People: University announces new CEO; Audio company hires director of finance; and more

Arden University has announced the appointment of Professor Carl Lygo as vice chancellor and CEO.

Lygo is a professor of law and barrister with extensive experience in higher education having held numerous management positions in the sector.

He was the founding vice-chancellor of BPP University and served as the CEO of BPP Holdings until 2017, during a period which saw BPP acquire university status and taught degree awarding powers.

Lygo was previously also on the board of the Office for Students (OfS), having served as non-executive member of the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

In 2018, he was appointed as executive chair of the board of governors at the University of Applied Sciences Europe (UE) in Germany and chairman of Global University Systems’ Public Affairs Committee.

Lygo said: “As Arden University continues to go from strength to strength, I am looking forward to embracing the opportunities of my role as its vice chancellor and CEO. I hope to make a valuable contribution to Arden’s continued growth and success.”

Lygo will replace Professor Philip Hallam, the founding vice-chancellor of Arden University, who has spent the past 19 years leading the organisation.

Hallam will remain at Arden as board adviser until October 2019.

:::

Following the acquisition by Solotech, SSE Audio Group has appointed David Kinna to the new role of director of finance in the UK.

Based in Redditch, Kinna will oversee the financial operations of the group’s UK and European operations.

Kinna has more than 20 years’ experience in industry accountancy, having previously held a number of finance roles in the food and automotive industries.

“My background is with companies of a similar size to SSE Audio Group, albeit in very different fields to Pro Audio,” he said.

“The world of ‘rock n roll’ is a niche market, so finding a finance director with experience in this sector for a company the size of SSE would have been a tall order. However, the world of finance gives you experience that is very much transferable and I look forward to bringing my skill set to this industry.”

SSE MD John Penn added: “As SSE has grown over recent years it was something we had been looking at for a while. Then with the acquisition by Solotech they were keen to have somebody solely focussed on the financial aspect of the business. This was the obvious time to make the appointment and provides a conduit between the Solotech board and the SSE management team.”

:::
Growth Street, the peer-to-peer marketplace that connects UK businesses with investors, has announced the appointment of Guy Jones as business development manager for the West Midlands, further expanding the Northern sales team, headed up by Michael Ellis.
Jones has more than 18 years’ experience in business finance, working with SMEs across a range of industries, in his roles at Euler Hermes, ABN AMRO Corporate Finance, RBS, Bibby, Ultimate and most recently, Creative Capital.

He has advised on a range of corporate finance transactions, including asset finance, asset-backed lending and devising a full range of innovative solutions to SME funding.

Based in Birmingham, his role is to originate and structure funding facilities for growing and ambitious SMEs across the West Midlands, through an extensive network consisting of entrepreneurs, business owners, intermediaries, advisors and many others specialising in the SME and mid-corporate markets.

He said: “I’m very excited to join the Growth Street team at such an interesting time for the business and I look forward to continuing to support SMEs across the Midlands.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close