People: ACCS; Charles Stanley; Pimento; Degree 53; Suresite Group; Praetura
Manchester-based not-for-profit Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) has appointed Mariam Ayeni as head of policy and regulation.
Joining from Facebook where she led the platform’s risk and quality assurance audits as part of its incident response team, Mariam has extensive experience supporting law enforcement agencies in responding to emergencies while safeguarding younger users from harmful content.
Prior to her time at Facebook, she held posts at PayPal, Bank of America and Houses of the Oireachtas, working across various compliance and policy enforcement roles.
She said: “As a mum myself, I’m passionate about safeguarding children from potentially dangerous goods and content. I’m extremely excited to join the team at ACCS and to bring all of my previous experience together to make a real impact.
“With the Age Appropriate Design Code’s transition period coming to an end in September, and a lot happening currently around the Online Safety Bill, it’s the perfect time to join and be a part of the crucial journey in protecting children from global harm.
“My primary focus is going to be in driving forward policy, performing rigorous testing to ensure measures that are in place are adequate and to advocate for positive change.”
ACCS tests that age-check systems work, ensuring that robust age-check procedures are followed by providers of age-restricted goods, content and services. In the coming months the business has plans to launch an Age Appropriate Design Code Certification Scheme to help tech companies comply with the code before the September deadline.
Tony Allen, founder and chief executive of ACCS, said: “Mariam brings with her a wealth of experience and has already become a great asset to the team, so we’re thrilled to have her on board.
“We have some very ambitious growth plans with a great deal of work around some extremely important safeguarding standards and legislation currently going through Parliament, which Mariam will be heavily supporting.”
Mariam added: “To be able to play a part in developing the policy, regulation and standards in protecting young people from potential harm is amazing. ACCS’s mission and vision are incredibly inspiring, and Tony has done a great job of building a team from a diverse mix of backgrounds. Each member of the team really does align with the same values and are passionate about playing their part in achieving the same goal of creating a safer world for children.”
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Wealth manager Charles Stanley has strengthened its investment management team in Manchester with a new senior hire. Lee Ramsden joins as investment director from Brown Shipley, where he was a director.
Prior to that he held the role of vice president at Barclays Private Bank for more than six years.
Lee, a highly experienced Chartered Financial Planner, wealth manager and private banker, has more than 15 years’ experience and specialises in wealth structuring, estate planning, retirement planning, investment management, tax-led investing, private equity, business start-up and growth.
Lee Ramsden
Ian Sackfield, managing director of investment management services–branches at Charles Stanley, said: “I am delighted to welcome someone with the calibre and experience that Lee brings. As a highly sought after professional, Lee recognises the opportunities that Charles Stanley has to offer.
“Lee will be a valuable addition to the team and will support our ongoing development of new client relationships, whilst growing our existing client base in the North West of England.”
Lee Ramsden said: “I am delighted to join Charles Stanley. The Manchester office is growing, and the overall business has a clear strategy that is delivering, as evidenced by its latest set of results.
“I’m looking forward to bringing the value that I, and my new colleagues offer to the fore. The current environment in which we are operating means that there is a growing need for trusted and quality advice, as clients are looking for help in navigating these tricky times to ensure their wealth is both structured in the most effective way to meet their objectives, and invested in the most efficient and prudent way to maximise returns.”
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Pimento, the independent marketing and communications network, has welcomed 15 new agencies from the North into its 200-strong membership.
New members include Manchester-based Mighty Giant, Leeds-based Third Foundation and Salford’s The Behaviours Agency, as well as fellow Northern agencies H S Media, Strada Media, Simple Usability, Orchard Resourcebase, Ampli, Pragmatic Digital, Content10x and Relevanz.
To drive the continued expansion of the business, Pimento chief executive and founder, Stephen Knight, has hired Jill Taylor, former events director of Prolific North and sales director at Newsco/Insider, as partner director to support its current membership in the North along with the expansion of its agency base.
Jill Taylor
Jill has worked in the publishing, media and creative sectors for more than 30 years and holds a postgraduate diploma in Strategic Digital Marketing Management.
Stephen Knight said: “The North is flying just now, with independent agencies recording double digit growth and strong demand in particular for digital services. We needed someone who knows the market and the agencies to support our growth in the region, and who better than Jill, given her immense amount of experience in the industry and the region as a whole.”
Jill said: “I’ve always been incredibly proud of the agency and digital sector in the North and of how we deliver such great work for major national and international brands. We now have the opportunity to grow the sector even further and Pimento is part of that journey, strengthening collaboration between agencies and essentially driving new business growth. It’s a really exciting time to be joining the team.”
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Degree 53, specialist in UX, design and software development, is excited to announce four new appointments to its leadership team. This includes head of production, head of marketing, head of UX & design, as well as head of quality assurance.
Degree 53 is dedicated to recognising hard work within its team and said it is delighted to reward their efforts with internal promotions. As a result, the firm has strengthened its leadership across different departments to enhance services and add more value to clients.
Adam Stanway
Kate Margis has been promoted to head of production. She has a proven track record of managing digital projects and first joined Degree 53 as a project manager more than five years ago. Kate is now leading delivery teams, the company’s busy schedule of projects and improving its delivery processes.
