People on the Move: Quilter Cheviot; Infinity; DWF; Slater Heelis; Redrow
Quilter Cheviot has announced the appointment of a new head of office in Manchester, as it renews its growth strategy in the region.
The investment management firm recently recruited Simon Funge, former managing director of the regional advice firm, Worldwide Financial Planning.
Simon will take over from David Rothburn who has successfully led Quilter Cheviot’s Manchester team for 17 years.
David will remain with the business and concentrate full-time on his client base, many of whom have been with Quilter Cheviot since David joined the business as a founding member of the office in 1993.
Quilter Cheviot’s chief executive, Andrew McGlone, said: “Our Manchester office has experienced great success since its opening, with our local client base growing significantly over the last 27 years.
“The financial adviser community in the North West has been integral to this success and, as we look to build further upon on our presence in the region, Simon’s experience means that he is ideally placed to strengthen our relationships within this community.”
He added: “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank David for leading and growing the team in recent years and for his ongoing commitment to Quilter Cheviot. I’m delighted that he will remain with the business and continue to look after his clients.”
Simon will lead the well-established team of six investment managers who work closely with an extensive network of financial adviser firms in the city and across the region.
He said: “It is an honour to be asked to lead Quilter Cheviot’s Manchester office through this next phase of growth. I am delighted to be back in the North West where, for 25 years, I worked amongst the region’s business community. I very much look forward to building upon the firm’s robust relationships in the adviser space, in an area I know well.”
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Investment group Infinity has strengthened its senior team with the appointment of a new director.
Elizabeth Dumbill has joined Salford Quays-based Infinity as an investment director.
She will be working on Infinity’s fund management and regulatory hosting activities as well as helping to develop new services.
Cambridge University graduate Elizabeth has moved from wealth management firm Artorius, where she worked for five years after joining from Deloitte.
During nine years at Deloitte, Elizabeth qualified as a chartered accountant and rose to become a senior manager in the financial services audit group.
From there she joined Manchester-based boutique Artorius as group financial controller, and then moved to the client-facing side of the business.
As an associate client partner, she advised on clients’ investment and wealth planning needs as well as providing family office services to ultra-high net worth individuals.
Elizabeth Dumbill
Elizabeth holds a Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment level six certificate in private client investment advice and management, which she passed with distinction.
She said: “I’m thrilled to join Infinity and look forward to combining my accountancy and wealth management experience to help further enhance the group’s offering to clients.”
Elizabeth is the third senior appointment at Infinity in the past two years, following the arrival of Anna Kerrane from law firm Shoosmiths as an investment director and Paul Wogan as business development director.
Infinity is led by partners Daniel Finestein, Sarah Butler and Phil Vickers. It provides fund management, regulatory hosting and corporate advisory services across the UK and internationally.
The group specialises in the formation, management and operation of investment funds throughout their lifecycle through to exit.
Sarah said: “I am delighted that Elizabeth decided to join us – she is a fantastic addition to our team.
“She brings an array of skills which are a great fit for Infinity as we expand our range of services to clients and continue to invest in our operations, despite the wider economic picture.
“The number of new business inquiries we are receiving is increasing as people have time to contemplate what their future should look like following this period of uncertainty.”
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Stephen Pritchett, a barrister and an Accredited Commercial Mediator, has joined DWF Advocacy from 23 Essex Street Chambers.
He was called to the Bar in 1989 having completed pupillage in traditional chancery chambers in both Lincoln’s Inn and Liverpool and has maintained his practise in the North West region ever since.
Stephen has appeared in courts and tribunals across the country and at all levels up to and including the Court of Appeal in general chancery and property-related disputes, both contentious and non-contentious. He prides himself on providing practical and pragmatic advice based in comprehensive legal analysis and commercial considerations.
At DWF, Stephen will head up the advocacy business with a team comprising of circa 20 individuals based across a number of offices across the UK, including Birmingham, Manchester, London and Leeds. His key focus will be to manage and develop the team to better meet client expectations, grow profitable revenue for the business and further develop the technical capabilities of the unit.
Jason Ford
Stephen said: “After almost 30 years to the day at the independent Bar, I am delighted to be joining DWF to head up the advocacy business. The team is full of talented individuals who have a great reputation in the market. I’m keen to get started and help them develop and take the business to the next phase. This is a new challenge and one which I relish.”
Jason Ford, CEO of DWF’s connected services, said: “Stephen has been recruited to really drive the next phase of the growth of our advocacy practice. His wealth of experience and personal drive matches our growth ambitions.
“DWF has a very large and varied litigation practice and I am really pleased to have found someone of his calibre to continue to build our advocacy connected service in order to support the litigation practice. I look forward to welcoming Stephen to the business on 2nd November.”
