People: Hotter; Hugh Jones Solicitors; Time Finance; Langtree; Sylvan Financial Management
Comfort footwear brand, Hotter, has added to its senior team with the appointment of Dan Lampard as CFO and Antonia Jones as head of product, who will both build on the Skelmersdale firm’s future growth and digital-first focus.
Lampard brings more than 20 years of finance and commercial experience, specialising in online direct-to-consumer retail. He joins from Netherlands-based Glanbia Performance Nutrition, where he held the position of CFO at a time of significant scale up with double digit revenue growth.
Within this role, Lampard rebuilt the finance function and oversaw significant geographic expansion.
Previous to this, he was the UK finance director at Bolton-based ao.com and held senior finance and commercial roles at Manchester Airports Group (MAG). As a fellowship member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales, Lampard started his career at KPMG.
Jones, joining as head of product, is a highly successful leader in the footwear industry. Having worked for brands including Adidas and Redfoot Shoes, she brings strategic vision and product management to Hotter in a newly-established role to grow the business.
Jones held several positions at Adidas, most recently category director – Core Footwear, when she was responsible for the product strategy and subsequent delivery of the product management function covering a €260m business stream.
As footwear development manager at Redfoot Shoes, Jones created a strategic product roadmap and detailed product strategy for brand creation and repositioning, underpinned with growth targets.
The duo join Hotter at a time when the business is securing further growth post-pandemic after successfully accelerating its transformation to become a digital-first retailer in the past two years.
Hotter has so far reported a 25% rise in sales from both online and physical retail this year compared with last year. The brand, which has more than four million customers worldwide, has invested more than £1.5m in technology, including in its app, website and in-store Footprint technology, during the past 18 months.
Chief executive, Ian Watson, said: “It’s an incredibly exciting and important time to join Hotter; we’re delighted to welcome both Dan and Antonia to the team. Both bring huge amounts of credibility and knowledge from their extensive backgrounds in the retail and direct-to-consumer space, and will both help us to drive forward with our continued focus on digital-first growth.
“We’ve seen really promising results so far this year, with ecommerce sales alone increasing by 26% and 32% in our lead UK market. There’s lots of great opportunities out there for further market penetration and growth, which we’re confident Dan and Antonia will be able to help us to build on in the coming months and years.”
It was announced in August that Hotter will become part of the Unbound Group, which will float on AIM in the fourth quarter of 2021.
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Boutique law firm, Hugh Jones Solicitors, has bolstered its senior team following a round of promotions across the business, including the appointment of two new directors.
Court of Protection specialists Jenny Roberts and Chris Gallagher join the board of directors, while Kate Forster, David Jones and Fiona Ludkin have been promoted to senior associate. Also in the Court of Protection team, Hayley Chesters takes a new position as associate and Lindsay Savage and Darren Scholes as executive.
Finally, Tania McGrory, Charlotte Crawford, David Jones and Fiona Ludkin have all been appointed as directors of the Hugh Jones Trust Corporation, which acts as trustee or deputy to support those who have lost capacity including the elderly, children and adults who have suffered maximum severity brain injury or brain damage due to medical negligence or catastrophic injury.
Jenny Roberts has years of experience in all aspects of mental capacity work. She is regularly involved in Court of Protection applications for statutory wills, gift applications and contested deputyship applications and has been involved in welfare applications. As a professional deputy, Jenny helps to manage the affairs of many vulnerable clients, ranging from young children with cerebral palsy to elderly clients with dementia.
From left: Jenny Roberts, Hugh Jones, Chris Gallagher
She said: “I’m extremely passionate about supporting society’s most vulnerable and work hard to build relationships with clients and their families. As a firm, we always put their best interests before anything else. That’s something I’m extremely proud of and I look forward to building upon in my new role as director.”
Chris Gallagher also helps in the management of deputyships of those who lack capacity. He specialises in working with brain injured clients and their families to try and ensure their property and financial affairs are managed as effectively as possible. He was listed as a Rising Star in the Legal 500 2020 and 2021.
He said: “It’s an honour to join the board of directors at the firm. Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, we’ve gone from strength to strength and have exciting plans for the future. I’m poised and ready to take on the responsibility and challenges that the position affords me.”
The firm, which was recently crowned Medium Firm of the Year at the Manchester Legal Awards, said it boasts the largest team of Court of Protection lawyers in the UK and has built an impressive reputation for supporting vulnerable people in a professional, friendly and cost effective manner.
