Here we feature the latest appointments in Welsh business.
EKF Diagnostics
Medical manufacturer of point-of-care and central lab devices EKF Diagnostics has appointed Jenny Winter as a non-executive director.
Ms Winter brings over 20 years’ experience to the role having worked for a variety of healthcare organisations ranging from small not-for-profit companies to large corporates.
She takes over from Carl Contadini who will stand down from the board of the Penarth headquartered and Alternative Investment Market listed firm.
Ms Winter is currently the chief executive of AIM-listed Animalcare Group, focusing on the business’s long-term growth strategy which recently announced a strong full year trading performance despite a backdrop of challenging market conditions.
Her science-led career has spanned R&D, clinical research, strategic product development and commercial growth across various aspects of the healthcare industry.
Before joining Animalcare Group plc in October 2018, she was vice president of respiratory products in global supply chain and strategy at AstraZeneca, a position she held from 2015.
Other roles she held at AstraZeneca include vice president of cardiology.
Ms Winter has also been CEO of the charity Barretstown which provides therapeutic recreation programmes. Her work at the charity saw her being invited by Barretstown board member Dermot Gleeson, chairman of Allied Irish Bank, to join the board of the bank as a non-executive director, a role she held from 2004 to 2010.
Chairman of EKF Diagnostics Christopher Mills said: “I have no doubt that Jenny will bring a lot to the table in terms of her scientific background, commercial knowledge within the healthcare sector and her experience with AIM-listed companies as they successfully deliver against long-term growth strategies. We look forward to working with her and benefitting from her expertise.”
Howells Solicitors
Conveyancing firm Howells Solicitors has promoted Sara Miles from branch manager and head of conveyancing for Swansea and West Wales to the position of director.
Ms Miles will become the first female member of the board of directors.
She has worked at the firm since it first opened its office in Swansea in 2008. She led the company’s growth in the region and played a pivotal role in expanding the range of legal services provided by Howells for both private and business clients.
She will join the other five directors of the law firm on the board as Howells Solicitors celebrates its 25th anniversary.
Managing director Mark Hobbs said: “Since Sara joined Howells, the Swansea office has continued to grow and is now considered to be the leading provider of conveyancing services in the region.”
He added: “Sara has an unrivalled reputation, and she has been an ideal match for our ambitious plans. We identified the region as one where we wanted to increase our market share and under Sara’s leadership, we have been able to not only expand the size of our conveyancing department servicing West Wales but also to provide clients with a comprehensive range of personal and business law services.”
Ms Miles said: “These are exciting times for the firm and I relish the opportunity to contribute at board level. I am confident the business will build on its success, and for my part, I will do all that I can to ensure our clients continue to experience a first class service”.
Chambers Wales South East, South West and Mid
Chambers Wales has appointed Sarah Clifford as operations director.
A commercial and sales professional, Ms Clifford will join the South East, South West and Mid’s leadership team.
She will be responsible for the delivery of the organisation’s key strategies and goals in her role, ensuring the Chamber can offer the connectivity, capacity and competence that businesses require.
Ms Clifford has had success in a number of significant regional and senior positions within the travel industry including at Cardiff Airport.
She brings relationship management and customer engagement to the chamber to develop business initiatives and help SMEs in Wales to maximise their opportunities.
She has also recently achieved a postgraduate certificate in sustainable leadership from Cardiff Metropolitan University as part of its 20Twenty programme.
Ms Clifford said: “I love supporting Welsh businesses and have done for many years, so I am delighted to have joined the Chamber who place SMEs, the Welsh business community and their growth at the heart of all they do.”
Paul Slevin, president of Chambers Wales said: “This appointment is a real boost to our leadership team and her passion for supporting businesses in Wales will help us develop and drive innovative opportunities.”
Ms Clifford is also a business ambassador for Cardiff charity City Hospice and on the committee for rugby player James Hook’s testimonial year.
Swansea Building Society
Swansea Building Society has appointed Malcolm Hayes as its new non-executive director.
Mr Hayes will join the building society’s audit committee, risk committee and asset and liabilities committee.
Mr Hayes began his career with NatWest before spending over 25 years in Lloyds Banking Group, where he held senior risk and credit positions in the bank’s business and commercial divisions.
His 40-year career has seen him hold executive positions as chief risk officer, operational risk and compliance director, control function director, head of credit and head of enterprise-wide risk management.
Having retired from executive roles in 2019, following five years as the chief risk officer of Paragon Banking Group, Hayes now holds a non-executive director role at Reliance Bank and is chair of the board of directors of Citysave Credit Union Ltd.
He also has previous board experience as a director of the Agricultural Mortgage Corporation PLC and AMC Bank Ltd - wholly owned subsidiaries of Lloyds Bank PLC - and served as a board director of a Lloyds Bank subsidiary established to undertake residential property development.
Mr Hayes said: “The Society’s vision and ethics are truly inspirational, and the success the Society has achieved in recent years is a tribute to its customer-focused, common-sense approach to lending.”
