People: NorthEdge appoints ex-Deloitte dealmaker to Birmingham office; Director hire for Turner & Townsend; and more

NorthEdge Capital has hired dealmaker Kevin O’Loughlin as investment manager.

O’Loughlin joins NorthEdge’s growing Birmingham office from Deloitte, where he was assistant director for three years working on a range of transactions involving privately-owned and publicly-listed companies in the Midlands.

These include the sale of Atcore to Inflexion Private Equity, the sale of Aegis Engineering to US buyer Safariland Group and Eddie Stobart’s acquisition of The Pallet Network.

Prior to Deloitte, O’Loughlin worked as part of EY’s corporate finance team, where he advised NorthEdge on investments including Ramsdens, the UK’s largest independent pawnbroker, which successfully floated on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange.

At NorthEdge, he will be responsible for sourcing and transacting new investments for the firm in the Midlands, as well as working with the existing portfolio to deliver growth aspirations.

O’Loughlin said: “Having worked with NorthEdge on key deals in the past, I have seen first-hand the ability of the team to deliver ambitious growth strategies for the businesses they back. I’m excited to join as the firm continues to invest in its Midlands operation and look forward to working directly with the NorthEdge portfolio to deliver their potential and build on the strong existing track record.”

His appointment comes on the back of a busy period for NorthEdge’s Midlands team. The Birmingham office has doubled headcount, with NorthEdge director Phil Frame joining from the firm’s Manchester office and Nassim Ahmed appointed as deal origination executive.

In the last year, NorthEdge’s Midlands team has made two investments into Bridge Farm Nurseries and Orbis Protect, made two bolt-on acquisitions at Direct Healthcare Group and a further bolt-on acquisition at Belfield Group. NorthEdge has also achieved two exits in the Midlands in 2018, selling Jigsaw24 and DW3 Products Group.  Earlier this year, the firm announced the close of NorthEdge Capital SME Fund I at £120m, taking total funds under management to over £650m.
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Professional services firm Turner & Townsend has appointed Tania Flasck to head up its infrastructure business in Birmingham.

With more than 25 years’ water and utilities industry experience, Flasck joins Turner & Townsend from Jacobs where she was European vice president solutions and technology after serving as head of water and energy for the European business since 2016.

Based in Turner & Townsend’s Birmingham office, she will lead the 150 strong infrastructure team in the region and will manage the utilities sector for the business nationally.

She will oversee the delivery of programme management and advisory services for clients including Highways England, HS2, Severn Trent Water, Network Rail, Environment Agency and Birmingham Airport.

David Whysall, UK managing director at Turner & Townsend, said: “With connectivity high on the city’s agenda, Birmingham and the wider region is seeing significant investment in infrastructure. I’m pleased to welcome Tania, whose wealth of experience will help our clients drive excellence in their approach to setting-up and delivering major infrastructure programmes.”

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Colliers International has welcomed Richard Williams to its national offices team as the new head of Birmingham City Centre Agency.

Williams joins Colliers from Knight Frank with eight years’ experience in the West Midlands real estate market.

He is an established commercial property agent, with experience advising both occupier and landlord clientele, including property companies and funds such as Aviva, Royal London, LIM and Bruntwood.

Prior to his role at Knight Frank in Birmingham, Williams also spent four years working for a general practice firm covering the wider West Midlands region where he lead a commercial agency team providing occupational and investment advice across the office, retail and industrial sectors.

Mark Taylor, head of Colliers International’s national offices team, said: “Our National Offices team has been involved in some of the most high profile transactions to take place in Birmingham in recent years, including advising Hines on the sale of their Brindleyplace assets in 2017 as well as our work as marketing agents for PATRIZIA’s 103 Colmore Row, to name just a few.

“We look forward to continuing on in this vein with the addition of Richard, who will work closely with our Birmingham out-of-town offices specialist, Douglas Bonham, to offer city centre expertise to our growing client base nationally.”