People on the Move: IPEX; PHD Manchester; Together; ENGIE; Hill Dickinson; TeleData UK

Altrincham-based business telecoms specialist IP Exchange (IPEX) has expanded its team with six new hires.

Building on a strong first full year of trading, the new team members bring the headcount to 17, from just four in April 2018.

Joining the operations team is Charlotte Sims, who brings a wealth of telecoms insight and experience with previous roles for Chess, specialising in delivering excellent customer service.

Ross Ocego bolsters IPEX’s in-house engineering offering, joining as provisioning engineer.

Ross’s specialism in the installation, provision and care of all fixed line, hosted telephony and mobile device management, strengthens IPEX’s investment in an internal engineering team for complete ownership of the telecoms installation process.

Established in 2017 to empower businesses with seamless, fast and reliable telecommunications solutions, IPEX was founded by directors Paul Sherlock, Adam Wilson and Daniel Cheesbrough, to transform the customer experience in business telecoms.

COO Paul Sherlock said: “We’re an ambitious young company right at the start of our journey and I know from my previous telecoms experience that smooth and seamless operations are absolutely crucial to growth.

“Charly’s expertise in telecoms operations is truly invaluable. Her insight is boosting what is already one of our most complimented service areas.

“Having our own engineering resource internally sets us apart from even major competitors as we are never held to the timelines of third party installation vendors. Having Ross on board will help us be even more flexible and fast, which I know our customers will love.”

Completing the intake are Gus Graves, Kevin Rowe, Mia Harris and Luke Child who join the sales team.

CTO Adam Wilson said: “Our footprint in a competitive landscape is already increasing and the addition of our newest team members will help accelerate our growth ambitions even more.

“Business telecoms can be a tough market, but we stand out with the quality of our teams, our genuine passion for understanding what our customers need, and leaning into every part of the sales process, including after the contract has been signed. Our new recruits all embody these great qualities.

“We’ve grown quickly over the past 12 months but we had always aimed to grow to at least 20 by the end of the year, so we’re well on our way to meeting, or even exceeding, this target.”

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PHD Manchester, part of Omnicom Media Group, has appointed Alex Shucksmith as AV director to head the agency’s AV planning and buying team.

Shucksmith joins from Dentsu Aegis’ media investment arm, Amplifi, where she led multi-channel campaigns for clients, including N Brown, Halfords and the People’s Postcode Lottery.

“We’re delighted that Alex has chosen to join PHD Manchester during a period of exceptional growth for the agency,” said managing director, Jon Kershaw.

“Her wealth of cross-channel experience is a perfect fit for the evolving needs of our clients and demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the creativity and planning-led innovation for which PHD is known.”

Alex Shucksmith

In her new role, Shucksmith will oversee PHD Manchester’s AV planning and buying team and report to head of performance, Jamie Lyons. She will also focus on enhancing the agency’s AV offering and working with clients to deliver genuine cross-channel integration.

“PHD Manchester is a standout media agency with a supportive and entrepreneurial culture that embraces innovation,” said Shucksmith.

“I’m excited to be working with so many compelling, disruptive brands and to have the opportunity to shape the future of the agency’s AV team.”

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Specialist lender Together, which has a loan book of £3.47bn, has hired Lancashire banking heavyweight Simon Raine as an advisor to its board.

Simon – who has more than 35 years’ experience in financial services – joins from Handelsbanken, where he held a number of roles including manager of the Preston branch.

During a 17-year career with the Swedish bank, he was part of a close-knit team which developed its corporate and private business. He also sat on its credit committee and Northern Leadership Group.

In his new role at Together, Simon will play a crucial role in advising board members responsible for the well-established business’ corporate and commercial lending.

He will support clients, including wealth managers, developers, investors and entrepreneurs, as the group expands its commercial and corporate distribution channels.

Simon Raine

Simon, who lives in East Lancashire, said: “I’m really excited to be joining at a time when Together is realising its ambitious growth plans, as I have known and admired the business for a long time.

“The group has an enviable history in the specialist lending industry and has become well-respected for its innovative financial products and its commitment to providing the best possible service for its clients. It’s a great opportunity to join as the business continues its expansion.”