Chief executive officer Alun Williams said: “Malcolm has extensive experience, over many years, which will be invaluable in helping Swansea Building Society build on our success and achieve our business aims.”
Port of Milford Haven
The UK’s largest energy port, the Port of Milford Haven, has appointed Tom Sawyer as its new chief executive.
Mr Sawyer will officially start his position at the end of April, taking over from Andy Jones who previously announced his decision to step down from the role.
Mr Sawyer brings to the role more than 30 years’ experience working in defence, security, intelligence and technology organisations.
In 2017, he led the initial business set up and strategy development of BQ Solutions, a joint venture in Qatar. As the business development and solutions director, he led the engagement into Qatar’s Ministry of Defence and its Armed Forces and played a central role in winning significant business that provided his clients with operational and commercial advantage.
Chris Martin, chair of the Port of Milford Haven, said: “I am pleased to welcome Tom to the Port of Milford Haven. His personal leadership and engagement style will be key to the continued success and delivery of our strong values and culture development that has been supported by the management team and embraced by the rest of the organisation in recent years.”
He added: “Tom joins us at a very exciting time as we strengthen our core service offering and seek to deliver on our ambitious diversification strategy. His experience and expertise will be invaluable as we support the Nation’s drive to Net-Zero.”
Mr Sawyer said: “I am thrilled to be returning to Wales and to have been given this opportunity to make a contribution to the future prosperity, quality of life and wellbeing of the people of Pembrokeshire. I cannot wait to throw myself into this challenging role and to work with stakeholders to grow the business, build for the future, and ensure the long term relevance of the Port to the region and Nation.”
We Build Bots
Andy Feltham, former vice president of Innovation at Filament AI, has joined Cardiff-based We Build Bots as its product director.
Mr Feltham brings nearly 20 years’ experience in product innovation to the role, having previously been given the title of master inventor by IBM.
He was awarded this title in recognition of an extensive patent portfolio, and his other previous roles include emerging technology manager at IBM. He joins We Build Bots at a time of considerable growth and innovation.
We Build Bots, a specialist in conversational AI and intelligent automation, helps businesses looking to automate repetitive back-office customer service processes, allowing customer service staff more time to deal with non-standard tasks. It has clients across the education, utilities, local government and transport sectors.
Mr Feltham said: “It is great to be joining We Built Bots at such an exciting time in this companies’ development. I am keen to make significant inroads around scale and innovation in the business."
He added: “Innovation is in my blood, so this role will allow me to bring my experience of product innovation and build unique solutions for clients, not just with conversational AI technologies but also with related technologies that will help transition from ‘bots’ to ‘assistants’.
“We also have big plans to scale the technology by making it easier to register and build solutions. Together with the existing management team, I’m keen to further develop our products and continue to develop an exciting and pioneering culture.
Founder Paul Shepherd said: “Andy’s appointment is an important one for us, as he has clear ambitions to help us further innovate and push AI solutions to their limits for our clients. That is an exciting prospect for all of us at WBB."
He added: “His pedigree in the AI sector speaks for itself and we can’t wait to see what he has planned for the business in the coming months and years.”
Freight Logistics Solutions
A fast-expanding digital freight solutions firm has announced that Zainab Latif has joined the commercial team as commercial and legal manager.
Pontypool-based Freight Logistics Solutions (FSL), which provides freight solutions to more than 500 firms across the UK, was named one of the fastest-growing indigenous firms in Wales in last year’s Wales Fast Growth 50.
An accounting and law graduate from Macquarie University in Sydney, Ms Latif started her career as a commercial lawyer with DibbsBaker (now Dentons) before moving to the UK working as commercial manager within the Domino’s Pizza franchise network.
After four years she went back into full time practice with Capital Law LLP in Cardiff, qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales and building up a specialisation in commercial contracts, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and franchising.
Ms Latif then joined as commercial director for a start-up recruitment business, responsible for the bids and tendering team, formulation of new service models, negotiating all managed services contracts, service level agreements, KPIs and the management and renewals of contractual relationships for 10 years.
Her role was pivotal in the company securing and maintaining large scale commercial contracts and achieving KPIs.
Chief executive Ieuan Rosser said: “FLS business has been expanding rapidly over the past few years and our equity investment from Development Bank of Wales has underpinned our intensive investment in our commercial team, with five additions in the past two months.”
He added: “Zainab has worked with three of us directors previously, and when we were discussing looking to add such an important resource to the commercial team, we used our former experience with her to model who we’d like on the team, expert in contracts, outsourcing agreements and legal adviser, so we were over the moon we managed to persuade her to join the business’
Mark Halliday from the Development Bank of Wales and board observer with FLS, said: “Our equity investment in FLS is already paying dividends, driving business growth with the development of their unique technology and the recruitment of key players like Zainab."
He added: "As one of the UK’s leading providers of end-to-end supply chain solutions, it’s a great business with a highly skilled team that is focussed on supporting businesses in freight decarbonisation.”
