People on the move: MSB; Stagecoach; Armitt Group; Furness Building Society

Liverpool law firm MSB Solicitors has appointed five new partners.
 
Brad Armstrong, Hayley Catherall, Paul Gallagher, Nicola Harris and Emma Palmer will join nine existing partners from March 1.

Armstrong joined MSB just last year to manage the expansion of the firm’s plot sales department. The team marked a record year, which saw them complete more than 1,250 units in the Liverpool city region.

Gallager heads up Crown Court litigation at MSB and joined the firm when it was founded in 1988.

Harris graduated in law from the University of Liverpool in 2004 and joined MSB as a trainee solicitor the following year. She qualified as a solicitor in 2007 before working as an associate in the firm’s matrimonial department.

Palmer joined MSB in 2007 having graduated from University of Leicester. With particular expertise in women’s and children’s matters.

Catherall has been with the firm for more than 10 years, and is one of a number at MSB who followed a non-traditional route into law. She qualified as legal executive in 2000 and a Fellow in 2002, having taken up work as an assistant in a solicitor’s office after leaving school.

Partner and head of the family team at MSB Emma Carey said: “I am beyond delighted that three of my team have been invited to be partners with the firm.
Not only is this testament to their hard work, commitment and capability – but also to the firms promise to support, enable and promote all members of staff.”

Managing partner at MSB Paul Bibby added: “It is an exciting time for MSB and this announcement of our new partners follows a year of accelerated recruitment in the firm in order to meet the demands of new work.”

MSB grew its team by almost a third last year and now employ more than 100 staff and consultants across three offices in Allerton, Wavertree and St Paul’s Square.

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Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire has strengthened its engineering team on the Wirral with the appointment of a new engineering manager, based at its Birkenhead depot.
 
John Thompson, who joined the business as an apprentice, has been promoted to the role internally, he previously held the position of assistant engineering manager at Stagecoach’s Gilmoss depot in Liverpool.

His new role will involve helping to ensure the smooth running of Stagecoach’s garage at Birkenhead; ensuring vehicles are well maintained; managing a team of engineers; and assisting with training. He will report to Stagecoach’s director of engineering, Tony Cockcroft.

Rob Jones, managing director of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire, said: “We’re delighted to have appointed John to this key role at our Birkenhead depot.

“Growing people and giving them opportunities to advance within the business is something we believe is incredibly important and many of our management team have worked their way up in the business – gathering invaluable experience along the way.”

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Liverpool-based shipping agent and specialist logistics company the Armitt Group  has appointed Paul Holden as its new finance dDirector.

Mr Holden has more than 20 years’ experience in a series of senior financial management positions most notably as Finance Director at Dobson Crowther, a specialist print and packaging manufacturer, where he led an MBO of the business securing £3.5m acquisition funding from Royal Bank of Scotland.
 
Immediately prior to joining the Armitt Group, he was financial consultant to Inspirepac, a £50m manufacturer of high quality packaging products, where his responsibilities included business development as well as enhancing the company’s financial control and group reporting systems.

Charles Gray, managing director of the Armitt Group, said: “I am delighted to welcome Paul to the Armitt Group and am confident that his experience and skills will help to refine and improve the Group’s financial mechanisms.”

“The Armitt Group is making some huge investments in the UK to open up a new supply chain corridor so it can service European and Far Eastern markets. Having a Finance Director to help manage these investments is central to our overall strategy,” he added.

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Furness Building Society, based in Barrow, has appointmented Phillip McLelland to its board of directors.  

McLelland is a proven commercial finance director with considerable mortgage and savings experience to offer the Society.  
 
A qualified management accountant, he started his career in the building society sector and his full-time job is currently finance director – consumer credit division at Provident Financial.

Colin Millar, the society’s chairman told said: “We are extremely pleased to welcome Phillip. As finance director for UKAR and now Provident Financial, Phillip brings with him a good commercial sense and track record, with executive and board level experience across mortgages and savings and consumer finance and we look forward to working with him to drive the society forward.”

McLelland said: “I am looking forward to working with the board at Furness Building Society and developing further an already financially strong, independent and mutual Society – it is after all where my career started, in the building society sector.”