People on the Move: Cushman & Wakefield; Mortgage Experience; Dow Schofield Watts; Roxtec UK; Fortuna Law
People on the Move: Cushman & Wakefield; Mortgage Experience; Dow Schofield Watts; Roxtec UK; Fortuna Law
Cushman & Wakefield has appointed Chad Davies to head its North West valuation & advisory team in Manchester.
Chad joins as a partner from Lambert Smith Hampton where he was a director in the Manchester valuation team.
He brings 15 years’ experience of the North West property market with a specialism in commercial property valuations for loan security, accounts and diminution in value/section 18 purposes.
This includes investment assets, owner-occupied units and development opportunities.
Chad will be responsible for leading the six-strong commercial valuation team in Manchester and will report to James Milner, partner, who heads Cushman & Wakefield’s Northern valuation & advisory team.
James Milner said: “Chad’s arrival at the firm is a bold statement of our intent to grow and expand our valuation & advisory offering in the North and we are delighted to welcome him aboard.
“Chad already enjoys an excellent reputation amongst a series of our key clients following his previous employment and from his many years in the industry to date.
“As a result, we considered him to be the perfect candidate to lead our growing Manchester team.”
Chad Davies added: “I’m delighted to be have been given the opportunity to lead the commercial valuation team in Manchester within such a well-regarded company.
“It is my ambition to grow the team and to raise our profile within the North West market whilst providing a high-level service to clients.”
In September Cushman & Wakefield was named No.1 in the World in Euromoney’s 2019 Real Estate Survey for its property valuation and research efforts for the second consecutive year.
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Andy Morrison, left, head of marketing, welcomes Simon Kirkpatrick
Mortgage Experience, based in Chorley, has recruited six new staff as part of a nationwide expansion.
The local mortgage brokers, set up just nine months ago, has bolstered their staff of 21 with the six new appointments, several of which will be running satellite offices in different regions.
Paul Evans and Simon Kirkpatrick join the firm as mortgage brokers to further expand the North West team.
In addition, the firm has made four appointments who will be expanding the nationwide reach, with Neil James and Russell Loughnane joining as representatives in the South of England, Ian Woolley in the Midlands, and Chris Warner in Essex.
Chief executive Shaun Evans said: “The firm has only been going nine months, but we’ve invested a lot of time prior to that developing the industry’s leading tech for dealing with mortgage processes.
“That technology, combined with the talented team we’ve head-hunted, has put us in a really strong position in the market, meaning we’ve seen rapid growth almost immediately since launching the business.
“We are now expanding on our success so far by really growing the team, both to service the North West market, where we are based, but also setting up satellite offices in other locations in the UK, to establish Mortgage Experience on a nationwide level.”
The firm was set up in February this year by three colleagues, Shaun Evans, Andrew Morrison and Alistair Jameson.
Since the company launched it has seen rapid sales growth and has gone from just two advisers in February to 27 now. The company predicts it will hit a turnover of £1.1m by the end of the first year.
The firm deals with all types of mortgages but is a particular specialist in finding mortgages for people who have been refused them from high street lenders, dealing with a lot of self-employed clients who often find it more difficult to get mortgages or good rates on mortgages.
Mortgage Experience has also been nominated for two industry awards, Best New Entrant (Broker) and Mortgage Introducer of the Year for the industry’s trade awards, the 2019 Mortgage Introducer Awards.
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James Curtis and Matt Jones
Independent advisory firm Dow Schofield Watts has expanded its North West dealmaking teams with two new appointments.
James Curtis, who is associate director in the corporate finance team, joins from MC Vanguard, where he also qualified as an accountant.
Having started his career in the technical arm of the British Army, James also worked as a management consultant advising corporates in the aviation and hospitality sectors, mainly in the Middle East.
At Dow Schofield Watts he will be advising firms on deals such as acquisitions and disposals, as well as debt and equity fundraising and exit strategies.
Matt Jones, who joins the transaction services team, arrives from Deloitte, where he spent four years working in assurance and advisory for a wide range of clients from multinationals to private UK-based companies.
In his new role he will provide financial due diligence for businesses, private equity firms and other funders.
Ed Brentnall, joint head of Dow Schofield Watts transaction services in the North West, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Matt to the team. He is another high-calibre individual who was attracted to our business model, and will support us in our commitment to growing our presence across the North.”
