North West companies big and small have been among those to confirm more than 50 top appointments and promotions over the last week.
Businesses with operations in the likes of Manchester, Liverpool, Chester and further afield have been in contact with BusinessLive since our most recent North West round up.
Companies in sectors from as diverse as social media, theme parks, law and property are among those who have made a series of moves in the last seven days.
If you have a new or recent appointment or promotion that you would like featured in our next round up, please e-mail jon.robinson@reachplc.com.
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Here, BusinessLive runs through the latest North West appointments announced in the last week that you shouldn't miss:
Social Chain
Social Chain, the firm co-founded by Dragons' Den star Steven Bartlett and Dominic McGregor, has named a new UK managing director.
Pete Metcalfe has been hired from his role as managing director at Carat UK where he has been following a 13-year career at Dentsu that includes leadership roles at both Carat and iProspect across the UK.
He will Social Chain's Manchester-headquartered UK arm in April and succeed Katy Leeson who first took on the role in July 2017.
You can read the full story here
Napthens
A former boss at Tesco, M&S and Accenture has been named as the new chief executive of a North West law firm.
Napthens has hired Alexandra Hatchman, who has been chief executive at Fletchers Solicitors since 2020.
The firm has offices in Liverpool, Southport, Blackburn, Preston, Kendal and Fylde Coast while its clients include National Museums Liverpool, Daniel Thwaites and Lakes Speciality Foods.
Norcros
The bathroom supplies group behind the Triton and Johnson Tiles brands has appointed a new director of corporate development and strategy.
Norcros, which is headquartered in Cheshire, has hired Chris Mulligan to succeed James Eyre who has been promoted to group chief financial officer.
Mr Mulligan has previously held role at Atkins, PA Consulting Group and SLR Consulting.
Lucky Penny Group
Liverpool bar and restaurant manager Adam Keegan has joined Lucky Penny Group as head of operations.
He will oversee the evolution of its current sites and the development of new venues across the North West.
Mr Keegan has built up his experience across the city over many years including at the three sites of Middle East-inspired Maray, Tribeca Bars’ Neon Jamon, Little Italy and Berrington’s, and the former Baby Elephant in Woolton.
Lucky Penny Group is operated by Steven Burgess and Josh Moore who run Abditory in Liverpool’s Queen Avenue and BoBo.
MSB
Liverpool-based law firm MSB has added four new partners to its team, taking the total number to 18 across the business.
New partners include Pippa Tudor, one-time trainee of MSB’s managing partner, Emma Carey, and senior associate solicitor in the firm’s family team.
Jack Medlicott, senior associate solicitor in commercial property has been made a partner after developing the firm’s secured lending offer, as well as Andrew Moore, head of anti-social behaviour and leasehold and solicitor.
Also in the firm’s social housing team, Phillip Coburn, head of market rents and solicitor has been promoted to the position.
Gulliver’s World
Gulliver’s World has added to its leadership team after appointing a new resort director to oversee the Warrington theme park resort.
Craig Clews, 41, from Preston, joins Gulliver’s from Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where he was assistant operations director.
He previously worked at Crealy Theme Park and Resort in Devon, including as assistant general manager, and as a Thomson Holiday rep in resorts all over the world.
KOMI Group
KOMI Group, the Manchester-headquartered social media, marketing, and licensing business, has grown its team by 10 since the start of the year. The new appointments are spread across the company and increases its total headcount to 62.
Aban Mechti joins as a social media manager from LadBible where he worked for two years.
Abbey Lam, James Farrington, Luke Hampson, Bailey Sadler, and Phoebe Johnson-Bird have all been appointed junior video editing coordinators.
Hannah Green has joined as a junior graphic designer from Stonegate Group; Lewis Rattigan is a new gaming streamer; and Lucy-Kate Green is the company’s newest junior community coordinator. She joins from Asda.
The final new starter is Jodie Giblin – KOMI’s new business development manager. Their last role was at MediaBodies in Leeds.
Palatine
The private equity backer of the likes of Gusto and The Alchemist has made a senior appointment in Manchester.
