People: Watson Batty chairman reduces role and announces successors; Andrew Jackson appoints property solicitor; Equity partner firm poaches Santander team member; and more

The chairman of Leeds Watson Batty Architects has announced that he will be reducing his role and stake in the business with effect from this month.

Paul Ryan, who has been a director of the 41-year-old firm for 23 years, is to relinquish his 50% shareholding in Watson Batty as he approaches retirement. He will hand over the baton to the four remaining equity directors Peter White, Andrew Grindrod, Richard Merrills and Mark Sidding but will still remain involved with the business in a consultancy role.

Watson Batty Architects will allocate equity shareholding to seven other members of the team as a part of its succession strategy and commitment to broaden ownership with its future generation.

Peter White, managing director at Watson Batty Architects, said: “Paul has been a fantastic leader for the business and a great inspiration to our team for many years.  He has been instrumental in taking Watson Batty from a £850k turnover Yorkshire business to become a UK leading practice that employs 50 people nationwide working for many leading brands.”

During its 41 years Watson Batty has created over 1m sq ft of retail space across 19 stores for Wm Morrison Supermarkets, delivered 3.2m ft in mail centres for Royal Mail, designed 4,000 new homes and supported 20,000 new school places in the UK.

It is currently working on a number of significant projects including Wynyard Primary School, Rathbones Bakery facility for Wm Morrison, Crag Road and Kearns Village residential developments for Skipton Properties and the new passenger lounge extension at Leeds Bradford Airport

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Regional law firm Andrew Jackson Solicitors LLP has appointed solicitor Samuel Peake to its property practice.
Peake will provide support to the existing property team from the firm’s York office.
Partner and head of property at Andrew Jackson, Paul Barker, said: “Samuel’s appointment underlines our commitment to providing clients with high quality, value for money advice from our partner-led property team, where demand for our services remains high.”

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Steve Harrison has joined YFM Equity Partners as Portfolio Director.

Based in the Leeds office, Harrison will manage YFM’s growth and buy-out investments as part of the portfolio team led by David Bell.

With over 19 years’ industry experience, he joins from Santander Corporate Bank, where he was a Director in Santander’s Growth Capital team for five years.

Prior to Santander, Harrison spent four years in private equity with turnaround fund, Endless LLP, and eight years in Corporate Finance with Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young.

David Hall, managing director of YFM, said: “Steve boasts a wealth of experience in our industry, particularly working with SMEs, and is a welcome addition to the Leeds team as we continue to grow our portfolio. We are seeing an ever-increasing range of opportunities to invest in this market and look forward to replicating 2017’s success through the last quarter and into 2018.”

Harrison added: “I am delighted to be joining YFM Equity Partners, at what is an exciting time for the firm following the successful launch of YFM’s latest buyout fund last year.  With its range of VCT and buy-out funds, supportive approach and impressive national network, YFM is ideally placed to assist SMEs realise their growth ambitions. I look forward to helping both the team and these businesses reach that potential.”