People: Fletcher Bond; M247; Great Places; Leonard Curtis; Olliers Solicitors
Manchester-based Chartered Surveyors, Fletcher Bond has appointed Sophie Magee as associate director.
Fletcher Bond specialises in corporate recovery and restructuring, and Sophie will work alongside managing director Rory Dillon and the team advising banks, developers, insolvency practitioners and property firms.
The practice moved to larger new premises on Mosley Street earlier this year and Sophie is the first arrival as the team expands to manage the increasing level of instructions.
Rory said: “We’re delighted to welcome Sophie to Fletcher Bond. Sophie is a high calibre professional surveyor who has a fantastic private client and professional services background, and which will help us to continue to serve our growing client base of lenders, developers and private clients.
“We continue to look for further surveyors to join our team as we expand further in line with our growth plans.”
With more than 15 years’ property experience, Sophie has worked for some of Manchester’s leading property consultancies and private investors. Her surveying career began at GVA – now Avison Young – in the corporate recovery and restructuring department. Since this time, she has amassed a wealth of experience in valuation, agency, asset management and investment.
Sophie said: “I’m very excited about joining Fletcher Bond and working with Rory and the team. I’m looking forward to helping the company grow its existing client base and reputation in the market for providing a first class level of service and innovative and practical property solutions, with honesty and integrity, in an ever-evolving market.’’
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M247 has announced that Darryl Edwards has been appointed as new chief executive of the company.
An experienced business leader, he succeeds Jenny Davies, and has already assumed responsibilities across both the UK and international arms of the business.
With a wealth of experience in leading technology companies, Darryl is joining the business after eight years serving as president and CEO at ECI Telecom and prior to that was non-executive director of EXFO Inc, based in Canada.
Andy Leitch, chief finance officer and interim CEO, said: “I’m very pleased to announce the appointment of our new CEO.
Darryl Edwards
“Darryl has a strong executive background in international telecoms businesses and has been working for the last 10 years at executive level within private equity-owned businesses. Myself, the rest of the M247 board and the whole team are delighted to welcome Darryl and look forward to working with him as we continue to move our great business forward.”
Darryl led the transformation of ECI Telecom and the subsequent sale to Ribbon Communications and prior to this was an integral part of the team who took the business on a transformational programme to success.
He has also sat on a number of key advisory bodies, including UK Broadband Stakeholders Group and UK Information Age Partnership, the latter being chaired by the Secretary of State. The aim of the body was to create a more knowledge-led economy as a basis for innovation which would be used to help boost the UK’s competitive advantage.
Darryl will report directly to the LivingBridge board of directors, the global private equity firm which owns M247.
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Manchester-based Great Places Housing Group has appointed three new members to its board, effective from September 16, 2021.
Nahim Ruhi-Khan, Patrick Ricketts and Sandra Palmer will join the board to replace three long standing members and committee chairs who have served the board for approximately seven years.
Nahim Ruhi-Khan
With experience working in the public sector and social housing, Nahim Ruhi-Khan will serve as a member of the audit and assurance committee alongside Patrick Ricketts who has a wealth of business experience following more than 26 years at Berendsen.
Sandra Palmer will join the remuneration and appraisal committee, following several years of experience as a director in both the private and government-funded sectors.
Patrick Ricketts
Matt Harrison, Great Places CEO and executive board member, said: “We are really pleased to announce the addition of three new board members who will bring with them substantial experience that will further strengthen governance at Great Places.
“We held an intensive recruitment process and Nahim, Patrick and Sandra were stand-out candidates in an extremely strong field of 75 applicants.
“We would like to thank this year’s outgoing committee chairs, Jerry Green and Jenny Rayner, as well as our fellow board member who will remain in post until the end of the year, Celia Cashman, for serving our organisation exceptionally throughout their time on our board. They have been critical in the growth of Great Places and ensuring we regained our G1/V1 status.”
Nahim Ruhi-Khan has more than 25 years’ experience of working in the public sector, starting her career with front line delivery of homelessness services before moving to commissioning of housing-related supported services for vulnerable adults.
Sandra Palmer
Since 2014, Nahim has provided senior leadership to a range of property related functions with Leeds City Council and has extensive experience in new-build, regeneration, and refurbishment transformation projects. More recently, her focus has been on retrofitting homes with renewable energy and other measures that improve thermal comfort and support decarbonisation of social housing.
Patrick Ricketts has more than 26 years’ business experience at Berendsen, spending nine years as regional director and as a director at Jewson. He is passionate about supporting organisations with their strategy for sustainable business growth, people and team development, and wellbeing.
