This week’s Yorkshire appointments

Social Communications, the PR and public affairs agency, has announced two new appointments to its Leeds office.

Public affairs practitioner Arnie Craven has joined as senior consultant and Victoria Starkey has joined as account manager from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) communications team.

Working with clients across construction, housing, property and professional services, Social Communications offers a range of communications services including PR, public affairs, planning consultation, sales marketing and creative.

With almost seven years’ experience in stakeholder engagement, community consultation and public affairs, Arnie has joined the public affairs team at Social Communications to work with its clients across the property and construction sector.

Arnie is experienced in managing large stakeholder campaigns in the property and infrastructure sector, having recently led on communications around the construction of The Broadway shopping centre in Bradford, including its cinema and restaurant extension.

Victoria started her career working in the Westminster Office of Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow and now Minister of State for Apprenticeships and Skills. Victoria has experience of working with politicians at a local and national level, as well as delivering community campaigns.

Having recently worked closely with the Leeds LEP Chair Roger Marsh, Victoria has experience of PR and developing stories around the regional economic agenda, working in partnership with key stakeholders from the public and private sectors.

The two new recruits join Gerald Jennings, chairman of Social Communications East, and group director, Pete Wrathmell, who heads up the Leeds office.

Pete said: “We’re seeing enormous growth potential across Leeds City Region, and we are thrilled to be a part of this story as we build our Yorkshire team with two key appointments in Arnie and Victoria.

“With a wealth of experience working with communities and stakeholders across the public and private sectors and a detailed understanding of the economic and political agenda across the Leeds City Region, they both offer a diverse set of communications skills and knowledge that will support our continuing expansion.

“I am delighted to welcome them both to the growing Social Communications team and look forward to building on the momentum we have already gained in the region.”

Pam Stones, S Harrison

S Harrison, York-based property development firm, has appointed Pam Stones as financial controller.

Pam joins from the UK’s largest independent aerospace and defence company, and has 20 years’ experience working in senior finance roles.

She is a fully qualified management accountant and full member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Ann Scott, S Harrison’s managing director, said: “Pam has a great deal of experience managing both company finances and people.

“At S Harrison, Pam will be responsible for the management of accounts, credit control, purchase ledger, payroll and project accounting. She will also produce forecasts, budgets and business review data, in order to support our busy development operations.

“In recent years our business has grown phenomenally. Our annual profit increased by more than 40% during 2016 and we have plans for further growth in 2017.

“Pam’s appointment follows the recent appointment of a development executive and project delivery manager, and we will be recruiting more members of staff in the coming months to support our continued expansion programme.”

Angela Macready (pictured second on the left), Bury & Walkers Solicitors

Bury & Walkers Solicitors has announced that Angela Macready has joined its commercial team as a senior solicitor.

Angela previously headed up the commercial team at Emsleys and has specialised in helping businesses for over 10 years. She joins the Bury & Walkers team’s Leeds city centre office.

Angela’s main focus is assisting business clients with commercial property matters acting for both landlords and tenants. She has experience in both freehold and leasehold transactions working with clients from the retail, hospitality, property management, charitable as well as medical sectors.

Angela also works with others in the firm to deliver a residential leasehold service to property management companies, freeholders and/or tenants dealing with collective enfranchisement and lease extensions.

She is a non-executive Board Member for Harrogate Housing Association having developed an interest in social housing following her time as an in-house Solicitor for a national housing provider.

Michael Burke commented: “We are delighted Angela has decided to join our commercial team. Her experience and background will be a real asset to the firm.”

Guy Jewitt, Chris Murphy and Jason Williams, Beal Homes

East Yorkshire housebuilder Beal Homes has appointed three new associate directors.

Richard Beal, the chairman and managing director, made the appointments following the completion of the first Beal Academy, an 18-month development programme for 12 of the company’s current employees.

Guy Jewitt has been promoted to associate technical director, Chris Murphy is the newly appointed associate land director, and Jason Williams has been named an associate finance director.

In addition, quantity surveyor David Bennett has been promoted to technical manager, taking over Guy’s responsibilities.

All four took part in the Beal Academy, together with other colleagues from departments across the business. The programme involved one or two days a month away from the business on leadership and management training, followed by participants working in teams on key projects relevant to their disciplines.

Richard Beal said: “Our sustained growth over many years has been driven by the excellent performance of the great people in the business and this is further evidence of our commitment to recognise and reward them.

