People on the Move: Deloitte Real Estate; Kuits; CloudM; St Modwen; DWF; Maven Capital Partners

Deloitte Real Estate has significantly grown its North West offering with the promotion of a new assistant director and the addition of five new graduates to its planning and development, and VAPA (Valuation, Assurance and Professional Advisory) teams at the firm’s Manchester office.

The new intake of graduates are set to support the firm’s ongoing work for clients across the region.

Joining the planning and development team are Joe McElhone (Newcastle University), Jemma Brabrook (Oxford Brookes University), Eithne Fitzpatrick (University of Manchester) and Nuala Ginty (University of Manchester), while Cameron Cooper (Loughborough University) joins the VAPA team.

Deloitte has also announced the promotion of Josaphine Ford to assistant director.

First joining the valuation assurance and professional advisory team in February 2017, Jo recently spent six months working in Deloitte’s Amsterdam office, strengthening links between its UK and Dutch real estate teams.

Since returning she has advised on a number of complex real estate audits of European assets and provided valuation due diligence for real estate-related transactions in the UK and across Europe.

Simon Bedford, partner and head of real estate in the North of England at Deloitte Real Estate, said: “Jo has been a fantastic addition to the VAPA team since she joined the team in 2017.

“In addition to working with our colleagues in Amsterdam, Jo has delivered on key projects across the both the UK and globally, which reflects the increasingly international nature of the work that the VAPA undertakes.

“It is with great pleasure that we also welcome this new intake of graduates to the team. We are constantly on the look-out for the brightest talent from across the country and we have very high hopes for this next generation who will play a key part in shaping our cityscapes in the years to come.”

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Manchester law firm Kuits has strengthened its private client offering with the hire of senior lawyer Colin Davies into its family team.

Experienced in dealing with all aspects of relationship breakdown for married and unmarried couples, Davies brings with him more than 25 years’ experience in family law, joining Kuits from Linder Myers where he was head of family.

Colin also has significant expertise in pre- and post-nuptial agreements and has acted in numerous high-value cases, often with international elements.

Additionally, he is a member and former national secretary of Resolution, an organisation of family lawyers committed to non-confrontational divorce, separation and other family problems.

Colin Davies

Kuits’ family team is further bolstered with associate Madelaine Hailey qualifying as a Resolution Accredited specialist following a rigorous study and examination process, recognising her expertise in the field of family law and her thorough understanding of substantive law.

Colin Davies said: “Joining the team at Kuits and helping to further boost the service offerings of the private client team has been wonderful. The firm has such strong values and a true family culture, which I have found particularly welcoming.”

Steve Eccleston, managing partner at Kuits, said: “Our aim is to attract the best talent in the sector and the appointment of Colin into our award-winning private client team reinforces our standards of providing an excellent advisory service, adding over two decades of experience, knowledge and expertise.”

The Kuits private client team, which provides a holistic service for individuals spanning tax planning, probate, family matters and residential conveyancing, is top-ranked in the Chambers and Partners High Net Worth Guide for Manchester.

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Manchester-based cloud software specialist CloudM has promoted Gary Bennion to chief product officer as part of its ambitions to grow turnover to £15m in the next three years.

CloudM is the cloud migration and management arm of Cloud Technology Solutions (CTS). It is responsible for developing a proprietary suite of software products including cloud migration and management tools – CloudMigrator and CloudManager.

The newly-created chief product officer role is the first on CTS’s board with an exclusive focus on CloudM’s expansion.

Gary joined CTS in April 2017 as product director and has been responsible for the strategic direction and delivery of products across the business.

Gary Bennion

His promotion is part of ambitions to more than double CloudM’s turnover in each of the next three years and follows the launch of its CloudManager product on Microsoft’s cloud platform earlier this year, to complement its established Google based product.

Gary said: “We are aiming to grow our CloudM arm into a £15m turnover business in the next three years and we’ve made great progress against this ambition so far in 2019.

“CloudM’s proposition is all about making it easier for clients to transition to the cloud and, beyond this, helping them ensure they reap its benefits.

“This means offering a compelling cloud migration product and, crucially, providing clients with ongoing support for their data management requirements once they’ve made the switch to the cloud.”

James Doggart, CTS chief executive, said: “Gary’s appointment comes at a time when we see huge potential for CloudM to expand its market share even further. CloudM has already helped more than ten million users in 83 different countries migrate to the cloud and having a board member dedicated to this is a natural progression of this success.”

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Property group St Modwen has appointed a new asset manager to its dedicated industrial and logistics business to oversee its portfolio in the North of England.

Sarah Williams, a chartered surveyor with more than 13 years’ experience in asset and property management, joins St Modwen Industrial & Logistics from Aston Property Ventures.

Sarah has previously managed a number of national portfolios throughout her career, with her work in the North West including major refurbishment and asset management projects at Liverpool Innovation Park and Liverpool’s Exchange Station. She will be based in St Modwen’s Warrington office.