With strong strategic, planning, operations, and commercial skills in B2B and B2C in UK markets, including the public sector, Patrick also has extensive experience in leading account management, strategy for multimillion-pound contracts and delivering service excellence.
Sandra Palmer has extensive director experience in the private and government-funded sector, leading work in business and customer strategy, transformation, communications, marketing, and stakeholder engagement.
As a consultant director for Corporate Culture Group, she has more than ten years’ experience leading large scale consultancy work for national and global clients and prior to this held several director roles for United Utilities.
Her non-executive experience includes nine years as a board member in social housing, as well as being on the board of a not-for-profit provider of adult social care, and a social enterprise enabling community empowerment of health and wellbeing issues.
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Leonard Curtis Business Solutions Group has announced 16 internal promotions this week as it continues to strengthen and reward its teams across the UK, recognising outstanding achievements in a challenging year.
The Manchester-based firm specialises in corporate restructuring and insolvency, personal debt advice, equity and debt finance raising for SMEs, cashflow optimisation, property solutions and legal services.
Nicky Brooks
In its core recovery team, Nicky Brooks has been made business development director, heading up a national 12-strong team. Steve Markey of the MVL and closures teams in Bury also becomes a director, an IP with more than 15 years’ service to the company.
There was success for Rochelle Schofield of the front end administrations team in Manchester, Lauren Fitton of the MVL team in Bury and Kirsty Swan of the Birmingham office – all promoted to senior managers.
In Glasgow the firm reinforced its commitment to Daniela Coia and Derek Ross making them both managers. Also being recognised is Richard Lloyd who was promoted to administrator in the Birmingham office, and, in Bury, Yamin Vahaluwala from the accounts team has been made a finance analyst.
Steve Markey
London remains a key focus for investment so the HR team saw promotions for Sally Adjemian, who becomes assistant manager and Elle Millwood who moves to HR and office support. Ioannis Katsaros and Ollie Kennedy take up new administrator posts in the capital.
As a mark of intent in its fast growing legal arm, Leonard Curtis also promoted Gemma Coll and Sherrelle Scott to associates. In a separate move April Hampton, who was put forward as business support champion in the recent Manchester Law Society Awards, gets her reward, becoming head of legal administration.
Group director, Daniel Booth, said that people across the company had shown remarkable resolve in the past 12 months and each promotion had been thoroughly deserved: “The people in this business make me proud every day.
“By recognising talent and commitment we strengthen the whole business, which, in turn, helps the professional advisors and business owners we serve – at no better time. We wish everyone all the best in their new roles.”
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Criminal defence firm, Olliers Solicitors, has grown its board of directors following the announcement of two promotions at its Manchester-based office.
Ruth Peters has been promoted to director of business development and marketing, having joined as a trainee in 2005.
Elsewhere in the business, serious crime and fraud specialist, Stacey Mabrouk, has been promoted to commercial director, in her 17th year with Olliers.
Olliers represents clients nationally and says it has built an impressive reputation for its proactive approach, which aims to minimise the personal and reputational impact of an investigation.
Ruth Peters has an enviable level of experience across the entire spectrum of criminal defence and in June was crowned Solicitor of the Year at the Manchester Legal Awards. She will now focus on building on the firm’s success as it enters an exciting period of growth.
She said: “I’m passionate about supporting clients through what is often the most difficult period of their lives. The criminal justice system can be complex and in my new role as director I’m committed to ensuring that those under investigation have access to expert support from the very offset.”
From left: Ruth Peters, Matthew Claughton, Stacey Mabrouk
Stacey Mabrouk is particularly well recognised for Crown Court proceedings dealing with a range of prosecutions brought by the Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the Serious Fraud Office and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. She is also responsible for all aspects of financial and operational compliance within the firm.
She said: “Over the last 18 months this firm has displayed tremendous tenacity. The closure of the courts during lockdown had a major impact on the business but we took this as an opportunity to draw on our talent and skills and grew profits significantly. As commercial director, I’m focused on keeping up this momentum and ensuring we’re the very best we can be.”
Olliers also welcomes two new trainees – Hannah Poole and Martha Odysseos – who initially joined through the firm’s academy. The initiative was developed to nurture the next generation of legal talent and welcomes 10 interns each year.
Managing director, Matthew Claughton, said: “Over the last 12 months, our firm has gone from strength to strength. We’ve adapted our business model to develop new areas of work, our operational style is much more flexible and the team – old and new – is flourishing as a result.
“I’m extremely excited to see what the future holds and with Ruth and Stacey working alongside me as directors, I truly believe that there are no limits to what we can achieve.”
