People on the move: Cornerstone Design & Marketing; Arthur J Gallagher; Pareto Financial Planning; Hill Dickinson; In The Style; NCC Group

Robbie MacDonald, left, and David Wadsworth

Oldham-based Cornerstone Design & Marketing, a full-service advertising and digital agency, is expanding with the appointment of Robbie MacDonald

MacDonald is the former business editor at the town’s the Oldham Evening Chronicle which closed three weeks ago.

He has taken up the new position of PR manager at Cornerstone.

The 49-year-old has worked across the north of England, from Tyneside to Merseyside, in journalism and PR, and been based in Greater Manchester for 14 years.

David Wadsworth, Cornerstone managing director, said: “We are moving towards the agency’s tenth anniversary and the business has grown significantly over the years. I’m confident that Robbie’s skills, services, experience and contacts will help Cornerstone to broaden our services to existing clients and win new business.”

Cornerstone was founded by David Wadsworth in Oldham and serves clients in sectors including leisure, property, the NHS and scientific industries. It has a multi-disciplinary team of graphic and website designers, copywriters, video and marketing specialists.

Cornerstone’s clients include cough medicine manufacturer Covonia, Cancer Research UK, Manchester City Council, North West Ambulance Service, Oldham Community Leisure, Recycle for Greater Manchester and a range of SMEs across the north-west region.

MacDonald said: “Oldham is undergoing important changes and the area’s PR, design and digital businesses have important roles to play in this. The future profile and development of towns such as Oldham is a key interest of mine. So I am delighted to be joining Cornerstone and remaining active here.”

While at the Oldham Evening Chronicle, MacDonald edited and helped to launch Oldham Business Edge magazine in 2015. The magazine was highly commended in last year’s O2 North West Media Awards.

His activities with the magazine included developing business news and PR services for clients including support at business events and round-table discussions. He worked with businesses in sectors including property, housing and regeneration, law and financial advice, education, health and leisure.

In other activities, MacDonald represented the Oldham Evening Chronicle on the steering group of the Oldham Business Awards, helping with planning, events, sponsorship and publicity.

He continues to host the Professional Oldham networking group, which he jointly launched with other organisers in 2016.

His career has included time as a PR account manager for Merseyside manufacturing and maritime specialists Polaris Media Management. His reports and photographs for Polaris clients were published in UK regional and national newspapers, company websites and newsletters, and international trade press.

In earlier years, he was business editor at The Bolton News and active with the Bolton & Bury Business Awards.

Previous media employment included spells at the Lancashire Evening Telegraph, Stockport Express, Warrington Guardian, Darlington & Stockton Times, Hexham Courant and Harrogate Advertiser.

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Arthur J Gallagher, one of the UK’s largest providers of risk management and commercial insurance solutions, has appointed marine insurance specialist Jamie Smith into the role of development executive.

Smith, who will be based in Gallagher’s Liverpool office on Sefton Street, joins the business this week from specialist marine insurance broker Everard.

His expertise covers both direct and wholesale broking with extensive experience in devising tailored insurance solutions for everyone from individual marine business owners to ports and harbours and marinas, vessel operators, divers and commercial marine operators.

Having previously worked for Arthur J Gallagher up until 2014, Smith returns with a wealth of extended and specialist knowledge to his new role as he looks to work with the business team to identify and develop new client relationships.

Stephen Penketh, regional managing director for Arthur J Gallagher in the North West, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Jamie back to the Liverpool team. With his extensive experience and knowledge of the specific risk exposures and challenges faced by businesses in the maritime sector, it’s fair to say he knows the sector inside out. This, positions him perfectly to assist our customers with their insurance needs in this dynamic and ever-evolving sector.

“We place a huge focus on thoroughly understanding the needs of our clients and it’s important for us to have people in place locally that can support and service the diverse requirements of regional hubs of specialist industries, as well as nationally.”

Smith added: “It’s great to be coming home to the North West and back to Arthur J. Gallagher. With an increasingly diversified range of businesses, Liverpool and the wider Merseyside area continue to operate as a world class centre of maritime excellence and core contributor of the regional economy — one which I look forward to supporting and servicing in my new role.”

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Pareto Financial Planning has hired five recruits, including an operations manager to meet an upsurge in client demand.

The Manchester-based financial services company, which specialises in providing independent advice and hands-on assistance to owner-managed businesses and high net worth private clients, has also launched a new servicing department to widen its offering and support growth.

Nicky Aspray joins Pareto FP as operations manager, bringing a wealth of experience with her, having previously worked in the industry for close to two decades.

Martyn Scobbie, who also boasts 20 years’ experience in finance roles – is now finance controller.

Chartered financial planner Marcus Pilkington has been named as the latest recruit on the advisory team. Pilkington will be working closely with a new client win, a leading North West based accountancy practice – one of a wide network of professional firms Pareto FP has introducer agreements with.

New adviser support team member Andrew O’Nions, who started his career at Halifax, has his sights set on becoming diploma qualified at Pareto FP and ultimately working within the growing paraplanning team – which has also seen the arrival of paraplanner Richard Duncan.

Pareto FP managing director John Stevenson, who co-founded the company alongside George Chantry, has appointed Joanne Walsh as his personal assistant.

Stevenson said: “As the business continues to grow, we remain fully committed to maintaining strong and lasting relationships with our existing clients.

“We now employ 36 members of staff and believe these recent hires are talented individuals that will only enhance our offer.