Palatine has added to its value enhancement team with the hiring of Matt Cobbold as strategic growth manager.
He joins from OneWeb, the international satellite internet service provider, where as corporate development manager he supported the scale-up company’s CFO and CEO on business planning and go-to-market strategy.
Stellantis
Stellantis, the owner of Vauxhall, has announced the appointment of Diane Miller as plant director at Ellesmere Port from February 1.
She has most recently been responsible for general assembly in Ellesmere Port having joined the team as paint shop manager from Aston Martin in 2014.
She has been in the automotive industry for 30 years joining Ford Motor Company in Dagenham as process engineer, and going on to various roles including Central planning for European Paint, paint unit manager roles in Chicago Assembly Plan USA and Southampton Transit plant UK.
Solomon Commercials
Solomon Commercials, a manufacturer of temperature controlled-vehicles, has appointed Matt Hilton as the firm’s new head of procurement.
Mr Hilton, who has over 33 years of experience in procurement, will now lead the five-strong team at the Haslingden head office and has been tasked with helping build strategic partnerships with Solomon’s suppliers.
He said: "Solomon Commercials has a fantastic reputation in the industry for its class-leading quality delivery vehicles."
Lexington North
Emily Carter has been appointed associate director for public affairs at strategic communications agency Lexington North in Manchester.
She previously worked at DevoConnect and in Parliament for a number of northern MPs.
"I’m delighted to welcome Emily to our public affairs team at Lexington," said Paul Boyfield, managing director of Lexington North.
Santé Group
Lancashire-based Santé Group has promoted Tony Ford to its board of its life insurance business, Santé Life.
Mr Ford who started with Nugent Santé as a consultant in 2014 before moving into Santé Life in 2020 now receives an equity stake in the life insurance business.
Following his career in playing and coaching football, he developed a career in the financial services sector, amassing 18 years experience with Chase Templeton and more recently Santé Life.
Santé Life sits within the wider The Santé Group, which includes Nugent Santé a specialist health insurance and wellbeing business, broker support business ArchAngel and private medical insurance broker network, Santé Partners.
Tosca Debt Capital
Mid-market private debt fund Tosca Debt Capital (TDC) has made three new appointments.
Manchester-based Rob Hanley joins as investment director and has previously worked at Grant Thornton and HSBC.
Tom Scatchard and India Kendrick have also joined the team as portfolio executives.
Joining from BDO, they both have backgrounds in transaction services and audit.
Liverpool City Region LEP
The Liverpool City Region LEP's health and life sciences board has made a number of new appointments.
Chairman Peter Timmins has welcomed 13 new members.
Among them are Rinki Deb, senior programme manager, Infection Innovation Consortium, (iiCON) led by the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Damian Mohammed, who leads on North West Strategic Partnerships at the Centre for Process Innovation.
Knowsley Safari
Merseyside’s Knowsley Safari has recruited former National Trust figurehead Kirsten Warren to the newly-created role of safari director.
She will be responsible for animal care, as well as staff and guest satisfaction.
She has worked at a senior level with several National Trust landmarks and has experience overseeing award-winning events, such as Dunham Massey’s Christmas Light Trail.
F2G
Manchester-based F2G, the clinical stage rare disease biotech firm, has announced a trio of senior appointments to its board and executive team.
Mark Baglin joins as chief commercial officer, Dr Janelle Anderson as chief business officer, and Dr Sylvie Gregoire as non-executive director.
CEO Francesco Maria Lavino said: "Mark, Janelle and Sylvie join us at a pivotal time in our growth journey.
"They bring a wealth of commercial, operational and dealmaking experience, gained specifically within the rare disease space, which will be key as we move towards a planned NDA filing later this year."
Berkeley Shaw
Merseyside estate agent Berkeley Shaw has appointed Karen Parks as head of residential sales.
She has worked in North Sefton for more than two decades and previously was employed at Michael Moon, Entwistle Green and Wainwright Edwards before opening her own agency in Formby.