DWF Advocacy is a streamlined advocacy service, operating as an alternative to the external Bar and traditional chambers. Operating similar to an in-house set of chambers, DWF’s barristers and advocates offer specialist advocacy, drafting and advisory services across a variety of specialisms such as commercial, fraud, occupational health & disease, catastrophic injury, professional indemnity, employment, costs and inquests.
One of Stephen’s first strategic changes will be to develop an extended team structure for the various disciplines. As part of that initiative Emma Walker, based in London, will spearhead the development of the commercial team. Stephen will head the real property team from Manchester.
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Full-service law firm, Slater Heelis, which has offices in Cheshire and Manchester, has continued the expansion of its property litigation team with the appointment of a new associate solicitor.
Karen Taylor joins the firm with a wealth of experience assisting clients with a wide range of commercial and residential property-related disputes and advisory work, including all areas of property management, development disputes, landlord and tenant and asset management issues.
A member of the Property Litigation Association and the Association of Women Solicitors, Karen has previously held positions at specialist property solicitors Land Law, former Top 50 firm Halliwells, and corporate firm Cobbetts and is highly thought of within the industry.
Karen’s appointment follows significantly increased demand as the property litigation team’s reputation spreads beyond Manchester and the North West, both nationally and internationally, with clients now based across the UK, the Middle East and the East Asia.
Karen said: “I was very impressed by the property litigation team’s reputation, level of work and, importantly, the quality of the work that they do.
Karen Taylor
“Although fairly new, the team has already grown significantly and is extremely busy, so it’s a really exciting time to be joining the firm. I’m looking forward to playing a key role in servicing existing clients and expanding the team further.”
Daniel Stern, partner and head of property litigation at Slater Heelis, said: “The quality of Karen’s training and her employment background made her the obvious choice for this role.
“We have really big ambitions for the team going forward, so we are very selective when bringing new team members on board.
“Karen’s experience will make her an invaluable asset for the team as we continue growing our client-base by attracting work away from the bigger, more impersonal and less cost effective local and national firms.”
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Three sales staff continue to climb the career ladder at Redrow after a series of internal promotions.
Amanda Hollins, Katherine Whalley and Greg Campbell will all be key players in helping ensure the sales team continues to deliver company targets and that every Redrow customer experiences first class customer service.
Amanda Hollins
Amanda Hollins, 26, from Nantwich, has risen up the ranks to area sales manager after starting at Redrow five years ago on its graduate training scheme following university. Amanda studied Geography at Loughborough University.
She said: “I started as a rotational graduate where I worked across various disciplines at Redrow over two years, including spending six months in the sales department in my second year. After my graduate scheme ended, I went on to be a project coordinator dealing with all aspects of affordable housing provided within the section 106 agreements attached to North West planning permissions. Then, having decided my future lay in sales, I secured a position as a trainee area sales manager before my latest promotion.”
Amanda says she welcomes the extra responsibility that comes with her new role and is enjoying working closely with the site-based sales teams at the two developments under her lead in Cheshire, Woodford Garden Village and Cranberry Gardens in Congleton.
Redrow’s North West sales consultant of the year, Katherine Whalley, from Little Sutton, has been promoted to senior sales consultant. Katherine, 28, joined Redrow five years ago and has worked at the housebuilder’s flagship Woodford Garden Village, in Woodford, Cheshire, since January 2017.
Katherine Whalley
She said: “Being at Woodford Garden Village has been extremely rewarding. It’s such a diverse development, providing not just homes but a whole community, too. My previous role as a sales consultant was very much focused on providing the best experience to our customers and hitting targets. In my new role I’m still doing all that, plus providing support to the area sales manager and motivating other members of the site-based sales team to work to the best of their ability.”
Greg Campbell, 25, from Chester, has secured a permanent role as a senior sales consultant at the Daresbury-based division after completing a two-year graduate scheme with the housebuilder.
Greg started on the rotational training scheme after graduating from Loughborough University with a degree in Sports Science and Business Studies and has spent time in all departments including land purchasing, technical design and engineering, construction, commercial and sales.
He said: “I realised after working across all the departments that sales was the one for me, mainly because of how fast-paced and rewarding I found my time there. I have ambitions to be a sales director in the future.
Greg Campbell
“I have been really fortunate to work alongside the directors and the sales co-ordinators in the office at Daresbury and this has given me insight into a lot more elements behind the scenes.
“In the new my role some of my time will be spent on site at all our developments in Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester and North East Wales, where I will conduct sales centre inspections to make sure that we are fully compliant with group standards such as COVID safety measures.”
Head of sales at Redrow NW, Anna Evans-Kerr, said: “Each of these internal promotions cements our approach to advocating ‘home-grown’ talent and investing in the people we employ through training and personal development.
“It also shows that our graduate training scheme is a real stepping stone to a successful career, with both Amanda and Greg completing the programme. I’m looking forward to seeing these three continue to grow in their new roles.”
