People: Together; RVA Surveyors; England Handball; O’Donnell Solicitors; Teneo
Specialist lender Together has bolstered its commercial sales teams by appointing three new business development directors in the regions.
Kash Moghul will be driving the group’s growth in London and the South and East, while Chirag Mistry will be responsible for the Midlands and Gordon Spotten the North West.
The Cheadle-based finance firm – which has a £4bin loan book – has also hired new business development managers Jacob Tate, Joshua Stevens, Thomas Gill, Greg Applewhaite, Peter Wright and Marcus Lunt, and expanded its telesales team.
The new telesales recruits are Taylor Green, James Ireland, Susan Nicholson, Marc English, Camilla Scott, Andrew Ralph and Hugo Wemyss.
Katie Melbourne, who has worked at Together for nearly five years, has been appointed the team’s sales manager and she will report directly to Kerry Haworth, internal sales director at Together. Kerry said: “We’re delighted to welcome the new members of the team as we launch our new retention strategy – reaching out to our existing customers to support them with the finance they need to realise their ambitions.
“We already have a strong presence in the regions and we will be building on this to increase our commercial lending to existing and new customers across the UK, while our new BDMs and telesales colleagues will provide a point of contact for clients calling and visiting our headquarters. In our annual results, we revealed that we’ve returned to pre-pandemic funding levels and our new recruits will help us as we grow the business further over the next few years.”
Kash Moghul, 38, joins Together from Thincats where, as a regional director, covered the East of England and London, and was instrumental in developing the alternative lender’s brand. He previously worked in banking for RBS for a decade, and Allied Irish Bank (AIB).
He said: “The amazing record of Together speaks for itself and I am looking forward to driving the business forward and creating a significant presence in the southern markets.”
Chirag Mistry was formerly an investment manager for the FSE group where he successfully funded transactions to support significant business growth, including helping companies’ international expansion. Previously, he was a relationship director at Santander Commercial Banking working with SMEs, while also delivering high profile masterclass skills sessions with leading blue chip companies.
The 35-year-old father-of-two said: “Together is an entrepreneurial business with a fantastic history, which has become one of the UKs leading specialist lenders. My role will be to support the group’s ambitions to be the country’s best specialist lender by promoting its products and propositions to businesses in the Midlands.”
Gordon Spotten, 48, has been working in financial services for two decades. He joins Together from TSB, where he was a BDM responsible for lending to UK SMEs. He said: “I have a wide experience of business lending and will be best placed to deliver Together’s common sense solutions to support businesses in the region, helping them grow and prosper.”
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Denton-based business rates reduction specialist, RVA Surveyors, has made a series of key appointments, strengthening its fast growing workforce and accelerating its strategic growth plans across England and Wales.
Clare Whitfield has been appointed as head of surveying and operations, with the key objective to support RVA’s continued business growth. Clare brings with her a wealth of experience in the ratings reduction industry and will head up a rapidly expanding team of surveying, administrative and operational staff.
Responsible for overseeing all client activity, Clare will lead the management of RVA’s cases through the Valuation Office Agency’s online Check Challenge Appeal system, through which reductions in business rates are negotiated on behalf of clients. Clare will also focus on developing RVA’s team leaders in their progression to managerial roles.
Clare Whitfield
The recruitment drive also includes Dan Goodier, who joins RVA as business development manager with a remit to drive the business’s long term growth ambitions, throughout England and Wales by expanding the team of property advisors in the field to keep up with the rise in demand for business rates reduction services.
Jessica O’Brien also joins RVA as sales manager, bringing several years of experience in the sales industry. Based from RVA’s office in Denton, Jessica’s appointment forms part of the business’s investment in its sales department to ensure efficient management of appointments for the field sales team.
Managing director, Anthony Hughes, said: “Our continued growth underpins our strong commitment to drive down business rates liabilities on behalf of our clients, where we have found that 50% of all the properties we have reviewed are paying too much in their business rates due to the Valuation Office Agency’s fundamentally archaic and flawed processes.
“We are very excited to welcome Clare, Jessica and Dan who are valuable additions to our exceptional team, all of whom are dedicated to gaining valuable reductions for our growing client roster.”
Established in 2008, the firm employs more than 80 people and works with a variety of businesses across the UK to help reduce their property’s business rates liability.
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England Handball, based in Warrington, has announced the appointment of a new chair to help deliver its vision of making handball one of the top indoor sports in England.
