This week’s London appointments

Amrendra Sinha, Brown Shipley

Wealth planning and investment management firm Brown Shipley has appointed Amrendra Sinha as head of direct equity.

Reporting to chief investment officer Toby Vaughan in the newly created role, Amrendra will work to enhance the company’s investment capabilities as it develops its direct equity offering.

Amrendra has more than 18 years of experience with institutional asset management, wealth management and hedge funds.

CIO Toby Vaughan said: “I am delighted to welcome Amrendra to the Brown Shipley team. His industry expertise, spanning both UK and international stocks, will be invaluable in strengthening our investment proposition for clients.”

Amrendra commented: “I’m delighted to have joined Brown Shipley at such an exciting time of growth within the business and am looking forward to working with my new colleagues in the investment office.”

Hamish Dupree, WiredScore

WiredScore, the rating scheme for digital connectivity in the commercial real estate sector, has taken on Hamish Dupree as its new head of London markets.

Hamish will focus on client development with London landlords, identifying prospects, communicating the firm’s value proposition and driving the adoption of the Wired Certification product in London.

He previously worked for real estate fund Patrizia, where he was a senior associate and focused on UK transactions.

WiredScore’s president and EMEA managing director, William Newton, said: “As WiredScore continues to expand globally we are committed to building a best-in-class team, supporting the widescale adoption of Wired Certification across the commercial real estate industry.

“London is a core market and Hamish’s expertise and knowledge of the capital make him the ideal candidate to head up our London markets team.”

He added: “Hamish will be a great asset to us as we further develop our growing offer and build on our team culture.”

Hamish commented: “Having worked with WiredScore during my time at Patrizia I was well aware of the inherent value of Wired Certification and the importance of their wider business proposition.

“The company’s underlying aspiration to be an enabler to the real estate industry, as it addresses the wider importance of digital infrastructure and transformation, is both unique and compelling.”

He continued: “I look forward to working with the impressive minds at WiredScore as they continue to support businesses, navigating the increasingly important world of connectivity in real estate.”

Freddie Shirley, Hyperoptic

Gigabit broadband provider Hyperoptic has announced the appointment of Freddie Shirley as director of brand experience.

Freddie will report to Charles Davies, managing director, ISP, who was recently appointed to build Hyperoptic’s brand into a national name.

For the last six years, she has worked VP, consumer marketing and online brand experience for Avast, AVG and HideMyAss!.

Charles said: “Freddie is one of the best brand professionals there is and as a result we are delighted to have her on the team.

“A commercially savvy marketing leader, her ability to translate customer needs to business and brand solution is market leading. Exciting times!”

Freddie commented: “I am very excited to take on such an instrumental role in a company that has a clear lead in disrupting a sector. Hyperoptic’s product is smart and future-proofed which makes this a dream; plus, the leadership team are right behind creativity and customer-centric engagement. It’s a fantastic role and I’m looking forward to making my mark.”

Jacques Stern, Perkbox

Employee experience platform Perkbox has appointed Jacques Stern as a non-executive director on its board.

Jacques was chief exec of French corporate services firm Edenred between 2010 and 2015. He has since become the CEO and president of shopping tax refund company Global Blue SA.

Perkbox’s co-founder and CEO, Saurav Chopra, said: “It is with great pleasure that we welcome Jacques to the team.

“At Perkbox, we’ve made it our mission to help 10 million employees by 2020 and 100 million by 2025. Jacques’ expertise in running and growing two successful global businesses will be immensely valuable as we scale up to become the number one employee experience platform worldwide.”

Jacques commented: “Perkbox’s ‘employee first’ strategy and extremely fast-paced growth has got me very excited about the untapped potential in the market.

“I am convinced that digital cloud-based platforms focusing on the holistic employee experience are a natural evolution of how to integrate the value proposal in this space.”

He continued: “Perkbox has the potential to become a unique differentiator, providing an environment that meets the comfort and efficiency required by today’s employees. I am delighted to be helping this talented team in their journey to become global market leaders.”

