People on the move: Wild Boar Inn; Select Property Group; Petty; Hillbreak; DWF

Gordon Stewart

A Lake District inn has recruited a new head chef with extensive domestic and continental experience.

Gordon Stewart has joined the culinary team at the Wild Boar Inn Grill & Smokehouse at Crook, near Windermere.

Originally from Glasgow, Gordon, 33, has previously held head chef roles with Thurnham Hall, Lancaster, and further afield with Auckland restaurant Tony’s in New Zealand.

He has also worked for several prominent restaurants and hospitality groups in Melbourne, Auckland, San Marino, Ayrshire and Glasgow.

He joins the Wild Boar having worked recently as an interim chef for CJUK, which provides chefs to hotels, pubs, restaurants and contract catering companies across the UK.

The inn, which is run by English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues, appointed Gordon on the back of an extensive and impressive CV.

He started his career as a commis chef with Gordon Ramsey Amaryllis in Glasgow before working his way up the ladder as a chef de partie for Carlton hotels and a senior sous chef for Barolo, Ayr Racecourse and Andiamo in Auckland.

“I am thrilled to join the Wild Boar team and to start a new role in the beautiful Lake District,” said Gordon.

“I’m passionate about the provision of great food, using fresh local produce and designing creative, innovative dishes. I strive to surprise and delight those I cook for with every meal. I am also committed to supporting our junior chefs and the wider team and helping them develop their own skills and careers.”

Adam Bujok, from English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues, the manager of The Wild Boar, said: “Gordon is a strong addition to a talented team here and his leadership skills, influence and experience will be highly valuable.

“He will lead the culinary team with passion to serve the finest quality food in a controlled, organised environment.”

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Following the successful launch of School for Scandal, situated on First Street, Manchester, earlier this month, Select Property Group, the North West-based property developer, has announced plans to roll out a string of exciting new F&B concepts in both their Vita Student and residential dwellings across the UK.

Led by chief executive Mark Stott, the group recently appointed Danny Fox, formerly Living Ventures, Individual Restaurant Company and Fox Restaurant, as managing director of Select Property Restaurants.

Danny Fox

This appointment will see him create and roll out both food and drink concepts that will sit both internally and externally to the Select/Vita Property developments, underpinning the service offering at the group’s properties and offering buildings with great F&B outlets ranging from bars, restaurants and coffee shops.

Fox will also oversee a new coffee concept Vita & Co opening in Edinburgh in October 2018, being rolled out to Manchester and Leeds in 2019.

Mark Stott said: “It makes perfect sense for us to create exciting new F&B concepts in both our residential and student dwellings across the UK.

“This is the next phase in our business development plan and we’re delighted to have Danny on board to develop new concepts to suit the rapid expansion plans we have in place.”

Danny Fox added: “This is a great platform to be creative and different, we already have several new concepts planned for this year and look forward to seeing them open and thriving.”

Select Property Group currently offers property investment opportunities in Dubai, UAE, the Middle East and UK.

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Estate agents Petty, celebrating its 90th year, has appointed a new senior sales negotiator, Deborah Redmond, at its Burnley branch.

She replaces Anita Emmott, who has been with the company for seven years, who has moved to the Colne branch.

Deborah started her career as an admin assistant at another local estate agents and over the past 20 plus years has worked her way to senior sales negotiator with various estate agents. She was last with Countrywide, close to Petty’s Burnley branch.

Deborah Redmond

Deborah said: “I love the property business and really enjoy meeting people and being able to help them find exactly what they’re looking for.”

Originally from Todmorden, Deborah has lived in the Burnley are for almost 30 years, so has great local knowledge.

“I’m passionate about what I do and this area and I want to make sure the customer receives the best possible service,” she said.

Simon Morgan, residential director at Petty’s, said: “As the area’s only relocation network agents we more than most understand the importance of getting the right staff with good local knowledge and experience.”

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Bramhall training and strategic advisory firm Hillbreak has appointed Lucy Barratt as a senior consultant, specialising in stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability strategy and client learning programmes.

Lucy is a highly respected figure in the property sector, having helped drive the successful Grosvenor Living Cities philosophy into one of the world’s largest privately-owned property companies during her five years with the business.

Lucy Barratt

Her outstanding international network, which further strengthens Hillbreak’s capacity to deliver impact through advice and training to global real estate institutions, is enhanced by her long-standing involvement in the Urban Land Institute as a stand-out Young Leader.

Lucy’s professional interests centre on creating a resilient, successful future for the built and natural environment. She is a Chartered Environmentalist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a member of two Urban Land Institute Sustainability Councils, having sat on both the UK and European Committees.

Jon Lovell, Hillbreak co-founder, said: “We’ve known and have worked with Lucy for a good number of years and have always been impressed by her ability to inspire others through her collaborative and energetic spirit.

“She is an exceptional talent, highly regarded by her peers, and we’ve absolutely no doubt that she will make a brilliant contribution to our business and our clients.”

Lucy said: “I am excited by this opportunity to work for Hillbreak, but also alongside Jon and Miles who I have admired for a number of years. It has been great to see the success they’ve made of the business and the strong reputation they’ve earned through effective and influential work.

“It is a privilege to now be part it and I am looking forward to helping them take Hillbreak further forward.”

Lucy will play an important role in managing Hillbreak’s portfolio of strategic advisory engagements for UK and international property companies and investment managers.

She will also lead the development of new services focused on knowledge integration through place-based learning experiences.

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Legal business DWF has appointed finance litigation partner Ben Johnson to its Manchester office, where he will work with the business’s national finance litigation team to bolster its existing capabilities.

Ben was formerly one of two partners in DLA Piper’s North West banking litigation practice and brings significant experience in acting in disputes for retail bank and other financial services clients across the UK, Europe, Asia and the US.

He has particular expertise in acting for the payments sector, whether in litigation, risk advisory/regulatory or non-contentious work.

He also focuses on cyber security, having been mandated to act in significant investigations and having litigated in connection with high-profile incidents, particularly across the retail banking market, where businesses are increasingly challenged with disputes relating to fraud, data loss and cyber-attacks.

Ben Johnson

In his role at DWF Ben will take a lead role in managing the development of the banking litigation practice.

With the increasing influence of payments regulation, such as Payment Services Directive 2, together with open banking and fintech initiatives creating significant growth across the payments sector, Ben will build on the firm’s existing banking litigation platform to create a strong specialist focus in this area.

John Perez, national head of finance litigation, said: “Ben brings a very strong track record in the industry and expertise in some of the most topical issues that are facing our clients’ industries.

“He shares our approach to delivering decisive and forward-thinking advice to our financial services clients as they navigate complex legislative changes in the sector and he will be an excellent addition to DWF, not only to our North West practice, but also from a national and international perspective.”

Ben Johnson added: “With its focus on technology and innovation, DWF can offer something very different to clients.

“This is key in the financial services sector, where businesses are facing a significant amount of change and so require new approaches to service delivery and process management in order to guard against risk, reduce costs and stay competitive.

“DWF’s geographic spread also presents a strong competitive advantage, as it can be leveraged to create further opportunities for global clients.

“There is a fantastic opportunity to build on the existing strong practice to deliver even more value for clients, and I’m looking forward to working with the team.”

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