People: SoMo; Pill Connect; MLP Law; Far East Consortium; BDO
SoMo, the Manchester-based specialist lender, has appointed Jamie Jolly as managing director to drive forward the businesses evolution following its recent rebrand from The BridgeCrowd.
Jolly, who has more than 20 years’ experience in the lending sector, has joined from Revverbank, where he was head of real estate. He was previously head of the commercial specialist team at Together and had been with the business for nearly 15 years.
Having worked across many different areas of the lending sector, from sales and underwriting to working with developers, broker partners, solicitors and valuers, Jamie brings with him extensive experience and understanding of the industry.
The appointment comes as SoMo looks to build on eight years of successful growth for the company. It has recently announced a significant funding line that will complement its crowd funding offering, allowing the company to expand and continue its sustainable growth trajectory.
As managing director Jamie will build on the company’s recent achievement of lending £132m, using his in-depth knowledge and understanding of the market to support brokers and borrowers to navigate the dynamic business environment and unlock opportunities for growth.
Louis Alexander, SoMo chief executive, said: “Jamie’s experience will be invaluable as we look to grow in 2021. His focus on the personal touch aligns with my vision for SoMo, and alongside his breadth of knowledge of the sector makes him a great fit to not only support the businesses evolution, but our customers through the important year ahead.
“We pride ourselves on being a safe, sensible and secure lender and I know that with Jamie leading the team we will continue to lend this way.”
Jamie said: “SoMo already has a fabulous team with over 150 years of combined experience in specialist lending and has achieved £132m in loans in just eight years. It was this bold ambition, combined with a culture and mindset of truly understanding clients, that attracted me to the role. With market leading products and the use of innovative technology that is ahead of the curve, SoMo brings something to the industry that’s been missing.”
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Chris Hall has been elected chairman of Manchester medtech company Pill Connect, which describes itself as a world leader in medicine adherence monitoring and data capture on patient compliance.
This follows the recent successful funding raise involving the investment serial entrepreneur Jonathan Milner, Catapult Ventures and Shallcross Partners.
Chris has extensive commercial and operational management experience in the global pharmaceutical devices and drug delivery systems market place. He is currently non-executive chairman of Nanopharm and a non-executive director of Silicon Valley-based Kali Care. Chris has held senior management positions at a number of healthcare companies including Aptar and Bespak Respiratory.
Chris Hall
Pill Connect chief executive, James Burnstone, said: “We are delighted that Chris has agreed to become chairman of our company. His knowledge of the medtech world and medication adherence marketplace will enable us to move forward with our proven technology into the commercial phase of development.”
Pill Connect has developed a smart pill dispensing solution which will allow both trial investigators and doctors to effectively monitor medication adherence in real time, either in clinical trials or in the community.
It is in discussions with several top tier pharmas, CROs, and CMOs, all of whom are keen to find effective ways to monitor and improve patient adherence through the accurate collection of patient behaviour data. According to figures from the OECD, poor medication adherence contributes to nearly 200,000 premature deaths in Europe every year.
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Corporate, commercial and private law firm, MLP Law, has appointed two new senior lawyers.
The boutique law firm has appointed John Lomax as commercial property partner and Mark Turner as legal director in the commercial litigation and dispute resolution team.
John Lomax
The new additions bolster MLP’s full service capability and expand its areas of specialism into private client work, complementing its already strong corporate and commercial B2B offering.
John Lomax has more than 30 years’ experience in commercial property law, and specialises in a variety of commercial property and land matters, including acting on commercial sales and purchases, landlord and tenant matters, all aspects of commercial leases, acquisitions and disposals for landlord and tenants, extensions, surrenders of leases, reversionary leases, and overriding leases.
Mark Turner has 25 years’ experience specialising in litigation and disputes after training in the Birmingham office of international firm, DLA Piper. He has been based in the North West since 2004 and practised at commercial firms in Manchester, Cheshire and Staffordshire. His role will involve advising and assisting clients in a variety of disputes ranging from debt collection claims to complex high value construction and probate claims.
MLP Law owner and director, Stephen Attree, said: “We’re pleased to be in a position to add to our senior team as we enter the new year, with two new hires that will add almost 60 years’ worth of legal expertise to the team. This will enable us to provide our clients with even more value and access to senior legal support.
“John is a fantastic lawyer with a real variety of experience which will be invaluable to the team, including finance work for borrowers and lenders in retail and care industries. Mark is an extremely experienced and talented solicitor and taking him on as a legal director will make an excellent addition to our expanding commercial litigation and dispute resolution team, boosting our full service capability, and growing our areas of specialism into private client work, as well as our existing corporate and commercial B2B offering.”
Mark Turner
Mark Turner said: “MLP already offers high quality practical and commercial advice to its clients and I am excited to be joining the firm as it continues to grow the commercial litigation offering. As part of my role within the practice, I hope to continue to establish MLP as a leading dispute resolution advisor in the area.”
