People on the move: Primas Law; Pierce; UMI3; Rule 5
Boutique North West law firm Primas Law has made five new appointments and a senior promotion at its Cheshire office.
Catherine Kerr has joined the firm as a senior associate and will head up Primas Law’s employment law offering.
The firm has also recruited solicitors Lucy Nelson and Yasmin Musker to its litigation and corporate teams respectively. Meanwhile, Rebecca Nichols takes up a trainee solicitor role with the firm and Amy Davenport has joined the executive support team.
Musker, who joins the company from TLT in Manchester, specialises in a wide range of corporate and commercial matters, including business acquisitions and disposals, investment arrangements, and joint venture and shareholder agreements.
Nelson will handle a wide range of commercial disputes, including, partnership disputes, contractual disputes and debt recovery issues.
Adam Kerr, senior partner at Primas Law, said: “Catherine is a vastly experienced employment lawyer who will really help us push further into the employment law sector. Lucy and Yasmin have already been very well received by clients because of their respective skill sets. Both are very talented lawyers.
“These appointments give us the added capacity we need to continue offering first-rate work with an emphasis on quality service delivery.”
As well as the new appointments, Beth Wheatley has been promoted to associate at Primas after two years with the firm. Beth, a litigator in the commercial team, is described by Adam as being “absolutely integral” to the firm’s recent growth and success.
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Blackburn-based chartered accountancy and business advisory group, Pierce has added three new members of staff to its team.
Janet Moorhouse, Waqas UrRehman and Adam Zinga join the firm as payroll administrator, semi-senior accountant and accounts assistant respectively.
Thanks to a mix of new client wins and increased business activity, Pierce is performing well and has appointed the trio as part of an ongoing recruitment drive.
John Green, chairman, Pierce said: “With a growing portfolio of accountancy and payroll clients plus a busy pipeline of deals, acquisitions and disposals – Pierce is entering 2018 with a lot of momentum.
“This is fuelling a need to attract bright new staff members, so we’re delighted to welcome Janet, Waqas and Adam to the team. They’re all passionate individuals with a talent for client service so I look forward to working with them at Pierce.”
Pierce specialises in business advice, tax, accounts, auditing, payroll and offers wealth advisory services with chartered financial planner Marcus Pilkington on hand to provide advice to clients.
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UMI3, The University of Manchester’s Innovation Company, has announced the appointment to the board of Jason Stockwood, group chief exeuctive of Simply Business, as non-executive director.
UMI3’s role is to bring as much of the university’s ground-breaking inventions and software into the commercial world.
This is done principally by attracting entrepreneurs, investors and corporate venture partners to the University’s campus and Innovation Centre and then, through engagement with academic colleagues, licensing or spinning out companies.
Stockwood joined this month as a non-executive director and chairman of the project development committee.
As part of his appointment to UMI3, he will be reviewing progress of UMI3’s spin-outs and licence opportunities and will be reviewing proposals for investment by the University in new IP projects.
He will be also working on the introduction of an enterprise culture to help generate greater impact from UMI3’s work and will be involved with the University’s Innovation Centre, UMIC, which provides lab, office and events space for innovative spin-outs and start-ups.
Stockwood said: “It’s an honour to join the Board of the University of Manchester’s Innovation Company, a world-leading hub for technology and innovation that is committed to supporting the growth of ambitious start-ups.”
UM13 chief executive Clive Rowland said: “We are in the process of developing our company to promote further the University’s goals for enterprise and social impact through technology licensing and spinning out new companies.
“Finding the ‘right’ balance between being a service provider and an investment-minded business is a constant challenge. Who better to help us with this development than Jason? His personal business success and well respected people-focussed approach to leadership is a wonderful asset for us and we are all looking forward to his contributions to our efforts.”
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PR and communications agency Rule 5, based at MediaCityUK, has recruited Gemma Cowburn as account director to lead its growing consumer PR offer and strengthen the team.
Cowburn joins from Amaze, a full service digital agency, where she spent eight years working on campaigns for a range of clients including The Saucy Fish Co., Imperial Leather, Manchester City Football Club and Eurocamp.
She will lead on consumer PR across a portfolio of food, leisure, tourism and sports related accounts. These will include Park Leisure, Brother UK and Merlin Entertainments, which appointed Rule 5 to work on the Manchester Sea Life and Legoland Discovery Centres, at the start of the year.
Founding director Julie Wilson said: “Gemma joins us at an important time for Rule 5 and we are thrilled to have her on the team.
“We have ambitious plans to build the agency in 2018 and bringing in a senior hire at the start of 2018 is a key part of that strategy. Gemma has extensive experience in the industry, with McCann, TBWA as well as Amaze and will help us to strengthen and grow our offer.”
Cowburn said: “I am thrilled to be part of the MediaCity-based team here at Rule-5, having watched the agency win prestigious awards each year since launching in 2012. Now feels an exciting time in the agency’s milestones to come on board and I look forward to contributing to their award success.”
Rule 5 specialises in PR and digital communications and with clients in the sport, leisure, media, food and lifestyle sectors.
