People on the Move: O’Donnell Solicitors; Adkirk Law; PM+M; Borough Care; TeleData
Saddleworth-based O’Donnell Solicitors has started the New Year on the front foot with the addition of a new director to its ranks.
Gianna Lisiecki-Cunane, formerly a partner at JMW, joins alongside existing director and head of family law, Anthony Jones.
Having experienced a surge in demand for family law services over the past 12 months, Gianna’s appointment is a key strategic move for the award-winning law firm.
The announcement comes on the back of another year of growth for the firm, which has two locations in Saddleworth, East Manchester.
November also saw the firm expand its footprint at its offices in Grasscroft, taking an additional 2,000 sq ft to house its residential and new-build conveyancing team.
Gianna, who lives in Saddleworth, is highly-regarded in the field of family law and has more than 11 years of experience in all family-related issues, including divorce, ancillary relief, cohabitation and complex children disputes, including abduction.
Gianna’ s role will involve developing the firm’s client base in the local area and beyond, alongside working closely with the firm’s directors to continue the strategic growth of the firm as a whole.
Director Anthony Jones said: “Gianna’s appointment pays tribute to the success and expansion of the firm’s offering of family and children law advice.
“To attract a senior lawyer of Gianna’s calibre is a credit to the overall performance and development and attraction of the firm, its growth and recognition as a North West contender. I am delighted to announce Gianna’s appointment as a director alongside myself in the firm’s family team.”
O’Donnell also appointed Giselle Williams in December as head of dispute resolution.
With more than 25 years’ experience as a commercial litigation solicitor, Giselle’s senior appointment is further testament to the demand for the firm’s ‘straight-talking’ approach to legal advice.
Setting up as a two-solicitor firm with one member of support staff in January 2016, founding directors James O’ Donnell and Rebecca O’Donnell have overseen the practice’s sustained growth, now boasting five directors and 18 support staff.
Alongside the firm’s other directors, Anthony Jones, Claire Egerton and now Gianna Lisiecki-Cunane, the firm offers a comprehensive range of legal services for private clients and businesses.
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Specialist North West law firm Adkirk Law has strengthened its practice with the recruitment of two experienced members of staff.
Kieran Egan and Anna Sparrow have joined the Preston-based firm, which specialises in conveyancing, fraud and regulatory law.
Kieran Egan
Anna joins the firm with 13 years of experience as a conveyancing solicitor at Stephensons Solicitors and Slater and Gordon. She will focus on freehold, leasehold and new-build purchases, in addition to remortgages and transfers of equity.
Kieran Egan also joins from Slater and Gordon, as practice manager. Kieran has more than 15 years’ experience in managing business operations, including seven years within the legal industry, mainly in residential conveyancing.
Anna Sparrow
He will focus on developing client experience and driving business development as the firm continues to grow.
Linda Kirk, director of conveyancing, said: “Kieran and Anna both have a wealth of experience in managing complex legal situations while providing a personal and caring service to all our clients. Our success is built on offering no-nonsense advice and a quality service, which both Kieran and Anna will help us to deliver.”
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PM+M – the chartered accountancy, business advisory and wealth management firm – has strengthened its corporate finance team with appointment of Peter Kelly as a director.
Peter is an experienced corporate financier with more than 20 years of deal-making and industry experience behind him.
He started his finance career at Grant Thornton where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. Peter joins PM+M from Benchmark International, where he was a director in the transactions team. He has also worked at Recycling Lives and at Yorkshire Bank where he was part of the commercial banking team.
His new role will see him working alongside corporate finance partner Jim Akrill, primarily advising owner-managed companies on transactional and strategic matters, including debt and private equity fund raising, mergers, acquisitions, disposals and due diligence.
From left: Jim Akrill, Peter Kelly, Jane Parry
He will also be advising management teams on MBO’s and MBI’s and will work closely with family businesses to resolve succession issues.
Jane Parry, PM+M’s managing partner, said: “Peter is a commercially-minded finance professional and we are delighted that he is now part of our team.
“He brings with him a wealth of experience from acquisitions and disposals, to raising finance and working in industry, so his insight and varied experience will be of real value, both to the business and to our clients
“He is joining our corporate finance team at an exciting time, with transactions totalling over £100m in the last 12 months, I look forward to seeing the team continue to flourish.”
Peter said: “PM+M is a fantastic firm with real pedigree so I am excited about my new role.
“My focus will now be on growing our reach and presence across the North West and beyond by building on the credibility and first class reputation the firm is so well known for.”
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Borough Care has promoted Nerys Carpenter to the position of area manager.
Nerys was previously home manager of Borough Care’s Shepley House in Hazel Grove.
Borough Care is the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport and has 11 homes across the borough.
As an area manager, Nerys will support Borough Care’s home managers in providing the best possible care and making sure services continually improve.
Ensuring the teams at Borough Care’s homes provide a safe, harmonious environment for residents, and support their physical and emotional wellbeing will be a critical part of the job.
Nerys Carpenter
Nerys said: “I’m looking forward to taking on a new challenge and working with the great teams Borough Care has at its homes. Having been a home manager for four-and-a-half years, I can bring first-hand, practical experience to my new role, ensuring we all work together to provide exceptional care for our residents.”
Nerys has spent her whole career in care at Borough Care, having worked there for more than 20 years. She has worked her way up, starting as a care assistant and progressing through the ranks to care supervisor and deputy manager.
Nerys has worked at five of Borough Care’s homes, including Marbury House, which is a specialised active recovery residential care home.
Dr Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, said: “At Borough Care, we love to promote home-grown talent wherever possible and we’re very proud of what Nerys has achieved. She brings a wealth of practical experience to her new role, along with an enthusiastic nature.
“Her colleagues already hold her in high esteem so I know she will successfully assist our home managers and their teams.”
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Manchester cloud hosting and data centre operator, TeleData, has started 2020 with promotions for two key members of staff.
Dean McGarry has been promoted from hosted infrastructure manager to head of technology, and Dan Smith has been promoted from support manager to head of service delivery.
Both joined the business as employees of 1st Easy, which TeleData acquired in 2016.
Dean began his post-university work life with 1st Easy as a technical support engineer in 2012. Since the TeleData acquisition, his role has grown naturally from supporting customers in a crucial, largely helpdesk role, to making a real business difference in the way the company utilises technology to become more efficient and effective on a day-to-day basis, including the recent development of Teledata’s CloudActiv platform.
Dean McGarry, left, and Dan Smith
Dan joined 1st Easy as systems administrator and was promoted to support manager in 2015.
In his three years with TeleData he has managed, grown and mentored the support team, while taking on the responsibility of ensuring other key processes and client services are streamlined and customer focused.
TeleData commercial director, Matt Edgely, said: “TeleData acquired 1st Easy as much for the quality of their staff as anything else, and Dan and Dean are both glowing examples of how right we were to do this.
“Dan and Dean are both key to TeleData’s success, and we’re delighted to announce their promotions and wish them the best of luck in their new roles.”
Based in Wythenshawe, TeleData provides colocation, cloud hosting, workplace recovery and data centre services to businesses across the UK.
The firm has recently invested a six figure sum into its CloudActiv platform, which provides customers with truly resilient cloud hosting and effective disaster recovery of business-critical data and applications.
