People on the Move: HVPD; DigitalBridge; SLS; Placefirst; Henry Boot Developments
High Voltage Partial Discharge (HVPD) is pleased to announce that Kelly Thorley will join the board as director of HR and administration.
Kelly is walking, talking evidence of the way HVPD re-invests in its people, the firm says.
She is a Chartered HR professional with a first-class BSc (Hons) Psychology degree from the University of Manchester.
Having completed her Level 5 course in HR Management, she earned her professional associate membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development in 2017.
Earlier this year Kelly was appointed secretary of HVPD, Inc, the USA arm of the business.
HVPD, based at Salford’s MediacityUK, is a trailblazer in the growing industry of partial discharge monitoring. The innovative company helps some of the biggest companies in the world streamline their operations by ensuring the safe and efficient management of their electrical assets.
Kelly said: “After six-and-a-half years of working for HVPD and learning from the ground up, I am honoured to join the board of directors. I’m excited to have further input into the strategy and growth of the company over the coming years, and taking on more responsibility in directing the HR and sdministration departments of HVPD and its subsidiaries.”
She added: “I’m looking forward to continuing to make HVPD a great place to work, and grow a career, for all of our current and future employees.”
Chairman, Gavin Ryder, said: “Kelly has been brilliant for the company, holding a pivotal role in terms of managing the business over the last few years. In making this appointment, the board is showing its confidence and belief that both Kelly, and indeed HVPD, will continue to go from strength to strength.”
Kelly joins the HVPD board alongside Marc Foxall (business development and test services director), Rachel Oates (commercial director), Alex Polley (director of systems development) and Malcolm Seltzer-Grant (technical director).
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Manchester technology company, DigitalBridge, has appointed Steve Furber and Vikas Shah as advisors ahead of a period of significant growth, including international expansion and product innovation.
DigitalBridge enables retailers to more easily help their customers to design and buy their dream bathroom or kitchen. Their planning tool is available at Planmybathroom.diy.com
Steve Furber
The appointments come on the back of an exciting year for DigitalBridge, which announced a £3m funding round with Maven Capital Partners. The business has also been selected by internationally-renowned industry experts in AI and scaleups for Tech Nation’s Applied AI programme.
Steve Furber is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Computer Society, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and is currently Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Manchester.
His main research interests include neural networks, and he was a principal designer of the BBC Microcomputer (1982) and the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor. The ARM processor core is now used in thousands of different products, from mobile phones and tablets to digital televisions and video games.
Vikas Shah is one of the UK’s highest profile entrepreneurs and philanthropists, and was awarded an MBE for Services to Business and the Economy in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List.
Vikas Shah
He is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan (The Lisbon MBA), Honorary Professor of Business at The Alliance Business School, University of Manchester, an Honorary Industry Fellow at the University of Salford Business School and is currently chief executive of Swiscot Group, a diversified international trading business.
Steve said: “It’s brilliant to see a Mancunian business, so heavily focused on computer science, emerging onto the world stage and using cutting edge technology to solve a real-world commercial issue. I look forward to being part of its growth in the years to come.”
Vikas said: “We’ve seen DigitalBridge making waves over the last few months, from their recent capital raise announcement to being selected for Tech Nation’s Applied AI programme last month. I’m excited to support this capable business during their next stage of growth.”
Chief executive David Levine said: “With the appointment of Steve and Vikas we’re ensuring we have the best technical and commercial minds to create a sustainable business.
“It’s an incredibly exciting step on our journey to helping anyone design beautiful living spaces for themselves and their family, no matter how little design experience and skills they have.”
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School Letting Solutions (SLS) has appointed Jenny Shuttleworth as head of people as the business continues to grow its team and reach.
Manchester-based SLS works with schools, academies and colleges across the UK to maximise the use of their facilities to the local community during evenings, weekends and school holidays.
The business has also launched a booking system which allows community groups, sports teams and other hirers to book leisure facilities online.
Jenny has extensive experience in developing recruitment strategies for fast-growing businesses.
Her focus will be on hiring, developing and retaining a talented team and creating a great place to work across head office and roles across the UK.
Jenny has previously held roles at Virgin Active and Aldi, leading talent and people initiatives in a fast-paced and KPI-driven environment.