“We established the Beal Academy to accelerate the development of some of our most talented people, as part of our long-term succession planning, and the programme has delivered on that objective.”

He added: “These appointments will strengthen the capability within the business now and ensure we are fully prepared for the future.

“The Associated Directors will assume greater responsibility, including attending Board meetings and developing and presenting key strategic reports, to prepare them for the next level.

“The development and experience they will gain will mean we have a robust Board level succession plan in place.”

Dulce Farrow and Jon Austwick, Quality Context

Quality Context, a Sheffield-based pharmaceutical company, has made two new appointments.

The company, which provides pharmaceutical importation, testing, secondary packaging and consultancy services, has appointed Jon Austwick as the new audit manager to support with its client base spanning over 40 countries.

Prior to his appointment, Jon worked in a senior quality role for the global pharmaceutical company, Smith & Nephew. Jon brings with him over 20 years’ experience within the pharmaceutical, healthcare and medical device industries.

Also new to the team is Dulce Farrow, who joined as a programme manager, supporting Jon and the audit services team in managing multiple, worldwide projects.

Kate Krachai, founding director, said: “Quality Context’s recent rapid expansion means we’re always on the lookout for talented people.

“Dulce and Jon will be excellent additions to the team and both bring with them a wealth of expertise.

“Their appointments will help us achieve our goal of supporting more and more clients in protecting the safety and wellbeing of patients.”

Steve Williams (pictured left), Banner Jones

Banner Jones, the multi-disciplined law firm, has expanded its team with the appointment of Steve Williams.

Steve is a commercial and residential property lawyer who brings with him more than 40 years’ experience in the sector.

A past president of Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, Steve joins the firm’s South Yorkshire office with immediate effect; following a period of six years working as a consultant for Lupton Fawcett LLP.

Having qualified as a solicitor in 1973, Steve has practiced his entire career in Sheffield, taking on the role of Chamber of Commerce President in 2013.

He is an experienced property lawyer, with specialised knowledge of relocation, residential sales and residential purchases. He also has expertise in the commercial property arena – managing transfer of equity and mortgages.

Chris Sellars, head of residential property at Banner Jones Solicitors, said: “We are delighted to welcome Steve to our board of consultant solicitors; bringing with him not only a broad spectrum of property related specialisms, but also an intricate knowledge of the Sheffield City Region.

“His presence will serve to further expand the expertise and experience that our established team operating in this arena has to offer.”

Alice Jones and George Holden, Strawberry

Strawberry, the Hull-based creative marketing agency, has appointed a new account manager, Alice Jones, and a digital marketing executive, George Holden.

Following a spell with Huddersfield agency, The Bigger Boat, Alice has chosen to join Strawberry following the agency receiving national recognition for its NHS campaign.

George graduated from Northumbria University with a degree in Marketing Management, in which he did a year’s placement working for BMW UK in the Ecommerce Marketing Department.

Jonathan Leafe, managing director, said: “Strawberry is constantly growing and we needed to take on another account executive and a digital marketing executive to ensure we were delivering the same high standards that our clients have come to expect from us. We’re delighted to have Alice and George on board.”

Strawberry, established in 1993, is based in The Centre for Digital Innovation (C4DI) in Hull following a move from Strawberry Street in August 2016.

Strawberry offers a wide range of marketing and design services, including website design and development, graphic design, branding and digital marketing.

Morgan Mitchell, Megan Reece and Alex Humphries, UK Trade Furnishings

Leeds-based UK Trade Furnishings, which runs online flooring retailer Luxury Flooring & Furnishings, has appointed a digital marketing manager and added two new members to form a brand new marketing team.

UK Trade Furnishings has appointed two new marketing executives to the team, and promoted former marketing executive Alex Humphries to digital marketing manager.

The first of the two new appointments sees Morgan Mitchell, who holds a first class Media degree from Leeds Beckett University, join the team. Morgan has previously gained experience working with Lucre PR, Beattie Communications and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Megan Reece is the second marketing executive to be appointed, and she joins having previously worked in administration at HMP New Hall, as well as having gained valuable experience as a marketing & PR assistant at Independent Training Services.

Heading up the new team is Alex Humphries, who started with UK Trade Furnishings as its only marketing employee as recently as January 2017.

Cameron Christie, managing director and co-founder, said: “Following a great first three months of the year, we felt as if now was the right time to expand and bring two marketing executives to support the work Alex has been doing.

“We have seen considerable growth and improvement in our online marketing efforts in this first period, and we’re looking forward to seeing that continue.”