This week’s North East appointments: Featuring the North East Automotive Alliance, IGNIFI and razorblue

This week’s round up of North East appointments includes the North East Automotive Alliance, IGNIFI and razorblue. Read on to find out more.

Mark David, The North East Automotive Alliance

The North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA), the cluster supporting the region’s automotive supply chain, has appointed Mark David as skills project manager.

Mark, who previously worked at Business Durham, will lead on the North East Local Skills Improvement Plan (NELSIP), an employer-led plan that meets future business needs and provides a resilient and responsive supply of the skills needed to drive economic success and investment in the region.

Initially, Mark will be 100 per cent dedicated to the NELSIP, ensuring the plan is managed and delivered, and he will move to support further NEAA membership skills activity later in 2023.

Mark has over 10 years’ experience in the skills and education sector, including over six years at the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), working on current and future training needs, which included digitalisation of the construction sector and developing new qualifications for emerging areas of construction.

Mark has built a wealth of experience working with the region’s SME community, after starting his business support career at Business Link in 2009 and then moving to Stockton Council to manage a business growth programme.

Mark (pictured right) commented: “I look forward to getting to grips with the North East LSIP delivery. I can really see how this programme will make a difference to our region, putting employers in the driving seat for skills provision. In addition, I look forward to working with the membership and supporting the automotive sector.”

Joe McCarthy, IGNIFI

Healthcare marketing agency IGNIFI has added to its senior team with the appointment of strategic healthcare director Joe McCarthy.

Having worked client-side, in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years, Joe brings with him a wealth of experience from working with major brands developing and executing campaigns whilst building networks with key opinion leaders.

Joe’s most recent role prior to joining IGNIFI, was as Marketing Manager at Pharmacosmos where he was responsible for strategic planning and for leading the transition of their IV iron into the digital space.

IGNIFI are delighted to welcome Joe into the fold. His extensive strategic marketing insight will provide invaluable guidance and inspiration for client brands as well as help lead strategic direction and problem solving for client healthcare campaigns.

Joe is already immersing himself in IGNIFI’s client brands and is poised to provide added value healthcare intelligence around HCP interaction, channel recommendations and competitors. This will allow IGNIFI to work with clients to translate these insights into creative communication solutions across different healthcare communication and digital engagement channels such as Veeva.

John Horn, IGNIFI Operations Director, commented: “Joe’s experience, knowledge and enthusiasm made him the perfect choice for this key role which further strengthens our senior team. This strategic appointment, alongside recruitment in other areas, gives IGNIFI the capability and capacity to further enhance the support we can give our clients in 2023.’

Elizabeth Swan, razorblue

A managed IT service provider which works with over 500 companies across the UK has appointed a new finance director, tasked with continuing to steer the company on its exceptional growth course.

North East headquartered razorblue, which boasts seven offices and completed its second acquisition in as many years in 2021 has welcomed Elizabeth Swan, a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ industry experience, to manage its finance department and also brings another female face to the company’s board.

Elizabeth commented: “Having worked in larger corporates, the experience I can bring is applying the knowledge of how finance operates in larger companies and employing those best practices here.

“razorblue has grown rapidly and there are lots of projects we can undertake to ensure our finance systems are equipped to deal with that growth; in terms of making financial processes more efficient, quicker and with less manual processing. Having experience of delivering finance projects will be invaluable towards making those improvements.”

Dan Kitchen, CEO of Razorblue Group, added: “It’s great to have Elizabeth as part of the team, and her extensive knowledge and experience will be invaluable to us. Strategy is important to us, and her background means that she is well equipped to work with our team to deliver continued growth and success.”

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By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily

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