At SLS Jenny will lead the charge in developing a high-performance culture to deliver growth for the business and its people.
Jenny Shuttleworth
SLS co-founder Scott Warrington said: “We place great emphasis on the personalities, skills and drive of our team, so the appointment of Jenny as our head of people is fundamental to the future of the business.
“We have big ambitions to support more schools across the country and making the most of their facilities to open up new revenue streams and connect communities.
“To achieve this, we need the best people in all of the roles. Jenny brought the experience, enthusiasm and ideas we were looking for, making her the obvious choice for the role.”
Jenny added: “SLS is a business with a genuine focus on its people and culture. The company has effectively created a new sector within the leisure market by opening up school facilities while delivering essential funding back into schools.
“This trailblazing approach and the fact the business is making a real difference attracted me to the role. We’re also creating hundreds of new roles and I’m confident our ongoing commitment to building a high-performance culture will mean we offer world-class customer service to our schools and customers.”
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Placefirst, one of the UK’s leading build-to-rent developers, has appointed Paul Westhead as director of development.
In a new role for the company, Paul will play a key senior role in helping Placefirst achieve its planned target of 3,500 homes by 2023.
With more than 30 years’ experience in finance, regeneration and housing, Paul joins Manchester-based Placefirst from Trafford Housing Trust.
In his previous roles as head of new business and more recently head of land and partnerships, Paul helped establish Laurus Homes, a development subsidiary of Trafford Housing Trust, and helped set up the innovative joint-venture LLP with the L&Q Group.
As head of new business Paul led the team that has successfully sourced land for more than 2,000 mixed tenure homes and prepared those projects pre-construction for the LLP in the past three years and established other JV structures to help accelerate housing delivery.
Paul Westhead
Placefirst designs, builds and manages a growing portfolio of award-winning rental communities that have successfully regenerated inner urban areas through innovative remodelling of Victorian terraced housing.
As the company targets 3,500 homes by 2023, it is diversifying its offer through a range of new-build developments including family housing and multi-generational town centre schemes across the North of England, the Midlands and Scotland.
ESO Real Estate, a majority shareholder in the company, has provided a capital commitment in excess of £55m, and has been integral in supporting Placefirst to build its organisational infrastructure, including the development of Placefirst Construction, the principal contractor for all the company’s developments.
Paul will lead the development strategy of Placefirst to realise the business objectives and growth targets of 3,500 homes by 2023.
He said: “Having enjoyed seven great years at Trafford Housing Trust, and achieved significant growth and diversity, I believed it was the right time to seek a new challenge.
“The opportunity to join the Placefirst team, to build on the tremendous success they have achieved through their award-winning placemaking and community-led developments, was one I could not turn down and I look forward to helping the organisation scale up to meet the housing need of our communities.”
David Christie, chairman of Placefirst, added: “We are delighted that someone of Paul’s calibre, with proven experience of large-scale housing delivery, has joined the Placefirst team.
“Paul will play an important role in the next phase of growth towards becoming a national leader in UK build-to-rent housing. There is a genuine need for developers to work with local authorities in the UK to address the acute shortage of housing for families, and Paul has demonstrated considerable success in building strategic relationships.”
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Henry Boot Developments (HBD) has boosted its Manchester team, welcoming Kieran Grealis as senior project manager.
Kieran joins from KSN Project Management (Dublin), prior to which he held roles with Sainsbury’s and Applegreen.
Kieran Grealis
He will play a key role in the delivery of HBD projects across the North West, from industrial schemes in Lancashire and Liverpool, including Beacon 62, Huyton, and East, Preston, through to high-profile schemes in Manchester city centre such as Equitable, Island Site and Deansgate Station.
Kieran said: “HBD has an excellent reputation in the industry – along with an enviable portfolio – and it’s great to be joining at such an exciting time for the business.”
Adam Brady, director and head of HBD’s Manchester office, said: “Kieran brings a huge amount of experience and will be a real asset to our in-house project management team as we continue to expand our development pipeline. Having managed projects across asset classes his skill set is a good fit for HBD and our diverse portfolio.”
Part of the Henry Boot Group of Companies, HBD is one of the UK’s most active property developers, with offices in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield and Glasgow.
