the joint venture, formed by a partnership between Sunderland City Council and Carillion.

Honor is a trained chartered surveyor and chartered town planner, and has previously sat on the planning and development board of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

She said: “I am thrilled to join the Siglion team at such an exciting time for Sunderland. My role is to help build and maintain momentum, by targeting and attracting further investment that will spearhead the start of phase two of the site by the end of this year, and hopefully phase three not too far behind it.”

The phase one development, of 60,000sq ft, which will help attract new businesses to the city centre, is progressing well with work starting on-site last December.

Lowri Bond has also been appointed to Siglion to increase the organisation’s engagement activities with people and businesses keen to steer and shape the plans for all the company’s developments.

She has worked with communities and young people in the voluntary and cultural sectors throughout the North East for over 18 years and has worked with Siglion on a number of projects already.

Lowri, who joins the team on a part –time basis, said: “I am really passionate about the role that people and communities can play in shaping redevelopment, and I know that Siglion is absolutely committed to developing spaces that can be influenced, and ultimately, enjoyed by people who live in and enjoy the city.”

Leanne Kettlewell, Mincoffs

Leanne Kettlewell has joined the Commercial Property team at Newcastle Law Firm Mincoffs, after completing a two year training contract at the firm and successfully qualifying as a solicitor.

Leanne studied for a BA in History at Northumbria University, achieving a Second Class Honours, Upper Division. She then went on to complete the Graduate Diploma in Law and the Legal Practice Course at Northumbria University Law School, where she attained a Commendation in both.

Leanne commented “I am really excited to finally qualify as a solicitor and to be staying with Mincoffs as I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here whilst on my training contract.

“I’m lucky to have learned from some of the top lawyers in the region and I look forward to developing my career further with Mincoffs.”

Head of Commercial Property, Ryan Bannon added “I am delighted Leanne has successfully completed her training contract and is joining our team. 2017 is already looking very promising for the firm and this is only the beginning for Leanne – we are very happy to have her on board.”

Laura Kemp, The Office Rocks

Affiliate marketing company The Office Rocks has announced the appointment of Laura Kemp as Customer Relationship Manager.

Laura Middleton, Founder and Director, said “We’re really excited to have Laura on board. She has been working with The Office Rocks as a client engagement consultant for the past couple of months, and was the obvious choice when this role was created to drive commercial growth.

“We haven’t really had anyone focussed on building rapport with the big high street and online retailers to date and I am confident that Laura is going to have a positive impact on our relationships.

“This appointment and our office move mark the beginning of the next chapter in The Office Rocks’ story”.

Andy McLeod, Tolent Construction Limited

Tyneside-based Tolent Construction Limited has appointed Andy McLeod as the new Managing Director of its residential subsidiary, Tolent Living.

With 33 years’ experience in the construction industry, Andy initially developed his skills at MJ Gleeson as Contracts Manager.

For 19 years he managed a number of high profile engineering and building projects including the A1 Alnwick Bypass, Frankland Prison, Wansbeck Hospital & Blyth Community College.

​After 4 years at Carillion Andy joined Robertson Construction as Managing Director for the North of England delivering numerous projects over 10 years from the Scottish Borders to the Midlands, before becoming Managing Director of Tolent Living in 2017.

Andy said: “I am delighted to be joining Tolent Living. Tolent has an excellent reputation in the construction industry and their versatility to deliver first class projects of various sizes was one of the driving forces for me to join.”

Mike Noble, Mercure Darlington Kings Hotel

Mike Noble has been promoted to rooms division manager at Mercure Darlington Kings Hotel, after joining the business over 27 years ago as a night porter.

Mike will work closely with general manager Stewart Moss and other senior managers to oversee the delivery of exceptional customer service and guest experience at the Cairn Group owned hotel.

Having climbed the ranks considerably since his appointment back in 1989, the 58-year-old who also lives in Darlington, has had various roles and responsibilities, making his knowledge of the hotel second to none, and perfectly suited to his new position.