James Dow, founding partner of Dow Schofield Watts, added: “As these appointments show, we continue to recruit fresh talent and expand our teams in line with our growing reputation as a leading dealmaker, both in the North West and nationwide market.”
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Sam Roberts
Greater Manchester-based safety seal manufacturer Roxtec UK has appointed an infrastructure manager as it ramps up its work in the rail industry.
Sam Roberts joins Roxtec with a wealth of experience from the other side of the cabling sector, having previously worked as a signalling and maintenance engineer for Network Rail.
His appointment as market manager for rail infrastructure has come six months after Roxtec, which has its UK headquarters in Bury, reported it had doubled sales in the European rail sector and that UK sales grew substantially, too, going up by 120% following a series of high-profile project wins in the sector.
Roxtec’s cable, pipe and conduit seals are found widely in facilities and systems within electrification, signalling and communication in the rail and rolling stock markets, and are Network Rail and London Underground approved.
Sam said: “I’ve worked directly with cabling for about six years as a signalling and maintenance engineer and when I came across Roxtec I was really interested in the concept.
“I was attracted by the innovative sealing system, as well as the ambition of the business, which is around growth. Roxtec is the market leader already but wants to dominate the market so that they are the one name people think of.”
The business has secured orders for Crossrail, the Four Lines Modernisation (4LM) project, East Anglia, London Bridge, South Western Railway and High Speed 2 (HS2).
Growth is also being assisted by ongoing infrastructure projects, including the delivery of multi-cable transit systems for London Underground and heavy-duty cable seal solutions for HS2 tunnels.
The Crossrail contract is for the Elizabeth Line for London and the South East, which passes through 42km of tunnels and is currently one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects.
Sam’s role involves finding new business and then guiding a project through the design stage, right through purchase and installation.
He said: “It’s been an immense learning process but I’m really enjoying the freedom of the role and the chance to show how I can help grow the business.
“Rail is a main focus of growth in the UK for Roxtec and it’s a market that we’ve never really gone after proactively, so my rail background and knowledge should assist in increasing market share.
“I’ve been on the opposite side so I understand the customers’ requirements, which makes it easier for me to assess what they need. We have some huge contracts in the pipeline already and I want to build on this by working with existing and new customers.”
Projects have included providing Prague Metro with water-tight, gas-tight and fire-proof seals for tunnel sections after the flooding of 19 stations meant the need to rebuild and refurbish its metro station.
Roxtec also assisted with the upgrade of the rail network in Sydney, Australia, securing substations against multiple hazards of fire and water ingress, while ensuring cable retention.
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Andy Cole
Andy Cole, HMRC’s former director of specialist investigations who was awarded a CBE for his ground-breaking negotiations with the Principality of Liechtenstein, is the latest high-profile appointment at Liverpool business litigation boutique, Fortuna Law.
Andy joins as a consultant to support the firm in the preparation of high-value and complex tax-related civil claims.
He has more than 40 years’ experience at HMRC, latterly as director of specialist investigations, where he had overall responsibility for leading the response to HMRC’s largest and most complex fraud and avoidance risks through civil means.
He also led, on behalf of HMRC, the ground-breaking negotiations with the Principality of Liechtenstein and was awarded a CBE in 2011.
Managing partner Mark Goodwin said: “We are delighted to have Andy join our team to support our clients in complex tax-based claims.
“He has a unique skill-set and his extensive experience leading the elite specialist investigations team at HMRC is of huge value to our clients. This is particularly so in claims against HMRC arising from failed civil and criminal tax-based investigations and prosecutions.”
Andy Cole said: “Fortuna Law has a proven track record in complex, tax-related civil claims. I’m looking forward to working closely with Mark and the team to further develop this area of the business.”
Fortuna Law was founded by Mark Goodwin, formerly head of litigation and regulatory at DLA Piper’s office in Liverpool. The Fortuna Law team, which has a combined 80 years’ litigation experience at DLA Piper, includes Catherine Radcliffe (partner) and Hannah Catterall (legal director).
Fortuna Law has already secured instructions with a combined claim value in excess of £750m with clients including Zeus Capital, Ladbible and a number of high net worth individuals.
