This week's North East appointments

Richard Pattinson, Maxim Facilities Management

An independent contract cleaning and facilities management firm has announced the apppointment of Richard Pattinson as its new finance director.

Richard is bringing two decades’ commercial experience to his new role with Maxim Facilities Management and is now responsible for all the financial and commercial aspects of the Sunderland-headquartered firm’s operations.

Richard began his career at business advisory firm Deloitte, and most recently acted as a senior advisor to the board at County Durham-headquartered technology firm Kromek Group plc.

He commented: “I was looking for an organisation with the right culture and quality of leadership, and for a management team with which I shared a common strategic vision.

“Maxim ticked all the boxes, and my aim is to use my experience of systems development and implementation, business improvement and corporate finance to contribute to its future evolution.

“There’s a lot of potential for continuing to grow the business and we are actively working towards a long-term goal of becoming a £20m turnover company with around 2,000 employees.”

Clare Galland, Everflow Water

A Teesside utilities retailer has announced the appointment of Clare Galland as its new environmental services manager.

Everflow Water has taken on Clare to focus on water efficiency and other sustainability issues.

She previously worked at Northumbrian Water, where she became more aware of the impact of the industry on the planet and what steps could be taken to mitigate against those.

Clare said: “My role will focus on developing our water efficiency service, which is traditionally a hard sell due to low cost-savings. However, it is the right thing to do – and we believe customers will increasingly be prepared to take action for the same reason.

“This is why we’re also focusing on reducing the amount of water used by businesses around the country, engaging with regulators and the market to ensure everyone is effectively incentivised to reduce wastage.

“This will help minimise water shortages as our economy grows, and protect the environment, as there will be less demand to extract excessive amounts of water from nature.”

Claire Renney, Siobhan Corr, Sarah Farish and Joanna Garvey-Smith, Muckle LLP

Muckle LLP has announced the appointment of three lawyers and a paralegal to its team.

Claire Renney, from Newcastle, specialises in education and safeguarding and joins the employment team.

Siobhain Corr, from Northern Ireland, joins the corporate team, and will advise on various transactions in the busy North East deals market.

Sarah Farish, from South Tyneside is now part of the Banking and Restructuring team, supporting lenders and borrowers in the banking sector and advising and supporting insolvency practitioners, directors and individuals in a wide range of insolvency matters.

Joanna Garvey-Smith, from Eaglescliffe is currently completing her law degree at Teesside University and joins the corporate services team as a paralegal.

Joanna commented: “Muckle has a reputation as being different, I know people who work here, and they say it’s the best place they’ve ever worked at – and that’s been my experience so far. The staff retention speaks for itself. Most people seem to have been here 10-20 years so Muckle must be doing something right!”

Siobhain added: “I wanted to come and work at Muckle as I’d heard so many good things about the culture, as well as the opportunity to work with some exciting clients and a fantastic team.”

Xin Zhang, Greaves West & Ayre

Greaves West & Ayre has announced that Xin Zhang has been promoted to associate.

Having already acquired an MSc in Quantitative Finance, Xin qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2018.

He joined GWA in the same year and has worked with clients from both sides of the border across a range of industries, utilising his experience in tax and general practice.

Xin commented: “I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to progress my career within GWA. As associate, I look forward to extending the relationships I have already started to build with our clients in Scotland, Northumberland and beyond.”

Robbie Dalgleish, partner at GWA, added: “Since joining GWA, Xin has made a positive contribution to the firm and I am delighted to welcome him as an associate.  Our team is our most important asset, and we actively develop staff throughout their careers. 

“I am sure that Xin will excel in this new role and will continue to help us to deliver Quality Advice and Quality Service to our clients.”

Susan Dawson, Lee Francis, Alex Rayner and Richard Farrey, Constructing Excellence in the North East

Constructing Excellence in the North East (CENE) has announced a plethora of new appointments to its board.

The appointments are Susan Dawson, Lee Francis, Alex Rayner and Richard Farrey.

Susan is a senior lecturer of architecture and built environment at Northumbria University, Lee is the CEO of RE:GEN Group, Alex is a senior partner at Sintons LLP and Richard is director of Silverstone Building Consultancy.

Susan commented: “Within my role on the board, I see myself as an interface between education and industry. I value the importance of developing communities of practice across these culturally different sectors for mutual and long-term gain.”

Lee said: “I am looking forward to joining the board and want to play my part to support continuous improvement, create networking opportunities and provide a strategic input, whilst also challenging the organisation, by being innovative in the way we address and adopt new ways of working, so that we think differently and can put forward new solutions.”

Tim Bailey, chair of CENE, said: “The new appointments come at a time of acceleration for the industry, particularly as we race towards carbon neutrality and supercharge our voice in the region as a leader for net zero.

“Each of our new board members is armed with a wealth of experience within their respective fields and we look forward to blending new and experienced ideas as we move forward as a team to the benefit of our members.”