People on the move: Shop Direct; Professional Liverpool; Express Solicitors: Eric Wright Civil Engineering; Stagecoach; Cube3

SHOP Direct the UK’s second largest pureplay etailer, has appointed Jon Rudoe to its executive board as retail and technology director, reporting to chief executive Alex Baldock.

Rudoe will join Shop Direct in April 2017 from Sainsbury’s, where he is currently digital and technology director reporting to the CEO as a member of the operating board.

His remit at Sainsbury’s covers all technology, digital businesses, digital and marketing innovation and user experience for the FTSE100 company.

Prior to joining Sainsbury’s, he was head of retail at Ocado and led a team that more than doubled sales for the online retailer. Earlier in his career, he worked in venture capital and for Bain & Co. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Under Rudoe’s leadership, Shop Direct will bring together its retail teams with IT for the first time. The new structure reflects the etail giant’s increasing focus on delivering an easy, inspiring and personalised customer experience underpinned by substantial investments in technology – particularly in the area of artificial intelligence.

In all, Rudoe will oversee ecommerce, marketing, trading, commercial, business development, Very Exclusive and IT in his new role. His appointment to Shop Direct’s executive board follows on from those earlier this year of Phil Hackney and Sasha Berson as group operations director and group strategy and customer director respectively.

Baldock said: “With four consecutive years of sales and profit growth under our belts, Jon’s vast experience and expertise in digital, technology and trading will help us further accelerate our ambitious plans to become a world class digital retailer.”

Rudoe added: “As a pureplay etailer with a clear, proven strategy and a hunger to be at the forefront of customer-centred technological change, Shop Direct is arguably the most exciting place to be in UK retail right now.”

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HILL Dickinson partner Matt Noon has been appointed to the board of thriving business membership organisation Professional Liverpool.

The organisation – which promotes professional excellence in Liverpool and the city region – announced the appointment at its annual meeting last week.  
 
Noon, a corporate partner at the Liverpool-headquartered international law firm, was appointed to the PL board after membership at the organisation soared 27% over the last year.

Noon said: “I’m delighted to be joining the board at such an important time for Professional Liverpool. There are now 280 member firms, which is 60 more than 12 months ago. To me, that is reflective of the level of business activity across the city region and as somebody born and raised in the city, it’s a great way of helping to promote the quality of the professional services offering in Liverpool.”

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MANCHESTER-based personal injury law firm Express Solicitors has made up Leanne Rowley and Robert Weeden to associate partners.

The firm has just secured a £17m funding deal with Royal Bank of Scotland to support it in achieving 60% growth in the next five years and securing £20m annual fee income.

Rowley, 30, from Sale started her legal career in the new client team at Express Solicitors seven years ago.  

She now works in the Occupiers Liability and Public Liability department on a variety of claims ranging from slips and trips to sporting injuries as a result of violent conduct.

In the employer’s liability department, Weeden, 32, from Hazel Grove specialises in accidents at work and industrial disease, and has vast experience in claims involving life changing and significant injuries as well as those arising from exposure to noise, vibratory tools and asbestos in the workplace.

He joined Express Solicitor as a newly qualified solicitor in 2011 and this week achieved Personal Injury Accreditation from The Law Society, which enables clients to easily identify practitioners with proven competence and expertise.

James Maxey, managing partner at Express Solicitors, said: “These are well deserved promotions of two dedicated and loyal lawyers, who have helped the firm get where it is today.

“The fact that Leanne started in our new client team and Rob as a newly qualified solicitor is not only testament to their hard work and tenacity, but also demonstrates the firm’s commitment to training and developing quality lawyers to fulfil their ambitions of becoming partner.”

Express Solicitors specialises in personal injury and accident claims, clinical negligence claims and serious injury cases and comprises 187 employees including 69 fee earners and 16 partners.

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ERIC Wright Civil Engineering (EWCE), part of the Eric Wright Group, has promoted Gavin Hulme to the position of operations director.
 
Following a 16-year career at the Preston-based firm, Hulme has progressed through the ranks from site manager, project manager and most recently contracts manager and will now work alongside managing director, Diane Bourne and commercial director, Craig Kpiiax, to lead the £20m turnover business.
 
With overall responsibility for the operational aspects of EWCE’s live contracts, Hulme will oversee projects across the company’s whole portfolio, including local authority works, schemes for regional and national operators across various sectors, infrastructure, highways, utilities, rail and hydro-electric.

Predominantly operating across the North of England, EWCE has recorded significant growth in Cumbria, following a number of projects to repair flood-damaged structures and also safeguard others from the effects of future flooding.

Hulme said: “Eric Wright Civil Engineering has always been a market leading regional contractor in the North West and has ambitions to grow.

“With the Government committing to spend £23bn via a ‘National Productivity Investment Fund’ between 2017 and 2022, there are plenty of opportunities on the horizon that we’ll look to capitalise, with infrastructure resilience and Northern Powerhouse connectivity at the forefront of the agenda.”

Diane Bourne, managing director at Eric Wright Civil Engineering, added: “Gavin has been a dedicated employee for almost two decades and has worked on a wide range of projects across the full spectrum of civil engineering disciplines. His experience will be a valuable addition to the directorial team.”

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STAGECOACH has announced the appointment of a new managing director of its bus operations in Merseyside and South Lancashire.

Rob Jones, currently operations director of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire, will become managing director of the business.

Previous Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire managing drector Elisabeth Tasker is now managing director, Stagecoach Manchester.
 
Robert Montgomery, Stagecoach UK Bus managing director, said: “Rob’s experience over 26 years in the transport industry, and, in particular, as an operations director for the past six years, will stand him in good stead to take on this role.

“I believe Rob has the skills and experience to deliver growth and further customer improvements as well as developing the relationships he has already established to drive forward partnership working and further raise the standards of bus travel in Merseyside and South Lancashire.”
 
Jones said: “We have a great team of employees and I look forward to working with them, and our local partners, to continue delivering high-quality, affordable bus travel and excellent customer service for the millions of people that rely on our services every year.”

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MANCHESTER-based creative digital and marketing agency Cube3 has welcomed Dan Price as head of social.

Price joins from the Digital LBI agency, LostBoys and brings with him a wealth of experience from previous clients including AstraZeneca, Kellogg’s, Honda Motor Europe, and HSBC to name a few.

As part of his role, Price will be responsible for creating and bringing to market an integrated social offering, and ultimately creating and delivering social strategies that build business.

Also joining the senior management team is Libby Childs. She joins from Building Blocks (UK) taking up the role of project director.

Childs will be overseeing, at a strategic level, programmes of work and will be responsible for managing day to day activity  and delivery across the business.

Cube3’s performance marketing team also gets a new team member in new senior account manager, Alex Ryan, who joins from digital marketing agency I-COM. Ryan will be responsible for developing digital marketing strategies, as well as managing marketing activity and outputs across the performance team.

Carla Gonzalez has swapped Mexico for Manchester and is joining Cube3 as inbound marketing manager.

Following Cube3’s partnership with Hubspot earlier in the year, Gonzalez will be responsible for continued roll out and management of inbound marketing from within the performance marketing team.

Karl Barker, Cube3’s founder and CEO said: “These four hires are a real demonstration of our commitment to building an agency for the future.”