People: Duff & Phelps makes senior hire to restructuring practice; Häfele UK adds to team; and more

Duff & Phelps has welcomed Ben Collett as a managing director in its restructuring advisory practice.

Based in the firm’s Birmingham, Manchester and London offices, he brings more than 20 years of experience advising corporates on major strategic change and transformation projects focused on profit improvement and liquidity for clients in both underperformance and growth situations.

He has extensive experience working in the manufacturing and engineering sectors as well as oil and gas, food and retail and fast-moving consumer goods. He has worked with a wide range of businesses including FTSE 100, private equity and owner-managed companies ranging from £10mn to £3bn turnover, including pre-disposal value enhancement and post-acquisition synergy delivery.

Prior to joining Duff & Phelps, Collett was director of strategic projects at IMI, a FTSE 250 global engineering group, where he led cost reduction, operational change, strategic growth and acquisition integration programs.

Prior to this, he was a lead advisor at KPMG where he worked with clients to deliver profit improvement, turnaround and working capital improvements.

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Furniture fitting and architectural hardware specialist Häfele UK has appointed Natalie Davenport as head of marketing.

She joins the Rugby-based company after four years running her own business consultancy firm and brings over 20 years of building industry experience to the company.

Previously, she spent seven years at manufacturing conglomerate Saint -Gobain where she held a number of senior positions, of which the most recent was head of marketing communications at British Gypsum.

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IMI, the specialist engineering company, has announced that Jackie Hu, president of IMI Critical Engineering Asia Pacific, as managing director of the company’s critical engineering division.
Hu will report to Roy Twite and become a member of IMI’s executive committee.

Roy Twite, chief executive designate of IMI, said: “Jackie joined IMI in 2008 and has been instrumental in the success of IMI Critical Engineering in the Asia Pacific region.  He has deep knowledge and experience across our end markets and a proven track record of driving growth and business development. We’re excited about him joining our executive team.”

Hu, who is relocating to the UK, will be based at the group’s UK headquarters in Birmingham.

Jim Lim, who was previously managing director, IMI critical engineering China, will succeed Hu as president of IMI critical engineering Asia Pacific.

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Redditch electronics manufacturer Solid State has announced that non-executive John Lavery will resign from his role in August.

Tony Frere, chairman of Solid State, said: “John has given over 30 years’ valuable service to Steatite and the wider Solid State Group as both an executive and non-executive director and has been a major contributor to getting the group to where it is today.

“I am sure he will continue to make a full contribution in the run up to his retirement.”