“Nicky Aspray for instance, has a wealth of experience in financial services and is a fantastic addition. She will be instrumental in the continued development of our adviser support team, and play a significant role in our future growth.

“On top of that, our new servicing department will ensure we continue to uphold our outstanding levels of client support.”

Pareto FP’s total funds under influence is currently more than £500m, with the company’s end of year financial results due to be revealed soon.

Earlier this year Pareto FP announced its sponsorship of England and Lancashire cricket star Haseeb Hameed.

The Manchester company is Bolton-born Haseeb’s exclusive ‘back-of-the-bat’ sponsor, meaning the firm’s logo features on the back of the cricketer’s bat.

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Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has announced the appointment of four new members to the firm’s construction and engineering team in Liverpool.

The team of four joins Hill Dickinson from Systech Solicitors and bring a wealth of both legal and advisory experience and contacts in the construction sector, particularly in the contactor-led market which Hill Dickinson has identified as a key growth area for the firm.

The new recruits are: Brian Quinn, previously (founding) partner at Systech Solicitors, solicitor, chartered quantity surveyor and mediator, who joins as a legal director; Nick Connor, previously partner at Systech Solicitors and a legally qualified quantity surveyor, who joins as a consultant; Ron Farrell, who joins as consultant, with considerable experience in both the contentious and non-contentious aspects of construction law and Phil Gazzola, a dual qualified solicitor and chartered quantity surveyor who joins as a senior associate.

Alan Pugh, partner and head of construction and engineering at Hill Dickinson, said: “I am delighted to welcome Brian, Nick, Ron and Phil to our team in Liverpool as we expand further and take on new clients.

“They bring a wealth of experience and contacts in the contractor-led market which is a key focus of our growth strategy.

“Their expertise across both legal and advisory construction matters will be of great value to our clients and lifts our position as the leading construction and engineering team in the North West. We very much look forward to working with them.”

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Fast-growing online fashion e-tailer In The Style, based in Manchester, has announced two senior appointments to support the business’s continued rapid growth following an investment from mid-market private equity firm Livingbridge in May, 2017.

Paul Masters will join as chief operating officer and Dane Stanley as chief marketing officer.

Masters has a long career in senior positions in fast fashion, retail and brands. From 2015, June 2017 he was chief financial officer of Missguided. Prior to that he served as CEO and CFO of Americana and was director, group finance of Umbro.

Stanley has a career in marketing with retail and financial services companies spanning 18 years. Most recently, he has been global marketing director at Missguided and prior to that he held senior roles in marketing and e-commerce at Woodhouse, The Co-operative Group and Travelex.

Adam Frisby, founder, said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Paul and Dane. In The Style has very ambitious growth plans and this is a huge step in the right direction for us.

“They both come with fantastic experience and I have no doubt they will play a huge role in supporting the exciting plans we have. I look forward to them starting in due course.”

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Former head of sector for the Bank of England’s cyber functions, Phillip Larbey, and colleagues Anthony Long and Fiona Paterson have announced that they will join NCC Group to head up the company’s new Centre for Evolved Next-generation Threat Assurance (CENTA).

With more than 35 years’ experience in the financial sector and an impressive background in cyber security, Phillip has been appointed as managing principal of CENTA.

He will have overall responsibility for the new advisory practice, consulting governments, regulators and other regulated institutions on cyber best practice and strategic cyber risk management to ensure they comply with regulatory frameworks.

Phillip brings with him a wealth of knowledge, having held senior executive management roles with the likes of the American International Group and Zurich Global Corporate over the last 20 years.

He was also a member of the Bank of England’s Cross Market Operational Resilience Cyber Group, as well as the European Central Bank’s Cyber Resilience Strategy Task Force and a stakeholder executive member of the industry body – CREST.

Anthony Long and Fiona Paterson will both take on the role of executive principal of CENTA.

In his previous position as part of the Bank of England’s sector cyber team, Long provided specialist cyber support to a range of regulatory authorities and was the lead for the design, delivery and continued development of the CBEST testing programme across retail, international banks and the insurance market.

Paterson has been leading on cyber resilience policy at the Bank of England for the last two years and brings with her an extensive knowledge of the threat landscape and cyber capabilities, specifically in relation to government agencies, as well as experience in working closely with government departments and agencies.

NCC Group’s CENTA will offer a global platform for this newly formed and world-leading team to collaborate with foreign central banks, regulators and institutions in all sectors across the world to support them with the understanding and efficient rollout of compliance measures as part of a broader international strategy to improve cyber resilience across the board.

CENTA will provide a global advisory service, assisting the relevant institutions with the preparation, design, implementation and support with regards to cyber resilience and evolved security testing regulatory regimes.

It will also offer staff training, testing project management, analysis of root-causes and assistance with correction and remediation, as well as providing ongoing, regulator-standard reviews to ensure the consistent quality of implemented frameworks.

Larbey said: “If countries across the world are to achieve a consistent unified approach with regards to cyber resilience and the implementation of best practice, it’s important to start taking the relevant steps at ground-level in order to prime us for the future. In our new roles at CENTA, and by using NCC Group’s specialist capabilities, we aim to tackle this issue.

“We will be working in alignment with the geo-political forums to advise on and support government departments, central banks, regulators and other institutions in upholding the highest of standards when it comes to cyber risk management and the continued compliance with regulatory frameworks.”

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