People on the move: Kings Chambers; Converge TS; Clarke Nicklin; Radius Payment Solutions; Prest Financial Planning

Anisa Niaz-Dickinson is the latest barrister to join Manchester-based barristers set Kings Chambers.

Employment law barrister Anisa joins the set from Manchester-based Kenworthy’s Chambers.

She practices all areas of employment law and has experience in a range of sectors, including the police (on behalf of the Police Federation), business, education, NHS and the public sector.

Anisa has represented some of the UK’s largest employers, including Tesco, Asda, William Hill and Yodel.

At Kings Chambers Anisa will be clerked by senior clerk, Paul Clarke. He said: “Anisa brings a wealth of experience in handling a wide range of employment cases on behalf of both claimants and respondents.

“Anisa’s arrival further strengthens our highly regarded employment law team.

“She has an excellent reputation with her practice spanning a wide range of employment law areas – we’re delighted to have been able to acquire such a talent.”

Anisa is recommended in the Legal 500 2016 and 2017 for her employment practice. She was also ranked in Chambers and Partners in 2017 and 2018.

Kings Chambers operates out of Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.

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Converge Technology Specialists has announced that serial tech entrepreneur Mark Fowle will be joining the business as non-executive chairman.

Following significant private equity investment in Converge TS at the beginning of the year, the company has expanded its team and service offering and is on track to become the leading cloud provider to the legal sector through a combination of strong organic growth coupled with strategic acquisitions.

Mark brings substantial experience, founding and successfully scaling technology businesses to the board, having founded a number of ISP/MSPs in the late 1990s and co-founded cloud provider Attenda in 1997.

Mark Fowle

When sold to Ensono for £100m, Attenda was delivering revenues of more than £40m, an EBITDA of £10m and had been listed in the Sunday Times ‘Top 100 Companies to work for’ five years running. Mark retains a non-executive role at Ensono as well as chairing Datum, the data centre business he co-founded.

Nigel Wright, chief executive of Daresbury-based Converge TS said “We are delighted to welcome Mark as our chairman. Not only does he have experience of leading successful technology businesses, he’s passionate about creating a fantastic culture and workplace.

“This will be invaluable in attracting talent and building a dynamic environment in which our team can thrive and provide the best service to our customers.”

Mark Fowle added “It’s an exciting time to join Converge TS as the company enters the next phase of growth.

“With their ambitious leadership team, clear strategic focus and strong financial backing, I’m confident we can build upon the strong business that Nigel and the team have already built and use their deep understanding of the sector to provide an increasingly compelling proposition to the UK’s top law firms.”

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Chartered accountants and business advisors Clarke Nicklin have further expanded their team with the appointment of Nathan Millar .

Nathan, who joins the business as accounts senior, has just moved back to the UK from Melbourne, Australia.

Nathan Miller

His past experience included primarily looking after clients in the SME market space, ranging from individuals and sole traders, up to corporate group structures.

He also has experience in annual tax compliance and preparation of financial statements, through to advisory-related matters such as business valuations, preparation of due diligence reports and assistance in restructuring and refinancing.

He said: “It’s great to join an accounting firm like Clarke Nicklin who is well respected within the community. The young and vibrant team has made me feel welcome from day one.”

Managing partner Andrew Baggott said: “With our expanding workload, adding Nathan to the team will help to ensure we continue to deliver the highest level of advice and support for our clients. Nathan is a perfect addition to the team, and will help us continue to expand this service to help existing and new clients achieve their objectives.”

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Following the recent £150m investment by Inflexion Partnership Capital, Radius Payment Solutions plans to pursue further acquisitions alongside its already proven organic growth strategy. It has now brought in a head of M&A to lead a dedicated acquisitions function.

Gavin Jones, formerly of EY, KPMG and, more recently, in-house M&A at Chess, has joined the business and will focus on ICT & telecoms, fuel cards and telematics, as well as other areas complementary to the existing business and its large customer base.

Bill Holmes

Chief executive Bill Holmes said: “Radius has always had a very strong organic growth engine which has been at the core of its success over the last three decades.

“However, we are also starting to look more actively at acquisition opportunities in the market and I am delighted that Gavin has joined us to lead this effort.

“We want to overlay scale onto our existing geographical regions and are targeting companies across all our product sectors.

“We have already looked at several opportunities in the last few months and are confident we will find some good fits for Radius.”

Radius, based in Crewe, is a service provider to the fleet and logistics market with more than 1,000 employees in 19 offices across Europe, Asia and the US.

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Stockport-based Prest Financial Planning has made three new hires.

These appointments will further strengthen the support team which manages assets of more than £350m on behalf of its clients.

Prest, which last year enjoyed a record 12 months in terms of new funds under management, has recruited Emma Hilton, Shelby Gillespie and Beth Torkington to its financial planning support team.

They join an existing 12-strong financial planning support, administration and paraplanning department, bringing the firm’s total headcount to 22.

All three new recruits have significant financial services experience, gained in a variety of settings.

Emma Hilton has 20 years’ experience working in support roles in financial advice firms in roles that encompassed both administration and paraplanning.

Shelby Gillespie, meanwhile, spent the eight years prior to joining Prest working for a building society, during which time she gained not only broad financial services experience, but also highly developed customer care skills.

Beth Torkington has more than five years’ experience working in both administration and customer-facing roles at financial advice and discretionary investment management firms.

Prior to that she worked in the publishing industry, so she also brings a valuable alternative perspective to her role.

Lisa Livesey, financial planning administration team manager, said: “Prest has had a really successful few years in terms of new business, and we added £50m in new funds under management last year alone. This has naturally put pressure on our support team, so I am really pleased to welcome Emma, Shelby and Beth on board.

“All three have really valuable skills and experience to bring to the table and will be real assets to us.”

As well as the recent additions to its support team, the Chartered Financial Planner is also aiming to appoint another highly qualified financial planner in the near future.

From left: Lisa Livesey, Beth Torkington, Shelby Gillespie, Emma Hilton and CEO Graham Prest

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