This week's North East appointments

Erin McDougle and Jairaj Lalli, Vida Creative

Vida Creative has appointed two new team members to support bespoke website development, branding and design.

Erin McDougle, a former Northumbria University graphic design student, joins the Newcastle-based digital agency as a graphic designer.

Jairaj Lalli joins as a front end web developer, having also graduated from Northumbria University in 2017 with a web design and development degree.

Erin brings her brand, animation and website design experience to the team. She will be designing unique websites, eye-catching brands and other digital and print assets for Vida Creative’s growing list of clients.

Jairaj is a front end developer with a keen eye for design. He brings his experience working in a larger Newcastle design agency. He will be supporting Vida Creative director and full stack developer, Henry Coggin, on the creation of bespoke websites for a range of clients in the creative, events and tech sectors.

The two new recruits take the team to a total of six.

Henry Coggin, director and co-founder at Vida Creative said: “We’re very excited to have Erin and Jairaj join our team.

“Our aim has always been to produce high quality work and having Erin and Jairaj’s skills in the team is really going to help us add even more value to our clients.”

Liz Bromley, Paul Butler, Yvonne Gale, Darren Laybourn and Steve Underwood, North East LEP

Five new appointments have been made to the Business Growth Board of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Liz Bromley, Paul Butler, Yvonne Gale, Darren Laybourn and Steve Underwood have all joined the board, which is chaired by entrepreneur Ammar Mirza CBE.

Colin Bell, business growth director at the North East LEP, commented: “The role of every member of the business growth board is to support the North East LEP and its partners to build an ambitious and thriving economy in our region.

“As businesses across the North East begin to look at how they can recover from the impact of COVID-19, the business growth board will play an important part in supporting businesses and helping to secure the long-term economic recovery of our region.”

Ammar Mirza CBE, chair of the business growth board, said: “The board is made up of individuals with significant experience, expertise and endorsement, representing the public, private and academic sectors, all with a shared ambition of making the North East a better place where we create more and better jobs, which is clearly even more important now.

“The LEP has always acted as an enabler, recognising that we must create a community underpinned by a collaborative campaign to develop an effective eco-system that will help our region restart, revive and ultimately thrive.

“It is this partnership approach that will help us progress to a better place.”

Gareth Devine, Aura

Aura, the North East building consultancy, continues to grow its team with the appointment of Gareth Devine as senior project manager.

Gareth brings more than 25 years’ experience in the construction sector, managing the successful delivery of major infrastructure projects across the UK.

Aura’s chief executive, Kirsty Thirlwell, commented: “We are delighted that Gareth has joined the team, adding significant strength in depth to the business as we continue to develop our client service in line with our strategic growth plan.

“Gareth will lead the development of our PFI Handback service which offers expert advice and a detailed process to manage the return of assets as many PFI contracts are now nearing the expiry of their contractual term.”

Jonathan Marley and Chris Mosley, IMH

IMH has announced the appointment of Jonathan Marley and Chris Mosley to managerial roles.

Jonathan, who has 14 years project and operational management experience and performed a number of roles at pumping solutions specialist Sulzer has been appointed as operations manager.

He will have day-to-day responsibility for operational efficiency and quality control across the service and maintenance work streams of IMH and will manage the execution of all longer-term major project commitments.

Chris Mosley, who has been appointed as service manager, will work closely with Jonathan and lead IMH’s service delivery team.

Chris spent 20 years with the British Army, working his way up to avionics supervisor / flight line crew chief, where he coordinated maintenance support on various aircraft in high-pressure environments.

Jonathan commented: “I’m delighted to be joining the IMH team, as now more than ever there is a need for businesses to look for ways in which to operate more effectively and implement processes that are flexible and responsive.

“With service teams based here in Middlesbrough and at the Port of Blyth I look forward to developing new strategies that can be implemented to best support our customers.”

James Griffiths, managing director at IMH, added: “As our business continues to grow its portfolio and sector coverage, these strategic appointments will assist us in overcoming the many challenges that expansion brings.

“I’m excited that Jonathan and Chris have joined the team, they bring extremely valuable experience and capabilities to the organisation.”

Kyle Heron, Sarah Heanan, Hugo Duarte and Rebecca McLaughlin, KOMODO

North East product design and software engineering agency KOMODO, has announced four new recruits have joined the business.

The four new hires are Kyle Heron, who joins as associate quality assurance (QA) engineer, Sarah Heanan and Hugo Duarte as software engineers in the platform team, and Rebecca McLaughlin as a software engineer in the agency’s mobile team.

Armin Talić, commercial director at KOMODO, commented: “Our expectations and process often mean we take longer to find exceptional candidates, but we know that the balance, capabilities and motivations of our team are the reasons we attract clients and retain them.

“I’m delighted with the calibre of people we’ve introduced to the team - even welcoming and onboarding two members during this phase of lockdown - and have found each to be already imparting a wide range of skills and experiences that are enriching our teams and their overall approach to project delivery.”

KOMODO’s managing director Andy Greener, commented: “Starting a new role in the midst of a pandemic must be daunting, but our recent hires have settled into the agency well and are making an impact in their respective roles on the work they’re involved with.

“The agency went fully-remote around 7 weeks ago and services have adapted accordingly so there has been no client downtime, and from a people perspective, we’ve been keeping in touch with team members weekly to communicate the business outlook during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as keeping team members engaged with Friday night quizzes and Google Meets to keep up face-time.

“I’m looking forward to coming together as a team to celebrate our new hires and other recent successes when it’s safe to do so.”