This week's North East appointments

Brian Dilley, NERC

Brian Dilley has been named chair of the North East Business Resilience Centre, launched at the end of 2019 to help businesses manage and respond to cybercrime.

Brian brings over 20 years’ experience in fraud and financial crime to the role, which will see him leading the board in guiding the work and support the centre will provide to businesses across the region.

He is the current group director of Fraud & Financial Crime Prevention for Lloyds Banking Group, where he is responsible for fraud prevention, anti-money laundering, sanctions compliance, anti-bribery and countering terrorist financing across the group’s brands.

Commenting on the recent appointment, Supt. Rebecca Chapman said: “We are delighted to announce Brian as chair of the NEBRC, bringing with him a wealth of understanding, expertise and leadership that is second to none within the sector.

“Highly organised online crime costs UK businesses a staggering £27bn a year.

“The NEBRC has been established to provide a pro-active, preventive approach to help tackle this issue, guided by experts from across cyber security, academic research and leading businesses, along with some of the region’s seven police forces.

“The board, led by Brian, will provide the understanding, support and solutions that businesses require.”

Brian added: “Cybercrime is a growing concern for businesses across the world which threatens to compromise the stability and security of information systems.

“The aim of the NEBRC is to provide advice and support on future-proofing and security standards to businesses, helping to deepen their understanding and resilience.

“Our unique connection to local universities and the seven regional police forces gives us exclusive access to the latest information on legislation, criminal trends, threats and new technology – allowing us to provide the very best advice to help safeguard staff, customers and businesses, delivered by an expert team and innovative ‘ethical hacker’ students.

“The network model of centres across the UK enables us to support each other by sharing information, and my colleague Maggie Titmuss – Director of Intelligence and Incident Response at Lloyds Banking Group – has been instrumental in shaping the future direction of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre with fellow Board members.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what we can achieve as a team across the centres in the fight against cybercrime.”

John Fernie, Materials Processing Institute

The Materials Processing Institute has appointed Professor John Fernie to head its recently formed Advanced Materials Group.

John has more than 30 years’ experience of managing research and development teams. This has included creating and implementing technology strategies and securing both grant-based and commercial funding from the UK, EU and the rest of the world.

Previously John has worked for TWI (The Welding Institute) in Cambridge and AWE (the Atomic Weapons Establishment), in Aldermaston, as well as being a freelance technical consultant.

Chris McDonald, chief executive of the Materials Processing Institute, commented: “We are fortunate to attract someone of John’s calibre and I’m delighted to welcome him to the Institute.”

“He has a wealth of experience in both industry and research and development and I’m confident that he can make a huge contribution to achieving the Institute’s strategy in this vital area of advanced materials.”

John, who is a chartered engineer and fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, added: “I’m more than pleased to join the Materials Processing Institute, which has a national and global reputation for research and innovation, and be a part of its mission to develop new and innovative materials.”

Vincent Mullen and Sam Gannie, UTS Engineering

Jarrow-based engineering specialist, UTS Engineering, has announced the appointments of Vincent Mullen and Sam Gannie as social media executives, as it grows its online presence.

Vincent, who is responsible for strategy and internal marketing, has a background in engineering and a degree in business management.

Sam, who is responsible for videography and photography, has a degree in film and TV production and has previously worked on popular ITV crime series, Vera.

Vincent commented: “Social media is a hugely influential marketing tool and our role is to put together content in a digital format to raise the profile of the business.

“The variety across the partners is fantastic and gives us a lot to work with content wise and my undertaking of engineering at A Level means I have a sound grasp of the technical side.

“The company is also keen for us to help with internal engagement which is especially important now given the current climate.

“Morale is a huge priority and as such, we are sending out personalised letters to thank both the production team and the site and services team.

“They are our key workers and keep everything running smoothly.

“Sam has also been creating comedy videos which we have sent out to the team and they are going down a storm!

“Having worked in a range of industries previously but not finding the roles stimulating enough, my current position is a perfect fit.

“I am incredibly impressed that the business is more than happy to invest in employee learning and is funding my CIM Level 6 in Professional Marketing.

“There are very few employers who would invest in employees after just a few weeks in the role.”

Sam added: “Vincent and I complement each other perfectly and make a great duo.

“We have been brought in to help facilitate growth across the partners which is so diverse.

“With a strong overseas presence, it manufactures everything from structural steel you would see on landmarks such as the Shard building, in London, pipework for all the major utilities and also operates in home improvement markets.

“In the short time we have been here, the company’s social media presence has already been boosted greatly.

“We are able to track engagement online, monitoring how people browse and how they look at UTS Engineering.

“We have already noticed a spike in interest with engagement significantly rising.

“Working for an industrial company is certainly different than being on the set of Vera but the freedom afforded to me to be as creative as I want is a credit to the company and makes it my best role yet.”

Amie Callan, Richard Flounders and Angie Papprill, Jacksons

Law firm Jacksons has announced the appointment of three new positions.

Head of finance, Amie Callan, joined the firm in July 2018 to head up its accounts team. During her time at Jacksons she has implemented a range of new financial reporting systems, in order to measure the financial data for the firm.

Amie has a wealth of experience working over 10 years in manufacturing for a global organisation and three years in the not-for-profit sector.

Solicitor Richard Flounders joined Jacksons in August 2019 to head up its property litigation department.

He is experienced in all areas of commercial litigation, including insurance litigation, and lead on a number of industry high profile cases in the court of appeal.

Angie Papprill has been promoted to associate solicitor. Angie specialises in dispute resolution with a particular interest in construction. She has been with the firm since January 2015 and has been expanding her client portfolio since then. Amie commented: “I am thrilled to be promoted to partner at Jacksons and to be given the same career development opportunities as the lawyers in the firm.

“The legal sector certainly has its challenges however, the support from the partnership has been exceptional since day one.

“It is great to be part of such a talented and dynamic team.”

Richard added: “I’m very excited to be a partner at Jacksons. Since joining the firm in August last year, I have been made really welcome by all members of staff in the firm’s Teesside and Newcastle office.

“I’ve been impressed with Jacksons’ commitment to client care, the quality of the work and the portfolio of clients. It is a great place to work.”

Angie said: “I have witnessed Jacksons go from strength to strength since joining the firm over five years ago.

“There is a great sense of teamwork who are more like an extended family than work colleagues.

“I can’t think of any other firm I would rather be working with and to be progressing my career in law.”

Ken Parkin and Caroline Meehan, Construction Alliance Northeast

Construction Alliance Northeast (CAN) has appointed a new chair and vice chair.

Ken Parkin, who has spent 40 years in the industry with national and regional building contractors, takes over the two-year appointment of chair from Stuart Miller of CECA (Civil Engineering Contractors Association).

Ken is keen to build on the progress made by the organisation which was formed in 2017 and is well equipped to comment on the industry which continues to face challenging times whilst playing a major role within the regional economy.

The vice chair role has been taken on by Caroline Meehan, director of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

Ken commented: “I’m delighted to be taking on the role of chair for CAN.

“Having been a part of this industry within the North East throughout my career I feel that I have the experience to lead the organisation to achieve great things and I’m excited to see what progress will be made.

“The regional construction and civil engineering sectors face a number of challenges that we hope to overcome through the adoption of our intelligent procurement policy and by feeding in to the regional ‘one voice’ strategy, and other initiatives.

“Furthermore, we are about to start work on our second policy document around fair payments.

“I’m thrilled to have Caroline on board as vice chair to assist when meeting with local MPs, government officials and education bodies in order to facilitate change. We have a busy agenda ahead of us, so watch this space!”