In her new role Sarah will work across St Modwen’s industrial and logistics portfolio in the North, attracting and retaining occupiers at the developer’s successful schemes including Chamberhall Business Park (Bury), Moorgate Point (Knowsley), Southern Gateway (Speke), St Modwen Park Doncaster, St Modwen Park Lincoln, Stonebridge Business Park (Liverpool) and Warth Industrial Park (Bury).

Sarah Williams

The new appointment signifies St Modwen’s continued commitment to providing high-quality commercial space for current and prospective occupiers and comes just months after announcing the formation of St Modwen Industrial & Logistics – a business unit dedicated to the growing sector.

Jonathan Green, asset management director – Industrial & Logistics, said: “Sarah will play an invaluable role in helping to raise the profile of our strategically-located sites in the North.

“We’ve worked hard to deliver a quality commercial offer and her extensive experience will help us to deepen existing occupier relationships, as well as attracting new businesses to our industrial and logistics schemes.”

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DWF, the global legal business, has launched DWF regulatory consulting, a connected services business, with the appointment of Andrew Jacobs as partner and head of DWF regulatory consulting and Darren Fisher as lead director.

With more than 19 years’ experience and in-depth knowledge of the UK and European regulatory market, Andrew joins DWF from being a partner at BDO and formerly Moore Stephens, where he built the regulatory advice function.

Andrew Jacobs

Andrew has acted as an FCA Skilled Person in a number of areas and specialises in providing cross-sector regulatory advice, financial crime expertise, regulatory projects, applications, and retained compliance support.

Darren joins the business from Grant Thornton and has more than 26 years’ regulatory experience across retail banking, insurance and consumer lending, having also developed the regulatory consulting business at Huntswood.

The newly-formed connected services offering, DWF regulatory consulting, has been set up to help businesses to be resilient and prosper in an increasingly challenging and evolving regulatory climate.

The team, led by Andrew, will provide regulatory advice to help clients meet their regulatory and compliance needs. As a part of the regulatory offering, the team will provide a full range of regulatory services across a number of sub-sectors from complex projects and regulatory change management to ad-hoc support and ongoing services.

Darren Fisher

The purpose of the service is to help firms and individuals navigate both domestic and international regulatory frameworks. DWF regulatory lawyers Robbie Constance and Richard Burger, who have already developed a strong regulatory legal practise since joining DWF last year, will provide legal expertise.

Andrew Jacobs said: “Alongside our legal colleagues, Darren and I are delighted to be launching an integrated and global advisory offering, through which we can provide even greater expertise to help clients with their volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous regulatory and business issues. This will be done through DWF’s global office network and using our unique platform of connected services.”

Jason Ford, partner and head of connected services, added: “Both Andrew and Darren have deep experience of helping clients to meet regulatory requirements and build stronger businesses as a result of regulatory change, while differentiating themselves through customer-centric cultures.

“Our connected services division contains a range of businesses that work alongside our legal teams and clients to support and deliver products and services. The addition of regulatory consulting not only complements what we have to offer, but also bolsters the services we can provide to help clients manage risk, reputational matters, cost and resources.”

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Maven Capital Partners, one of the UK’s leading SME finance providers, has strengthened its team with the appointment of James Rosthorn and Dean Cox as investment managers to increase the level of support to local companies across all stages of the investment process as well as for ongoing business support.

Chartered accountant James Rosthorn joins Maven based in the Manchester and Lancashire offices and will be responsible for new investments across the North of England. Prior to joining Maven James was a corporate finance advisor at top 10 accounting firm, Mazars, where he advised owner-managed businesses on sales, acquisitions, fundraising and MBOs.

Qualified solicitor and corporate finance masters, Dean Cox, is Maven’s second appointment to the investment team this year, bringing a range of private equity, M&A and legal expertise advising management teams, institutional investors and large corporates.

Prior to joining Maven, Dean spent three years working with the senior management team at Radius Payment Solutions and previously worked in the corporate finance team at Addleshaw Goddard.

Standing: Ryan Bevington, left, and Dave Furlong. Seated: James Rosthorn, left, and Dean Cox

Appointed by the British Business Bank in February 2017, Maven manages £57.5m-worth of equity finance for the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF) a £400m fund for SMEs in the North of England.

Working with the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Combined Authorities in the North West, Maven has invested more than £25m into 42 companies since the fund launched.

Ryan Bevington, investment director at Maven, said: “We are delighted to welcome James and Dean to the growing team which will strengthen Maven’s presence and will help us continue to identify high-growth, innovative businesses as potential investments.

“Our local investment team works closely with the businesses we support to provide flexible funding to suit a wide range of scenarios.

“Achieving the £25m milestone earlier this year demonstrates the need for this type of equity finance, and we look forward to working with more innovative, fast growing small businesses to help them achieve their growth plans.”

Grant Peggie, director at British Business Bank, said: “The team at Maven has made impressive progress since the launch of NPIF. We are pleased to see a broad range of investee businesses, which are undoubtedly having a positive impact on the Northern economy.

“The deals completed to date demonstrate a significant demand for equity finance in the North, and NPIF remains committed to bridging the funding gap between the North and the South of England in order to boost economic prosperity in the region.”

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.