Jenny Winter is the head of marketing. Jenny is a specialist B2B marketer, looking after the Degree 53 marketing strategy, including managing content and PR, as well as providing support to the commercial team. She’ll also be overseeing the marketing service delivery and helping clients with their marketing needs.
Adam Stanway has been appointed head of UX & design, having successfully led the design team in producing intuitive and engaging digital solutions. With a background in UX & UI, brand and advertising, Adam works with businesses to create products that connect with their users and increase engagement.
Kate Margis
Sowmya Mangini is the head of quality assurance. She has been involved in developing manual and automated test solutions across various test levels throughout the software development cycle. Sowmya has previously worked as a test consultant, building up her knowledge and skills to lead the QA team.
Managing director, Richard Wagstaff, said: “I am delighted to promote four of our team members to grow our leadership team. We value our talent and want to recognise our high achievers with internal promotions. I am happy for our company to have such strong leaders that have a great understanding of our business and our clients.
“As a result of our recent promotions, we are in a good position to provide greater support for our clients and continue our growth. With the increased leadership structure, we will be able to oversee more projects, as well as adding strategic value to our clients and their products in the future.”
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Preston-based Suresite Group, the service provider for forecourt and retail, has announced the appointment of Craig Nugent as the company’s new head of sales.
Following the CEO appointment of Steve Hoban earlier this year, Suresite is rapidly investing in team growth with further appointments of Alex Young and Gavin Harrison.
Craig Nugent brings more than 30 years of international experience in sales and operational management. Nugent joined Suresite from Certas Energy where he headed the company’s dealer sales.
He brings a wealth of forecourt and retail experience, having managed dealer relationships across around 900 Gulf and own branded stations. Nugent also has flagship brands such as Shell, Chevron, Eastwood Park, and Ryko International under his career belt.
Craig Nugent
“This is an exciting time to join Suresite and I am delighted to be part of the ambitious plans for growth whilst continuing to deliver the highest levels of customer service,” said Craig.
Further appointments of two new business development managers to the sales team are a testament to Suresite’s growth ambition, the company said.
Alex Young brings extensive knowledge and experience in sales and account management, having previously worked for Ribble Fuel, CoolKit LTD, R&J Builders Hardware, and Fuel Card Services.
Gavin Harrison comes with sales experience from organisations such as Wowcher, Living Social, Yell, and Capital Bank.
Steve Hoban said: “I’m very pleased to see Craig, Alex, and Gavin join our new sales and commercial team. They bring a wealth of experience to our payments and fuel services and strengthen the Suresite family.
“I am looking forward to seeing them help us improve our offering, expand our services to existing customers and expose us to new businesses to support our exciting growth plans.”
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Praetura, the Manchester-based financial services group that provides ambitious companies with growth funding and support, has announced the appointment of Ben Davies as group marketing director and kickstarted its search for a video editor and copywriter to join the team.
Ben joins the firm from Social Chain, one of Europe’s fastest growing social media agencies, where he helped the agency to amass more than 80 million followers and reach 1.8 billion people every month.
He was a core member of the team that saw Social Chain list on the Frankfurt stock exchange in 2019 and led a number of industry-first research projects that looked at the relationship between social media and food, gaming and sport.
Prior to joining Social Chain, Ben worked for a variety of innovative and disruptive businesses, including the ‘anti-café’ chain Ziferblat. As head of marketing and a founding member of Ziferblat UK, Ben firmly established the business as a place where innovators and those pushing boundaries in their respective industries could come together to collaborate and drive growth.
In his new role Ben plans to bring his experience of working with innovative, trailblazing brands to support Praetura on the next stage of its growth journey. This includes immediately investing in its in-house marketing team with the recruitment of a video editor and copywriter to tell Praetura’s story in a more engaging and interactive way.
Ben said: “Praetura is a fascinating business that really delivers on its promise of providing ambitious entrepreneurs with more than just funding. With a straight-talking, genuine approach it has firmly established itself as an integral part of the financial and start-up communities – not only in Manchester, but across the North of England. The prospect of supporting the next phase of their growth journey is an opportunity that really excites me.”
Ben Davies
He added: “Praetura has strong beliefs about what a finance company could and should be, and part of my role is to build a team that can help the group to better communicate that message through industry-leading content. There’s a real opportunity to support businesses post-COVID, and Praetura’s role is to help fuel, fund and facilitate that growth. I’m looking forward to being a part of that.”
David Foreman, co-founder of Praetura Group and managing director of Praetura Ventures, said: “Ben’s experience makes him the perfect candidate to build our marketing team from the ground up, not only helping us to differentiate Praetura from other financial services businesses, but ultimately helping us to tell the success stories of the businesses and entrepreneurs we back.”
Ben’s appointment follows the news that Praetura provided more than £75m of funding to SMEs in the first quarter of 2021, with its lending division – which comprises Praetura Commercial Finance and Praetura Asset Finance – hitting its highest quarterly lending levels since the group was founded in 2011.
Praetura Ventures, the group’s venture capital arm, had an equally strong quarter following its investments in pioneering drug company Maxwellia, Manchester-based communications platform PixelMax, and tech for good platforms Transreport and Enthuse.
Praetura Ventures also appointed four industry heavyweights – including Social Chain co-founder Dominic McGregor – as operational partners to bring significant experience to support the founders and entrepreneurs it backs.
