People: Law firm adds partner to growing banking and finance team; Senior hire for financial services group; and more

Paul Hill

Law firm Browne Jacobson has recruited Paul Hill as a partner in its growing banking and finance team.

Hill advises corporate borrowers, sponsors, banks and other financial institutions and has significant experience in multi-jurisdictional infrastructure and utility financings, acquisition finance transactions and PPP projects.

He has recently advised Equitix and Infrared on their acquisition of High Speed 1 Limited, the funders in connection with the Hornsea One offshore windfarm, the funders in relation to the refinancing of Cory Riverside EfW (Energy from Waste), a consortium on their proposed acquisition of the Cory business and the funders in relation to the provision of both corporate and SPV financing to Angel Trains.

He also has experience on major restructurings in both the UK and the Middle East having respectively advised the coordinating committees in connection with the consensual termination of the Lancashire EfW Project and the Dubai World and Nakheel (the Dubai based real estate developer) financial restructurings.

Based in the firm’s Birmingham office, Hill joins Browne Jacobson after 10 years at Allen & Overy in London.

Paul Ray, national head of banking and finance at Browne Jacobson, said: “We are delighted to have recruited someone of Paul’s calibre. Our national banking and finance practice has been transformed over the last six years and he is an excellent fit within our team of leading banking and finance lawyers and will be a significant asset to our UK and international clients.”

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Bibby Financial Services (BFS) has hired Martyn Freshwater as head of sales to help drive growth for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) across the West Midlands.

Freshwater has extensive knowledge of the finance sector, having worked at Lloyds Commercial Finance for most of his career. Prior to joining BFS, he was working at Investec Capital Solutions as business development director for the Midlands region.

He said: “BFS is dedicated to providing specialist funding solutions to SMEs, and I am delighted to join the largest independent financial services lender in the UK.

“It is crucial that we continue to provide SMEs with the very best support to help them grow. I’m looking forward to working with a successful team in BFS’s Birmingham office to continue to achieve this.”

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Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has appointed three business representatives to its board.

Sue Jordan, an experienced HR director and member of the ACAS council, Nicola Whiting, chief strategic officer at Titania, and John Dillon, managing director at GJS Dillon, have been appointed.

Jordan will join the board with immediate effect while Whiting and Dillon start their new roles in May..

The board has also welcomed Cllr Marc Bayliss of Worcester City Council who has replaced Cllr Linda Robinson from Wychavon District Council.

Mark Stansfeld, chair of Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “I was delighted to see such a large amount of high quality applications for our board member vacancies. I would like to think that this is a reflection of how the LEP is delivering some truly innovative projects around the county and I believe that our new board members, with their expertise and backgrounds, will be able to provide their creative ideas, skills and dynamic energy to steer the LEP through this exciting phase.”

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