On the move: the latest East Midlands hires
Leicester-based specialist lender Cambridge & Counties Bank has appointed Sarah Barker to the new role of chief commercial officer.
Reporting to the bank’s CEO, Donald Kerr, she will focus on sustainably growing the bank’s real estate finance, asset finance, deposit and marketing businesses.
Barker was most recently director of relationship banking at The Co-operative Bank.
She said: “Cambridge & Counties Bank has become a major competitor in its target markets, with excellent teams working closely with customers and brokers to deliver enhanced, dedicated solutions. The bank is very well positioned to take further market share and I look forward to helping Cambridge & Counties achieve its ambitions.”
Donald Kerr added: “Sarah is a highly impressive individual, and it’s great to have someone of her calibre join the team. She has very strong ideas on how to build the bank going forward and her passion for SME banking is very clear.”
Elsewhere, Derbyshire-based medicinal cannabis producer Dalgety has appointed a new head grower.
Brady Green brings ten years of industry experience to the Castle Donington firm, which was granted a Home Office license earlier this year to begin commercial cultivation and distribution of its product.
Dalgety is also planning to deliver 50 UK-based jobs over the next two years.
Green said: “This is an exciting opportunity to lead a state-of-the-art growing facility, joining one of the few firms that have been granted special provision to develop a leading medical cannabis product to market.
“Right now, the sector is ripe with opportunity. It’s a burgeoning industry, but also one that has a very real and tangible prospect of helping thousands of people dealing with chronic pain management in the UK.
“I’ve seen first-hand the transition of medical cannabis into legalised use in Canada over the past decade or more, and while challenges there remain, it’s pleasing to see a large range of products now available on the market.
Brady Green
“I’m proud to be able to play a vital role in enabling such advancement here in the UK, with the latest technology deployed alongside growing techniques that could help transform the industry as we know it.”
James Leavesley, chief operating officer at Dalgety, said: “Brady brings a wealth of experience to our growing operation here at Dalgety, having been at the forefront of the opportunities bred from the first cannabis access programme in Canada.
“Right now, we’re hugely optimistic about not only our growing plans, but also the wider medical cannabis industry, as more and more licenses are granted to commercial operators.
“This is only a positive for the entire chronic pain landscape in the UK, breeding more options for patients and doctors, that will be able to administer products like ours under a controlled, regulated environment.
“We’re delighted to have Brady on board and look forward to welcoming others to our team to help foster further advancement within the wider medical cannabis supply chain.”