In her new role, she will undertake all valuations in Hightown, Formby, Ainsdale and Southport as well as oversee the running of Berkeley Shaw’s Formby branch.
Transport for the North
A former Transport Minister has been chosen to become the new chairman of the Transport for the North organisation.
Lord McLoughlin, who was an MP in Derbyshire from 1986 to 2019, served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2012 to 2016, as well as holding other Ministerial roles.
He joins Transport for the North to succeed John Cridland, the former CBI director-general who stepped down as chair last year.
You can read the full story here
Hill Dickinson
Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has added two partners to its Manchester office.
Jessica Neary joins as a partner in the Health Litigation team from Hempsons, where she progressed her legal career acting for a range of NHS trusts and general practitioners on high-value, complex clinical negligence actions including those arising out of birth injury and spinal injury.
Peter Winnard joins Hill Dickinson’s fast-growing real estate team, specialising in all aspects of large-scale development and regeneration projects for both the private and the public sectors.
He was one of five founding partners of Nabarro, Manchester, which later merged with Cameron McKenna and Olswang to become CMS.
Kin + Carta
Global digital transformation consultancy Kin + Carta has announced two appointments at its Manchester office.
Mark Collin has been hired as managing director of experience and product reporting to chief product officer for Europe, Lindsay Ratcliffe.
Robert Wadsworth has also joined as director of enterprise data, reporting to Karl Hampson, CTO Data and AI.
Ball & Berry
Ball & Berry has appointed a new regional director for the North West, to drive forward the business’ growth and expand its commercial and domestic portfolios.
Jennifer Barrett joined the construction industry as a trainee civil engineer technician in 1992 and shortly after began undertaking a series of qualifications to enable her to progress her career.
She secured a degree in building surveying in 1999, which saw her move into roles as a building control consultant, building control surveyor and senior project manager.
She joined Dunwoody Building Legislation as an associate director in 2005 and advanced to full director in 2012, before joining Jhai Ltd as regional manager in 2018. She was promoted to technical manager in 2020, ahead of joining Ball & Berry at the start of 2022.
Kingswood Homes
Lancashire-based Kingswood Homes has announced the appointment of Gordon More, former Homes England interim chief executive, as a non-executive director.
Mr More spent more than 30 years in the banking sector focussing on real estate and general corporate sectors.
He was seconded from his role as managing director of the Business Support Unit (Commercial Real Estate) within Lloyds Banking Group to join Homes England as head of investments in 2014.
He took on the role of chief investment officer at Homes England three years later.
WorkLife by OpenMoney
Manchester-based WorkLife by OpenMoney has appointed Magdalena Tulik as marketing manager.
She joins from legal firm Clyde & Co LLP and brings a diverse mix of marketing and business development experience gained from within the professional and financial services sectors.
At WorkLife, she will have responsibility for driving the company’s marketing strategy and helping to grow awareness and understanding of its offerings via a range of channels.
Viddyoze
North West-based animation firm Viddyoze has appointed a new chief of staff.
Ruth Fitzherbert-Brockholes has been hired as Viddyoze’s first ever chief of staff and will report directly to the three co-founders David Chamberlain, Jamie Garside and Joey Xoto.
Fitzherbert-Brockholes previously spent more than eight years at Assurant and she’ll be joined by two hires in the SEO and UX divisions, bringing the total global workforce to 60.
Meadow Foods
Meadow Foods has appointed Raj Tugnait as its new CEO.
He will join in early April and succeed Mark Chantler who will remain a part of the leadership team with a seat on the board as a non- executive director and a significant shareholder.
Mr Tugnait joins with more than three decades of senior experience in the food sector, most recently as CEO of Sysco Speciality Group.
Gledhill
Gledhill, a Blackpool-based manufacturer of hot water and heating solutions, has appointed Neil Thompson as sales director.
He brings over 20 years of experience in the UK plumbing and heating manufacturing sector to the business and most recently held the position of sales director at both OSO Hotwater and Heatrae Sadia, Megaflo.
He takes over the role from Neil Overton, who spent four years with the company and will remain in the business into 2022 to support the transition.