John Lomax said: “It’s an exciting time to be starting in this role, as the commercial property market experiences a big change. The pandemic provides an opportunity for many to diversify and pivot their property portfolio. While many businesses question their high street and commercial office footprint, a significant number are growing their logistics channels requiring large properties and spaces out of town to support the move to online.”
MLP’s Altrincham base is supported by further offices in Liverpool, Lymm and Media City. It is a full-service firm that provides a range of legal services to commercial and private clients in the North West.
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Developer Far East Consortium (FEC) has appointed three key team members as it expands its offering at MeadowSide and New Cross Central in Manchester, and embarks on the delivery of the first phase of the Manchester Northern Gateway initiative.
Stephen Clayton
Stephen Clayton takes up the newly-created position of sales manager. Having spent eight years at Thornley Groves Estate Agency, initially starting in property management and progressing to manage the sales and new homes department across two city centre offices, he brings a wealth of experience to the developer.
His experience includes securing listings and handling sales from £100,000 to £2.5m in central Manchester, providing a solid base for his new role initially focusing on the £150m MeadowSide development and £25m New Cross Central residential schemes in Manchester before the commencement of the wider Northern Gateway.
Adam Barbour
Adam Barbour is the newly-appointed completions coordinator. He joins from New Homes Solutions where he held the role of residential sales progressor, dealing with housebuilders who sold properties through part exchange and assisted move schemes. He previously held a similar role at Moving Made Easy and has worked at Countrywide and O’Neill Patient Solicitors, gaining a wide range of conveyancing knowledge throughout his career. At FEC, Adam will be responsible for running operations around the completion of homes at MeadowSide and New Cross Central.
Timea Nacsa
Timea Nacsa has been appointed as assistant development manager and joins from Vita Group where she was a senior planning associate, managing the planning process for two Manchester sites for the company’s new co-living brand, Union.
The chartered town planner has also held major roles on large scale planning consultancy projects in London and Australia. Timea’s role at FEC will focus on the delivery of the first phase of the Manchester Northern Gateway, which will involve developing proposals for more than 3,000 new homes.
FEC sales and marketing director, Andrew Bradley Nixon, said: “2021 is a milestone year for us as we welcome tenants to Mount Yard at MeadowSide and continue to secure sales at The Gate and The Stile at MeadowSide and New Cross Central.
“Our priority is to ensure a safe and smooth sales process for our new tenants moving in from Spring 2021, so we have hired a senior team who will use their experience and professionalism to ensure the communities we are building have a seamless purchase and moving in experience.”
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Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO has announced the promotion of 20 new partners across the firm, with Lucy Sauvage, Graham Ellis and Spencer Ashworth all named partner in the North West team. Sakib Isa was also promoted to director in the North West audit team.
Joining BDO 12 years ago, tax partner Lucy Sauvage has 15 years’ experience successfully advising a range of clients on tax risk issues – from high-net worth individuals to FTSE 100 businesses. Lucy is also a Tax Dispute Resolution license holder.
Graham Ellis has been made audit partner, having joined the firm in 2014. Graham has built a strong track record of working with public interest entities and businesses across a range of sectors with a particular focus on manufacturing. He has also been pivotal in building out BDO’s Liverpool presence which has expanded significantly in recent years.
Spencer Ashworth has been named technology risk assurance partner and his role spans the firm’s Northern audit practice as he supports other partners throughout the region on audit strategy. With nearly two decades of experience, Spencer is adept at identifying and delivering technological solutions for business-related challenges.
The promotions, delayed from June 2020 as a result of COVID-19, were effective from January 1, 2021.
Lucy Sauvage said: “BDO is a great place to work with a leadership team which is committed to creating a culture that allows people to develop and progress in their career and achieve their own ambitions. This supportive culture has continued – even strengthened – as we’ve all adapted to remote working. I look forward to championing this in my new role as partner.”
Spencer Ashworth said: “The past year has been a challenge for companies in the region and 2021 brings new obstacles on the horizon for those who have weathered the storm. We are well placed to support companies across a range of sectors and stages of their evolution as business leaders re-think the way they operate.”
Ed Dwan
Graham Ellis said: “As a firm, we’ve seen significant growth in the region in recent years, including investment and job creation in the Liverpool market and ongoing recruitment in our audit practice. The past 12 months have presented new challenges for the organisations we work with and our team is committed to helping our clients continue to succeed.”
Ed Dwan, partner and head of BDO in the North West, said: “2020 was a testing year for businesses and individuals alike. None of us could have predicted that we’d be working as a fully-remote workforce for almost 12 months as a result of the pandemic.
“As a firm we put a number of measures in place to help us better weather the storm, including a pause on promotions last year. Announcing these promotions now is an uplifting start to the year and very well deserved by Lucy, Graham, Spencer and Sakib. All four epitomise the qualities and talent that we strive for across our teams – I’d like to congratulate them and I look forward to seeing all four continue to succeed in their new roles.”
