People: New council CEO; Law firm poaches rival’s Northern head of corporate; and more…
Stockport Council has announced it is to recommend Pam Smith for the role of chief executive.
Smith is currently the chief executive of Burnley Council and has previously been the chief operating officer at AdviserPlus and an executive director at Rochdale MBC. She has also previously held roles at the audit commission and at Oldham Council.
Cllr Alex Ganotis, leader of the Council, said: “This is a critical decision for the Council. After a thorough and challenging selection process Pam demonstrated herself to be an outstanding candidate. She will join an already strong corporate leadership team at Stockport and brings a wealth of experience with her, which will benefit the borough in line with the priorities we as a Council have set ourselves. I’m looking forward to working closely with Pam to ensure we continue to rise to the challenge of preparing the Council to be financially self-reliant, taking the hard decisions now to create the conditions that sustain high quality public services and strong civic leadership in future.”
Smith added: “I am looking forward to working with everyone in Stockport and building on the fantastic work which is already taking place in the borough. My focus will be to ensure Stockport continues to be successful, sustainable and has the public services it needs to thrive in financially challenging times.”
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Andrea Cropley (right) with Manchester office managing partner Rob Elvin, and Kathrine Bancroft
Squire Patton Boggs has announced the appointment of partner Andrea Cropley, the former Northern head of corporate at Irwin Mitchell.
With more than 20 years’ corporate finance experience, Cropley advises on transactions for public and private UK and international companies, including IPOs, mergers and acquisitions (both public takeovers and private M&A), joint ventures, strategic alliances, complex schemes of arrangement, restructurings and capital reorganisations.
She has advised on the corporate aspects of PFI, PPP and procurement projects in the education, defence, health and rail industry, and also brings considerable manufacturing, hospitality and leisure sector experience, having spent time on secondment at Diageo.
Also joining the firm’s corporate team in Manchester is director Kathrine Bancroft.
Bancroft was previously assistant company secretary and legal counsel at UK Biobank, and prior to that, deputy company secretary at the Co-operative Bank. She will be responsible for providing corporate regulatory and plc company secretarial services as a member of the firm’s established company secretarial team.
Giles Chesher, head of the Manchester corporate team at Squire Patton Boggs, said: “We are delighted to welcome Andrea and Kathrine to the firm. Their arrival will add significant depth to the services we offer, increasing our cross-border expertise and building on our sector credentials in manufacturing, hospitality and leisure. We continue to invest in strengthening our team in the North, and Andrea and Kathrine follow several new associates who have joined our ranks over the past year.”
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John Whelan
Wilmslow-based accounting software company My Digital Accounts has made a series of board appointments to help spearhead its ambitious expansion plans.
My Digital Accounts, which was launched last December, is a cloud based accounting software package aimed at accountants with clients in fast-paced sectors such as retail, leisure, IT, construction and manufacturing which employ temporary and contract workers.
My Digital Accounts, which has more than 1000 users, is the only accounting software package to provide accounting information in real time by using daily banking information to keep accounts updated.
Joining its board as non-executive chairman is Peter Searle, who is chief executive of Manchester based global recruitment specialists Air Swift.
Ravan Boddu, who has a wealth of experience in creating large scale software applications primarily for healthcare and retail industries, will have board responsibility for product development.
Dean Harte, who has spearheaded the growth of Redrock Consulting over the last decade to a £100m turnover business, will focus on business development.
Joining the trio on the board is Andrew Williamson, one of the founders of Altrincham-based Paystream, one of the largest accounting providers in the temporary labour market.
My Digital Accounts was founded by John Whelan who has operated as an accountant for three decades.
He said the company was set up to embrace the government’s “Making Tax Digital” (MTD) Initiative announced in December 2014. MTD will impact many tax payers directly from April 2018 when they will be obliged to file quarterly returns as well as annual accounts.
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PM+M, the chartered accountancy, business advisory and wealth management group, has promoted two of its directors to partner level.
Antony Keen becomes a partner of the firm after being a director in the wealth management division since 2014. He has worked at PM+M for 29 years. His core work includes financial planning, estate planning, inheritance planning, investments and corporate pensions.
The second promotion is Helen Binns, who joined PM+M 11 years ago and heads up the Burnley office – a position that she has held since 2015. She deals with all aspects of accounting, auditing and financial management for charities and companies with turnovers from £50k up to £45m in various sectors including distribution, retail and manufacturing.
Jane Parry, managing partner of PM+M, said: “Both Antony and Helen’s promotions are hugely deserved as they are incredibly talented in their respective fields. They embody what PM+M stands for as a business thanks to their unwavering commitment to both their clients and the success of the firm.
“We want to ensure a strong succession plan is in place so it is always fantastic to reward and promote talent from within our own ranks.”
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Michael Gibson, chair of Digital Lancashire and managing director of Miralis, has joined Lancaster based agency Hotfoot Design as a non-executive director.
Gibson is the former co-owner and managing director of Fat Media, where he oversaw the growth of the company from a small office in Lancaster to one of the largest digital marketing agencies in the UK. He left Fat Media three years ago after the agency was acquired and this is his first agency role since.
Gibson will be working closely with the three partners at Hotfoot – founder and creative director Charlie Haywood, technical director Aidan Watt, and marketing director Guy Cookson. He will be advising Hotfoot on their plans for strategic growth.
