People on the Move: RSM; Quantuma; GC Business Finance; Make You Content; CG Professional

Audit, tax and consulting firm RSM has announced three promotions to partner across the North West region to help drive the firm’s future direction and growth strategy. The promotions took effect on April 1.

The promotions see Martin Cooper (Manchester) and Rowena Clifton (Manchester) within the North West tax practice and Neil Pickles (Liverpool) in the risk assurance team being promoted to partner.

Rowena joined the firm in 2016 to lead RSM’s North West indirect tax practice and specialising in all aspects of VAT from a compliance and commercial perspective, including real estate and corporate transactions, compliance management, and Making Tax Digital.

Martin is an employee incentive and reward specialist who joined the firm in 2017. He heads up a team across the North West advising a range of clients on all forms of employee and management incentives to support corporate priorities and commercial objectives.

Neil leads RSM’s financial services team in the North West providing assurance to a variety of financial services organisations including banks, building societies, insurers, and providers of consumer finance including motor dealerships.

The North West appointments are among nine RSM partner promotions across the UK, reflecting investment across the firm’s audit, tax and advisory practice.

Jill Jones, RSM’s regional managing partner in the North West, said: “I’m delighted to announce our latest partner promotions. Each promotion is testimony to their individual talent and highlights important areas of the business that will shape our future firm.

“We’re ambitious and attracting and developing talent is a key part of our ongoing growth strategy, which is why it’s great to see such a strong group of colleagues reaching partnership.

“Our new partners will each play an important role as RSM ambassadors and as first-choice advisers to middle market leaders in the UK – delivering high quality advice to help clients achieve their strategic goals. I look forward to working alongside each of them to realise the exciting ambitions we have set ourselves.”

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Business advisory firm Quantuma has appointed Rob Parry as a partner to its Manchester office, as it expands its North West presence.

Rob has almost 30 years’ industry experience as a specialist forensic accountant, with a UK-wide, and international, remit.

He joins from the Manchester office of a global accountancy firm where he served for 24 years. Previously, he was an accountant and management consultant at KPMG.

Rob acts as an expert witness, providing evidence and advisory support on corporate transaction and shareholder disputes, company and share valuation, loss of profit from breach of contract, compulsory purchase and professional indemnity, alongside complex loss of earnings cases.

Rob Parry

He acts as an independent expert determiner, which also gives him valuable insight when preparing submissions for determinations on behalf of clients.

This appointment follows the opening of Quantuma’s new Manchester offering, bolstering the city’s booming financial and professional services sector.

From its base at Number One, Spinningfields, the firm provides a full range of advisory services, including corporate finance, forensic accounting and restructuring.

Mr Parry said: “It’s widely-known in the market that Quantuma is breaking the mould of a traditional professional services firm.

“The team is of an exceptional calibre and its boutique structure means it is able to take on some of the most exciting mandates across the UK. I look forward to continuing to work with the outstanding North West lawyers and their clients at this exciting time for Quantuma.”

Carl Jackson, managing partner at Quantuma, said: “Rob is highly-regarded in his field for his expertise, and a sought-after advisor for complex commercial disputes, so it’s a real pleasure to welcome him to the fold.”

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Manchester-based responsible finance provider GC Business Finance has created three new roles within its lending team to meet the growing demand for alternative finance.

GC Business Finance, which is part of The Growth Company, is welcoming Zack Shaw and Alice Bloor as loan officers to the Start Up Loans lending team.

Zack joins from specialist lender Together Money, bringing with him extensive industry expertise, and Alice formerly worked in the hospitality sector.

GC Business Finance has delivered Start Up Loans in the North West since 2013 and is also a national back office provider for the programme, which supports new businesses that have been unable to obtain funding through a mainstream lender.

Simon Truby takes up a new position as senior loans manager for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) team within GC Business Finance, helping small and medium-sized businesses secure growth funding in the micro-finance sector.

Zack Shaw, Alice Bloor and Simon Truby

Simon formerly worked at RBS and within the wider commercial banking sector for more than 10 years, providing bespoke lending solutions to SMEs and growth businesses.

He will also play a key role in driving the NPIF team as it enters a third year of delivering loans of between £25,000 and £100,000 from the £140m fund.

Chris Hutchison, head of lending at GC Business Finance, said: “Our loans team works with some of the country’s most exciting, enthusiastic and entrepreneurial businesses and demand for funding has never been higher.

“Simon, Zack and Alice are joining us in three newly-created roles that will really develop and fortify the team and enable us to build on our work supporting businesses at all stages of their growth journey.”

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Manchester copywriting agency Make You Content has appointed an editor and has undergone a total rebrand, amid a period of sustained growth.

Lucy Acton has been appointed as new editor, joining from her previous position of head of content at Iceberg Digital.

She is the firm’s eighth employee – and the sixth person to join the business within the past 12 months. The expansion has been aided by the agency’s growth in turnover, which has doubled year-on-year since 2016.

After being launched in 2014 as a one-man-band the organisation has also undergone a rebrand. Talking of this pivotal point in her business, Kelly Gilmour Grassam said: “The last five years have been brilliant. We’ve grown significantly and we now support over 50 clients with their content requirements.

The Making You Content team

“We’ve come a long way since I started out as a freelancer in 2014. Our rebrand captures how MYC has matured doing that time.”

Further expansion is also expected throughout 2019, on the back of the rebrand – which was carried out by Electric Circus.

Kelly added: “Our identity – which sums up everything that MYC stands for and how we elevate the brands we work with – is set to propel our growth throughout 2019. We’ve invested heavily in the improvement of our business, including new services such as strategy creation, and we expect to take on additional clients over the next few months.”

Making You Content is expected to recruit three more team members in 2019. The firm works with organisations such as Manchester Metropolitan University, the NHS and Fatsoma.

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Solicitor advocate Julie Duane is making the move to the award-winning legal practice CG Professional.

Julie is an experienced employment law specialist who brings the unique expertise to CG’s team of training as a barrister before transitioning the legal profession to qualify as a solicitor.

With this Julie can represent businesses in the higher civil courts as well as being an experienced advocate in the Employment Tribunal.

Her career also included a 12-month spell working on behalf of 23 of the victims’ families of the Hillsborough disaster prior to the inquest verdict, where she specifically looked into the alleged police cover-up.

She later returned to employment law and joins CG from Napthens.

Julie Duane

She said: “I wanted to make the move to CG primarily because it’s an innovative practice that has built its name by putting quality over quantity and because of that ethos delivers exceptional customer service. It’s a very exciting, forward-thinking set-up and I’m really excited about our future prospects.”

Louise Myers, who co-founded CG with Stacey Turner, said: “Julie is a highly-qualified solicitor advocate with an impressive CV and her arrival further strengthens our team. We’ve always aimed to bring a dynamic approach to the legal sector and Julie is the perfect fit to help us do this.”

Julie’s employment law experience covers retail, the care sector, education and manufacturing and her arrival further bolsters CG’s service offering, which now includes corporate, commercial, banking and finance, business recovery, commercial property and employment law.