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North West-based Time Finance has secured Sharon Bryden as director of commercial loans and ABL with immediate effect. The role is newly-created and is reflective of the firm’s commitment to delivering a market leading portfolio of funding solutions to UK businesses as they recover and grow.
As a member of the operating board Sharon will have overall responsibility for the operation and performance of commercial loans for the business. In addition to this, Sharon will lead the firm’s plans to develop and deliver a robust asset based lending solution to the market.
With a diverse portfolio of funding solutions, the business can already offer a multi-product solution to businesses seeking a higher level of funding across multiple assets, but it has plans to strengthen its offering and deliver a market-leading asset based lending proposition to support its future ambitions.
Sharon, a well known industry figure, brings two decades of experience to the role across multiple funding solutions from loans to invoice finance.
Sharon Bryden
She joins Time Finance from Reparo Finance, where, as operations director, she built a strong skill set in delivering secured lending facilities to UK businesses. Prior to that she has held operational and relationship management positions at Aldermore Bank and Bibby Financial Services.
Sharon said: “I am delighted to have joined Time Finance at such an exciting time. They have a genuine commitment to delivering robust funding solutions to UK businesses to inspire confidence and growth.
“Whilst commercial loans have been part of their portfolio since their inception over two decades ago, there is a renewed ambition to enhance and drive forward this important part of the business. With exciting plans to further develop our multi-product offering, I am looking forward to playing an instrumental role in delivering market leading funding solutions to our clients.
“The team at Time Finance are dynamic and progressive and have a reputation for getting things done so I have every confidence that it’s going to be a busy and successful time.”
Chief executive Ed Rimmer said: “We are delighted to have secured Sharon as a member of our leadership team in what is a key role for our business as we drive forward with our strategy and our plans to strengthen our funding proposition.
“She is a well respected and proven professional with an exceptional record and was a natural choice for this role. Having worked with Sharon in the past, I have no doubts that she will significantly strengthen our team. Her depth of experience of the wider financial services market will support our ambitious plans to deliver a market leading proposition.”
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Asset manager and developer, Langtree, has appointed Alison Tennant as its new business development manager for The Base on Dallam Lane in Warrington, which it manages on behalf of Warrington & Co.
Alison was previously chief marketing officer of Peel subsidiary Lifestyle Outlets, with responsibility for the developer’s Gloucester Quays and Quayside Mediacity assets.
Prior to that she spent 18 years as marketing director for Peel Land & Property.
Alison’s new role is part time, something she says fits well with her wider interests as a yoga teacher.
Alison Tennant
“The Base has successfully positioned itself as Warrington’s foremost technology and engineering innovation hub and is now three quarters let,” she said.
“My role is to help our existing tenants to continue on their growth journeys by providing support and signposting as well as helping manage what is a very dynamic eco-system within the building.
“I’ve been a qualified yoga teacher since 2014 and the role’s flexibility allows me to continue to develop my successful yoga classes.”
The Base has 26 tenant businesses across a range of software, technology and engineering services. More than 240 staff now work in the 50,000 sq ft Grade A space, which provides flexible office options geared towards fast-growing SMEs.
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Cheadle-based Sylvan Financial Management has announced the appointment of Gordon Mazza as the first member of its newly-formed advisory board.
Formed just eight months ago in the height of the pandemic by three qualified Manchester-based financial advisors, Sylvan provides independent investment management and financial planning.
Mazza is a well known figure in financial services. A Cambridge graduate, he has spent almost 30 years in a number of increasingly senior roles within the sector.
In 1998 he became a founding director of one of the UK’s leading financial advice businesses, The Roberts Partnership, which was sold to a private bank in 2016. Now based with his family in Denmark, he is pursuing a number of interests in the voluntary sector.
Gordon Mazza
In his advisory role with Sylvan, he will advise on the strategic direction of the business in all areas of financial services, including investment and pensions management.
Ed Painter, a founding director of Sylvan, said. “As we grow our client base, we consider it vitally important to get an outside view and advice in what is a complex and fast moving market. We are delighted that someone of Gordon’s standing and experience has agreed to come on board.
“In the coming months, we plan to recruit further board members to help develop our business both from a consumer and operational perspective.”
Mazza said: “Having worked with Sylvan’s three directors at the Roberts Partnership, I know that in setting up their business, they share my values of providing an independent and highly personal service to the clients in their care. It is a journey I made nearly a quarter of a century ago and I look forward to offering insights, experience and guidance on the road ahead.”
