On the move: the latest East Midlands hires

Liz Fothergill CBE, immediate past president of East Midlands Chamber and chairman of Derby-based Pennine Healthcare, will be installed as High Sheriff of Derbyshire today (Thursday).

She started her working life as a librarian but in 1977 found herself between jobs and started helping out in the family company, founded by and named after her father, Ivor Shaw.

The business evolved from engineering, filling stations and car sales and by the end of the ’70s was manufacturing a small range of plastic medical disposable products from a new site on Pontefract Street, Derby.

Today the business, now known as Pennine Healthcare, turns over in excess of £30m a year, has 380 employees and produces 250,000 items a day, of which 70% are exported to 70 countries worldwide.

Fothergill was HRH the Prince of Wales’ Ambassador for Business in the Community in the East Midlands from 2012 to 2014. She is Derby City business representative for D2N2 – the Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Local Economic Partnership – and a member of Derby Renaissance Board.

She was deputy chair of the University of Derby from 2003-2013, and is chair of Derwent Stepping Stones (a neighbourhood nursery and training academy). She is a business champion of YMCA Derbyshire and a governor of Landau Forte Moorhead Academy and was formerly chair of Derbyshire Dales Careline.

Fothergill said: “I am honoured to have been invited to be High Sheriff for Derbyshire and I hope I will make the most of the opportunity this office presents.

“During my tenure, I would like to really fly the flag for all that is great and good about Derby and Derbyshire, including its businesses, and ensure that the East Midlands remains a flag-bearer for the rest of the UK.”

Julia Pires

Boston-based food producer Freshtime UK has appointd a PA to the managing director Mark Newton

Julia Pires, originally from Warwickshire, was recruited into the new role of personal assistant to Freshtime’s Senior Team in March.

With previous experience as a PA at both Calor Gas and BBC Transmissions in Warwickshire, Pires has spent the last 18 months working as an apprenticeship assessor in Lincolnshire.