Simon’s appointment will bolster Together’s team of nearly 800 employees based at its headquarters in Cheadle, South Manchester.

Marc Goldberg, the group’s commercial CEO said: “We’re delighted to welcome Simon as a board adviser. His experience speaks for itself and he has a wealth of knowledge to help us promote and enhance the core strengths of the business to new introducers and clients.”

Simon is a non-executive director for the Jockey Club at Haydock Park, a board advisor at BBS Law, and Bridge Insurance Brokers Ltd. He is also a director at specialist business advisors FRP Advisory.

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Energy and regeneration specialist, ENGIE, has responded to increasing construction and new-build demands across the North of England by introducing a ‘head of new build’ role.

Steven Gregory joins ENGIE after nine years with Bouygues UK, where he was responsible for delivering strategic projects within the North West and Midlands region across the residential, education and commercial sectors.

As part of his new position with ENGIE, Steven will be responsible for the overall performance of all new-build construction projects across the North West of England.

As a provider of regeneration services in the UK – covering everything from community regeneration and refurbishment to repairs, maintenance and major new builds and developments – this role will build on the region’s already established construction success across housing, education, retail and commercial.

Steven Gregory

Lee Francis, area director for ENGIE’s places & communities division, said: “As a business that spans expertise in energy as well as regeneration, we are ideally positioned to work with local authorities, housing associations, private businesses and registered providers, to design and build new, energy-efficient properties and structures that will stand the test of time.

“Steven is paramount to the successful delivery of this vision and will be an excellent addition to our already expanding team.”

Steven said: “I have watched ENGIE go from strength to strength over the last few years and am delighted to have joined the business at this exciting time.

“ENGIE is fast becoming one of the major players within the country for construction and regeneration and is focused on working with partners to improve the communities we live and work in.

“I am looking forward to the challenge of further developing the structures and principles that will help us continue to deliver for our clients and grow as a team and business.”

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Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson has announced 11 senior promotions, with 10 promoted to legal director and one promoted to senior manager.

The promotions are firm-wide, covering a number of sectors, including commercial litigation, corporate commercial, property and construction, regulatory, health, marine and HR and development.

Jane Janvier

Six of the promotions are in the Liverpool office, two in London, two in Manchester and one in the Leeds office.

Those promoted to legal director in the Liverpool office include regulatory lawyer Stephen Barnfield, construction and engineering lawyer Phil Gazzola, property lawyers Jane Janvier and Tim Unwin, and health lawyer Rachel Doherty.

Emma McAvinchey-Roberts in the talent development team, based in Liverpool, has been promoted to senior manager.

Moya Clifford

In the Manchester office promotions include property lawyer Helen Evans and commercial and professional support lawyer Moya Clifford.

This news follows the five partner promotions announced in April this year that included Thomas Frei, Alex
Teji, Claire Messer, David Hill and Susan Sherry.

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Manchester data centre operator TeleData UK has strengthened its team with a duo of new hires.

Business development manager Matteo Scotton has joined following sales management roles at Audi UK and Tesco Mobile, while marketing manager Anna Nicholls brings more than a decade of tech marketing experience to the business, having worked with brands including Microsoft, Check Point and Seagate.

TeleData UK says it is Manchester’s only premium, independently-owned data centre, providing enterprise class data centre and cloud hosting solutions to businesses across the UK.

Commercial director, Matthew Edgley, said: “This is a pivotal time for TeleData, as cloud services adoption continues to grow at a rate of knots.

“Through the launch of our new service, CloudActiv, we hope to see the business go from strength to strength and I’m delighted to welcome Matteo and Anna to the team to support us through this growth.”

Matteo Scotton and Anna Nicholls

Earlier this month, TeleData UK announced a six figure sum investment into the launch of CloudActiv which provides constant sub-millisecond replication of data between two identical platforms, in two separate UK locations, to provide customers with truly resilient cloud hosting and effective disaster recovery of business-critical data and applications.

Anna Nicholls said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the company at such an exciting time, and look forward to being part of the team as we continue to grow.”

Matteo Scotton added: “I’m excited to be part of such an innovative and fast-paced industry, and truly believe TeleData is setting a new standard in cloud with the launch of its new platform. I’m looking forward to seeing the business benefits our customers are going to achieve through this technology.”