Appointments: Leeds Building Society, Xercise4Less, Hawsons Chartered Accountants

HEAD of business intelligence Chris Long has been appointed at Leeds Building Society.

He joins from Close Brothers, where he was MI systems manager. He has 15 years’ experience delivering large-scale business intelligence programmes in financial services.

At Leeds Building Society, he will be establishing a business intelligence competency centre including a team to support and promote the effective use of business intelligence across the Society.

Mr Long said: “I am excited by Leeds Building Society’s 10 year strategy, and feel that an improved data capability will support its execution.

“BI technologies can help with how data is translated and shared for analysis, and I am looking forward to helping the Society make better use of data in its decision making.”

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BUDGET gym operator, Xercise4Less has hired a director of ecommerce and marketing as it continues with aggressive expansion plans.

Jon Nasta joins the firm after eight years with membership retention specialists Retention Solutions, and will work across the group’s existing 29 clubs, as well as openings.

Mr Nasta said: “There are a huge amount of opportunities for Xercise4Less. Jon Wright and the team have a clear vision on what they want to achieve and with my knowledge of the fitness industry I know that this can be achieved.

“I’m looking forward to delivering some industry firsts that I know the Group have been working on since the start of the year and I look forward to continuing the expansion, growing the team and increasing the revenue streams.”

Stuart Perrin, chief operating officer of Xercise4Less said: “Jon is a fantastic addition to the Xercise4Less team and we welcome him on-board.

“He brings with him a wealth of industry experience and will certainly play a key role in helping to shape the business going forward. We’re excited to see what he can bring to the table.”

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CORPORATE finance partner Peter Wilmer has joined Hawsons Chartered Accountants.
Mr Wilmer has worked for a national accountancy firm and two major banks. He is replacing Kevin Gregory, who has been at the firm for 15 years.

Senior partner at Hawsons, Martyn Weatherall said: “The region has seen increasing business activity in the last 12 months with sustained appetite for corporate acquisitions, disposals and management buyouts. This is a major growth area on the backdrop of an improving marketplace and we are pleased Peter has joined to continue to develop our corporate finance services.”