As rooms division manager Mike will oversee the general maintenance of the hotel’s 83 bedrooms and manage its 20-strong housekeeping team.

Mike said: “Having worked at the hotel for almost three decades I have a real passion for the place and am thrilled that my hard work and commitment has helped to improve standards and guest experiences over the years, leading me to become rooms division manager and providing a life-long career which I enjoy every day.

“I’m lucky enough to work with a fantastic team and have had so many highlights since joining the business, including meeting famous faces over the years, from Tim Healy to Top Gear’s James May.

“I’m excited to take on the management responsibilities which will come with my new role and work closely with general manager Stewart, who is a great support.”

Dave Clazey, Coleman James

Gosforth based niche recruitment firm Coleman James has announced the appointment of Dave Clazey to head up its Architectural division.

Dave joins the firm in the position of associate and is exclusively focused on working with his team to find the best candidates to fill graduate to director level roles in the architecture industry.

One of his clients is behind the RIBA Award winning Hebburn Central community hub, a building design that has achieved both regional and national accolades.

Coleman James was launched by Andrew Mackay to service the recruitment needs for national and international organisations in the construction and built environment sectors with ambitious growth plans for the coming year.

Mr Clazey said: “Coleman James strength lies in the fact that both Andrew and I have many years of experience in the construction and built environment sector, allowing us to focus on the specific requirements of organisations in these industries. I’m looking forward to being a part of their continued growth.”

Daniel Allington, Aavid Thermacore Europe

Thermal Management specialist Aavid Thermacore Europe has appointed a new applications engineer to help support its growing business.

Daniel Allington, a graduate of Northumbria University, joined the Ashington-based company in early January. As applications engineer, it is Daniel’s role to take enquiries from customers who have a problem with thermal management and work to find or create a solution.

Daniel, who has previous experience working as a project engineer within the oil and gas sector had initially applied for a role within the company’s sales department, however, bosses at the firm felt that his skill set would be a better fit for the applications engineer position which was being advertised at the same time.

NPI engineering manager at Aavid Thermacore Europe, Craig Richardson said: “We have been really impressed with Daniel. Having previously worked within the oil and gas sector, he already had a good understanding of thermal dynamics coming into the job, which has helped him to hit the ground running in his new role.

“Going forward, with the support of our in-house specialists, Daniel will be working on a variety of projects for clients across all of the market sectors we serve. For this, we have been providing Daniel with on-the-job training so that he can further develop his skill set and acquire a broad range of expertise across all of the solutions we provide.”

Emma Hall, Synergi

North East tech firm Synergi has appointed Emma Hall as Operations and Client Project Coordinator to help facilitate, resource and coordinate inflight projects.

Emma has over 10 years’ experience in project management, previously working for Northumbria University, as well as Head of Conferences and Events at Sage Gateshead, where she developed the corporate business, lead the conference team and managed large events for up to 3,000 people.

On joining the company, she commented: “I am very excited about joining Synergi, particularly at such a busy time in their growth as a company. Although technology is a relatively new sector for me, my project management skills are completely transferable.

“I love to ‘make things happen’, and hope that my involvement in our projects will help to ensure their smooth running.”

Justin Short, Director at Synergi, added: “Emma’s onboarding will enable Synergi to further improve project coordination and utilisation planning, ensuring our clients are even more engaged in the planning and project delivery stages.

Scott Clarke, Naylors

Naylors has appointed to a new building surveyor to support its expanding building consultancy team.

The Newcastle-based commercial property specialist has appointed Scott Clarke, who previously worked at Capita in a similar role.

Scott will work with the team at Naylors to deliver a variety building surveying services including design work, party wall, dilapidations and schedules of condition.

Scott has a 2.1 honours degree in Building Surveying from Nottingham Trent University and is working towards becoming fully chartered.

Scott said: “I was attracted to Naylors as they are a forward thinking practice based in the city centre of Newcastle.

“The building surveying department has recently undergone a restructure and I felt the future goals of the team aligned with mine, and would allow me grow alongside them.”

Join us next week for more North East appointment news.