Rosie Williams has taken up the role after a vote by handball members across the country and will officially step into the chair position from November 2021.
Williams was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2013 for her contribution to rugby in England, and previously held the position of managing director of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) for Women.
She also played an instrumental role in the success of the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2010 and operated as the RFU’s head of local delivery for more than six years. In 2018 she also set up her own successful consultancy business working across both sporting and commercial landscapes.
Rosie Williams
Mike Bain, England Handball CEO, said: “Rosie really impressed throughout a very thorough interview process and we’re delighted to confirm her appointment as chair.
“She has a very strong sporting background from her time working with the RFU and will no doubt be able to make a significant contribution to the growth of handball in England – both with her knowledge of sport at grassroots level but also her commercial experience.
“We’re at a really exciting point for handball in England as we prepare to launch our new strategy that runs until 2030, so it’s fantastic to have Rosie with us as we prepare to embark on a new era.”
Rosie Williams said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the team at England Handball. It’s a sport I’ve always admired, and I think it has the potential to be huge in England, just like it is in other European countries and around the world.
“What excited me the most is seeing the impact that the game of handball has on young people and how it has the ability to unite people from many different backgrounds. It has a reputation for being one of the most diverse sports in the world and we have a wonderful opportunity to capitalise on that in the years ahead.”
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Saddleworth-based O’Donnell Solicitors has added to its team with the appointment of senior litigator, Christopher MacCafferty.
Chris, a well respected litigator of more than 18 years and an accredited mediator, will join the firm’s existing litigation team. Having previously held a role of equity partner and head of litigation at a regional legal 200 firm, Chris is well respected in the industry and brings experience and expertise in a broad range of disputes, said O’Donnell’s.
His appointment will strengthen the offering already offered by the firm’s team, allowing greater capacity to take on new clients. In particular, Chris will focus on property, construction, professional negligence, and partnership/shareholder disputes for commercial clients.
Chris MacCafferty
Chris’s role will be consultant solicitor and mediator, which will allow him to continue his role outside of the firm as CEO of Small Claims Portal, a business Chris founded in an effort to fill the gap in legal support for individuals and businesses.
He said: “I have been keenly watching the development of O’Donnell Solicitors over the past fve years. They have enjoyed exceptional growth and are attracting a great calibre of solicitors to their team. With roots in Oldham, joining the firm seemed like the perfect fit.”
The addition comes following another year of growth for the firm, which this year marked its fifth anniversary. In that time, O’Donnell Solicitors has grown from an embryo to a multi-disciplinary practice boasting three branch offices, five directors, 13 fee earners and a quality team of support staff.
The firm recently announced the completion of the acquisition of a new office building at 44 High Street, in the village of Uppermill. Providing a further 5,000 sq ft of new office space, the new building will accommodate the firm’s residential conveyancing and newbuild property teams, together with the firm’s private client team.
Currently undergoing a complete refurbishment, the offices will provide additional first class facilities for clients, complementing the existing modern and conveniently located office space at Appleby’s Business Centre in Grasscroft.
James O’Donnell said: “Chris is another stellar appointment to the firm and with such a strong reputation and following, provides further testament to the growing reputation we are establishing in the Manchester legal market.
“Our teams continue to work extremely hard to deliver a new type of law firm. Our aim is to deliver expert, yet straight-talking, legal advice – and Chris will complement this perfectly.”
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Teneo, the global CEO advisory firm, is continuing to invest in and grow its senior team in the North West with the addition of two new senior hires into its restructuring business.
Chris Pearson has joined as a director having spent the previous decade at FTI in London.
Steven Henderson has also joined as a director following 13 years at EY, and two years in the asset-based lending market.
The Teneo team
Pearson and Henderson join a senior team in the North West which includes restructuring experts Dan Smith, Julian Heathcote, Liam Griffin and Nicola Browne, tax specialist Matthew Locke, and Nick Daley, a managing director in the Teneo Consulting business.
Dan Smith, the senior managing director who leads the team in the North West, said “Our purpose is to help businesses which face challenging situations.
“Our focus is on delivering certainty from uncertainty whether that is through targeted performance improvement, financial restructuring, or a transactional route to recover value. I’m delighted to be able to welcome two such high quality individuals to our team in the North West.”
Dan Butters, CEO of Teneo Restructuring said: “Our North West team are hugely experienced and have worked on a significant number of market leading local and national assignments over the last few years. We are delighted to continue to invest in and grow the team in this important market.”
