This week's London appointments

Heather Payne, FirstPort

Residential property management company FirstPort has appointed Heather Payne as chief technology officer.

She will be responsible for FirstPort’s digital transformation programme.

Nigel Howell, chief executive of FirstPort, said: “Unlocking the business’s digital and e-commerce capabilities across mobile and online applications is key to our future success.

“We’re very pleased Heather will join our Executive leadership team, adding her expertise in customer experience to the residential property management sector.”

Heather added: “In my first few weeks with FirstPort I have had the pleasure of working with a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and future focused team.

“I am excited to make Nigel’s ambitious strategy a reality by helping the business to grow, through improvements in ways of working enabled through technology.”

Matthew Cahill; Simon McLeod; Graham Reid; and Max Beazley, gunnercooke

Challenger law firm gunnercooke has strengthened its London team bringing in four new partners and boosting its corporate and finance presence in the city.

Matthew Cahill, Simon McLeod, Graham Reid and Max Beazley have joined gunnercooke as partners.

Capital Markets and Structured Finance partner, Matthew Cahill, draws on over 20 years of magic circle law firm experience advising on complex transactions for some of the world’s leading financial institutions.

Highly praised over his career in Chambers, the Legal 500 and many other directories, Matthew brings vast international experience to gunnercooke. He has previously been a partner at Clifford Chance and Sidley Austin.

Max Beazley joins gunnercooke as a corporate and commercial partner. He was previously at Dorsey & Whitney and has been recommended by Chambers UK and Legal 500 since 2017.

Graham Reid joins gunnercooke from Lewis Silkin. He is involved in all aspects of finance acting for lenders and borrowers. His clients include financial institutions, FCA authorised parties, corporates and individuals.

Simon McLeod is a corporate and commercial lawyer specialising in all aspects of corporate, both public and private, finance and commercial legal work. He has regularly been commended in the Legal 500. He joins from Goodman Derrick.

Steven Kenee, The Board of Oakman Inns & Restaurants

The Board of Oakman Inns & Restaurants, the fast-expanding pub group, has appointed industry figure, Steven Kenee as chief investment officer.

He is currently a partner of Downing LLP which manages over £1bn of UK company investment. Steve spearheaded over £156m of investments, predominantly into the pub industry, and will be joining Oakman full-time in September 2019.

Peter Borg-Neal, CEO and founder of Oakman Inns, said: “Myself, Dermot King and all the Board are fiercely ambitious and are committed to the further growth of our business.

“Our pace of growth and the difficult external environment have meant that we have had to fund the business in an innovative but sometimes complex fashion.

“We now have a turnover of over £40m and several more sites in the pipeline. Steve will focus on improving both the efficiency of our funding as well as raising our future growth capital.”

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