People on the move: SysGroup; Marketing Lancashire; Your Legal Friend; Clancy Consulting; Base Architecture & Design

One of the UK’s fastest-growing managed IT services and cloud hosting providers, SysGroup, has announced that chief operating officer, Adam Binks, has been appointed chief executive officer with immediate effect.

Adam will lead Liverpool-based SysGroup through its next stage of growth, which will incorporate strategic acquisitions and continued organic growth to expand customer offering and geographical reach, as well as investment in capabilities and technology.

Having joined SysGroup in 2014 and appointed to the board in 2017, Adam has played a pivotal role in the company’s latest developments, which have included spearheading SysGroup’s transformation to a managed service provider and the recent acquisition of Rockford IT for £3.9m.

Michael Edelson will resume his position as non-executive chairman. Commenting on the news, Michael said: “We are delighted that Adam has accepted the CEO position. He has been an important member of the team for a number of years and has played a pivotal role in the development of the company.”

Mr Binks said: “Having worked with SysGroup for some time now and being involved in a long list of recent developments and achievements, I am thrilled to step into the CEO role. This is an exciting time for the company and I am committed to leading the team to drive further growth and continue our journey to expand our managed services offering.”

Adam’s previous role as chief operating officer saw him manage SysGroup’s day-to-day operations, including sales, marketing, infrastructure and service desk.

Having worked in the IT sector for more than 17 years, Adam has held a number of senior management and board level positions, including sales and technical director at managed hosting and connectivity provider, Vispa.

The appointment comes after SysGroup recorded a sales pipeline growth of 17.1% in its half year results published in September 2017 and the acquisition of managed IT, hosting and security services company, Rockford IT.

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Rachel McQueen has been appointed chief executive of Marketing Lancashire.

Chair Tony Attard said: “Following an extensive search and interviews with a number of very strong applicants, I’m delighted to confirm the appointment of Rachel McQueen.”

He added: “Rachel’s leadership qualities and extensive experience in place marketing and tourism in the North West made her an ideal candidate for the role and for advancing our ambitions and plans for Lancashire.”

Ms McQueen joins the organisation from Marketing Cheshire where she held the role of tourism director and previously worked at Marketing Manchester as director of marketing and deputy chief executive.

She said: “I believe that this organisation is one of the best-placed in the country to set the standard for future destination management organisations and for strategic place marketing. Previous leadership has clearly set the direction of travel and made significant ground and I am confident that my skills and experience will enable me to build on this success.”

Marketing Lancashire promotes the county on a national and international stage.

Rachel is due to take up her position in May.

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Birkenhead-based law firm Your Legal Friend has appointed solicitor Rebecca Thomas to further strengthen its asbestos related illness team.
She joins with more than six years’ experience specialising in asbestos claims having previously worked at Roberts Jackson Solicitors, Birchall Blackburn Solicitors and GHP Legal.

Rebecca Thomas

During her career Rebecca has settled complex and high-value mesothelioma cases including one which exceeded £100,000.

This involved a secondary exposure claim for a wife who regularly washed her husband’s clothes that were covered in asbestos dust through his work as a caretaker maintaining boilers lagged in the material.

She is also experienced in claims involving noise-induced hearing loss, hand arm vibration syndrome, carpal tunnel and vibration white finger claims.

Rebecca joins a team of five which handles mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, asbestosis and pleural thickening cases and is headed up by Joanne Candlish who joined Your Legal Friend in August 2017.

Joanne said: “The number of asbestos related industrial disease claims we’re looking after is rising, so we’re investing in hiring specialist talent who complement our established and successful team.”

Founded in 1983, Your Legal Friend offers a range of legal services and advice to the victims of personal injury and negligence. It employs over 200 people and has supported around 200,000 clients over the last 35 years.

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Altrincham-based multi-disciplinary consulting engineers, Clancy Consulting, has announced the appointment of Jane Saynor to its board, the first female board director at the company.

She is also the first non-engineer to join the board.

Jane leads the HR function for the business, having joined in 2002 to establish the role, and also chairs the NW Region of the Technical Apprenticeship Consortium, a subject which she is particularly passionate about.

She said: “I have always felt involved in the Clancy business from the very start and my collaboration with the board has increased over the years, so I have always felt valued and respected by them all. With our different skills we make a great team.”

Also joining the main board of directors is Chris Acton. After assisting the business with its venture into the Middle East, Chris has now assumed a key role working with team to develop the structural engineering team in Altrincham.

Chief executive Alan Bramwell said: “The appointment of Jane and Chris will add additional skills that will strengthen the capability of the board, while also recognising the significant and important contribution both have made to the business over many years.”

This month also sees a number of promotions within the business. At Altrincham Nick Riding becomes a divisional director. In the Liverpool office James Gendall is promoted to a divisional director in the
structures team. In the building services section in Reading Andrew Childs becomes an associate, while in the central business support team, Lucy Brown becomes finance director and company
secretary.

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An architectural practice that serves clients across the North West and Cheshire has made new appointments to support its long-term strategy for growth.

Jack Harris and James Smith have taken up roles as Part 2 architectural assistants at Base Architecture & Design in Chester, and existing team member Adam Turnell has recently qualified as an architect.

Base opened its Chester office in late 2017 with the appointment of Abigail Owen, a member of the Cheshire Society of Architects and panel member of Cheshire West and Chester Design Review Panel.

It is also working with Chester-based James Roberts Design to expand the interiors element of its business.

Base, which also has an office in Shrewsbury, is currently working on more than 200 projects with a contract value in excess of £20m from grand design new builds, renovations, extensions, and urban and commercial developments. It works predominantly in Cheshire, North Wales, Shropshire and the Midlands.

Managing director Carl Huntley said: “The expansion of our team underpins the growing demand for our services. 2017 saw us working on more projects than any other year in our history and indications are that this will continue into 2018 and beyond.”