Justin Hall, Onezeero

Staffing company Onezeero has chosen Justin Hall as its new managing director.

Joining the firm with more than 20 years of industry experience, Justin has spent the last 14 with Onezeero sister company Lorien.

He was a key member of the senior leadership team at Lorien, managing some of the business’ biggest customer accounts.

Justin said: “Onezeero has a powerful and trusted brand within the marketplace – we are specialists in what we do and customers really value our expertise and candidate network.

“I’m looking forward to driving this further and becoming the go to brand for customers and candidates alike. We’ll be scouring the market for ambitious recruiters, who want to join a dynamic company on an exciting growth path.”

Lorien Resourcing CEO Claire Marsh commented: “It has always been important to me that we enable our people to progress their careers with us.

“I am therefore delighted to see Justin take the helm at Onezeero.”

She continued: “Justin is one of the most passionate and driven individuals I have worked with. His natural charisma and supportive nature has seen him respected by recruiters and customers alike, and his extensive experience will ensure that Onezeero continue to provide the specialist service they are renowned for in the ever evolving technology space.”

Rafał Szajewski and Iwona Chojnowska-Haponik, JLL

Investment manager JLL has appointed Iwona Chojnowska-Haponik and Rafał Szajewski as directors in its EMEA business and location consulting team.

At JLL, Iwona and Rafał will help clients optimise their location strategies across the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) region, navigate regulatory changes and secure funding.

They will both be based at JLL’s offices in Warsaw, Poland.

Iwona has more than 15 years of experience with the Polish Investment and Trade Agency, where she had responsibility for promoting the country as an investment destination.

Rafał, meanwhile, has spent 12 years at the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency, during which time he consulted for global corporates operating in the financial services and tech sectors.

JLL’s head of business location consulting for the EMEA region, Matthijs Weeink, said: “Making business location decisions has never been more complex, given that in the war for talent, location is crucial.

“We are delighted to have Iwona and Rafał on board, their skills and regional expertise will only strengthen our ability to offer market-leading insights to clients.”

Susan Brench, Santander

Santander Corporate & Commercial has announced the appointment of Susan Brench as head of its national chemical sector team.

The new role, created within the bank’s manufacturing sectors team, will see Susan reporting to head of manufacturing Paul Brooks.

Susan has more than 30 years’ experience in the fields of industrial strategic commercial management, stakeholder engagement, marketing and international business development.

She was most recently a member of the senior management team at Briar Chemicals.

Paul Brooks said: “We are delighted to welcome Susan to Santander. She has unparalleled experience in the chemicals sector, a target growth market for Santander and a key manufacturing sector for the UK.

“Santander has increased its appetite for the sector, and her appointment underlines our deep support for our current clients and focus on establishing new ones.”

Susan commented: “The UK chemicals sector is a key industry and one in which the UK is a global leader.

“I’m truly excited by this new opportunity to work with the Santander chemicals and manufacturing team to help facilitate the sustainable growth of an increasingly competitive industry sector.”

Jeff McGeachie, MeasureMatch

On-demand professional services platform startup MeasureMatch has appointed Jeff McGeachie as chief legal officer.

Jeff, who is also joining the company’s board of directors, has over 20 years’ experience in legal services, much of which was gained supporting tech startups across London and Europe.

He is the founder of Spencer Legal Solicitors, a commercial law firm based in the capital that focuses on technology startups and SMEs.

Jeff said: “Having known James for nearly 10 years, he has both the vision and the experience to turn a great idea into a world beating business, making this opportunity to work with him and the MeasureMatch team simply too good to turn down.

“I look forward advising them at such a pivotal stage in the platform’s development and seeing our goals realised this year.”

CEO James Sandoval commented: “Now is the right time to bring Jeff and his deeply valuable skillset to the MeasureMatch business.

“With the platform growing in line with our objectives and our plans to launch a spate of new innovations, we’re ready for Jeff to help us execute the next phase of our very exciting journey.”