People: KOMI Group; Envair Technology; Westmorland Homecare; Digital ID; Pixel Kicks
KOMI Group, the Manchester-based social media, marketing, and licensing business, has announced that Sam Lenehan has been appointed as its growth and strategy director.
Sam has been a non-executive director of KOMI since 2020 and joins the business on a full time basis from Urban Splash.
Sam was a director at House by Urban Splash, a partnership between Manchester-based, regeneration pioneers Urban Splash, the Government, via Homes England, and the largest house builder in the world, Japan’s Sekisui House.
His new role will see him lead on a number of core areas including refining the company’s growth strategy, its governance and structure and mergers and acquisitions.
Over the past five years, Sam has worked with, and helped execute the vision of some of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs, the Government and international plcs. This has allowed him to build up a raft of experience that he now aims to leverage in a high growth start-up.
Sam said: “Making the permanent move to KOMI was a huge decision, as was leaving Urban Splash after so many years. I remain passionate about House by Urban Splash and know that it has an incredible future which I will support from afar. It was an amazing privilege to be one of the first employees at House, working directly with the shareholders to build the business to what it is today.
He added: “My aim is to now take the lessons that I’ve learnt and apply them to KOMI as it ramps up for its next phase of growth. Thanks to the drive and ambition of Andrew Trotman and Ryan Williams – the company’s founders – it has quickly become one of the UK’s leading social media houses with a largely unparalleled ability to make digital brands that really matter.”
Andrew Trotman said: “Sam is one of the most respected young professionals in the North West so we are delighted that he made the leap to join us on a permanent basis. As a non-exec he had already added huge value to the business, but having his focus full time will, I’m sure, be a game changer as we prepare for, and enter into, our next phase of growth.”
KOMI Group is a three divisional business consisting of one of the UK’s largest digital publishing portfolios, a social first digital agency, and video content licensing hub. Its team of content creators, analysts and video producers have made and then distributed video content and viral campaign adverts for international brands such as BBC Films, O2, Universal, Bud Light and Disney.
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Envair Technology, a manufacturer of clean air and containment solutions for the healthcare, biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, has announced the appointment of Andrew Ellison as its new chief executive officer.
Andrew has played a pivotal role in the business for the past four years as chief financial officer, with sales growing fivefold as the business enters new markets, develops new products and consolidates bolt-on acquisitions. As CEO he will maximise the opportunity to bring the full suite of Envair Technology products to the fast growing containment market.
Andrew will also oversee the group’s continued expansion overseas, as demand continues to increase for its containment solutions. International sales currently contribute up to 30% of total revenue, with particularly strong growth in the US and Western Europe. Group revenues will exceed £20m in 2022, with staff headcount increasing to 150.
Andrew Ellison
Andrew joined ONFAB in 2017 and was instrumental in preparing the business for investment from Foresight, enabling it to acquire Envair and TCS. Prior to joining the company, he spent the previous 15 years within high growth, private equity-backed organisations, leading exits, MBOs and M&A activity.
He worked with global manufacturing organisations, including Airbus and Parker Hannifin and spent time in China while studying for his MBA at Manchester Business School.
Chris Wardle, investment director at Foresight, said: “As CEO, Andrew will be a unifying leader across Envair Technology. He has proven experience in managing fast growth businesses and has demonstrated excellent leadership during periods of change. We look forward to seeing him lead the company through this exciting next phase of growth.”
Andrew said: “I’ve witnessed Envair Technology’s rapid development over the past few years and I’m delighted to be leading the next stage of that journey as CEO. It’s an exciting time for us, with further international expansion planned, a growing team and the recent move to a new site in Lancashire.”
Envair Technology has offices in Middlewich, Heywood, and Spain.
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Westmorland Homecare, at Kendal, has increased the number of its full time trainers.
The company, which provides hundreds of hours of care each week to enable elderly and often frail people to live independently in their own home, has appointed a third trainer, Tracy McConnachie.
Care manager, Bernadine Davies, said: “Most companies of our size only have one trainer so the fact we have three is testament to our commitment to develop our staff.
“Training, support and development are vital in this profession. All staff must have an in-built ability to care, but they also have to be confident to be able to deliver the care to the highest possible standards. Westmorland Homecare is investing to provide high quality training, something which is also absolutely vital to attract new people to work in the care environment.”
A major development in training at the company’s central hub at 18 Highgate has been the opening of a suite which simulates a client’s bedroom and living room, complete with a bed, chair and dining table. While one trainee acts as a client, a trainer can teach another moving and handling, washing and dressing techniques and how to transfer a client in and out of a wheelchair and on and off a commode.
Tracy McConnachie, centre, and Sarka Svobodova, right, work with a colleague in the training suite
Bernadine said: “There is a lot of equipment for hoisting so a trainee can experience first hand how it feels to be hoisted and rolled on a bed.”
Training also involves observation by trainers of new staff’s work.
WHC’s three trainers are Sarka Svobodova, Kelly Haygarth and the newly-appointed Tracy McConnachie. The trio also carry out staff appraisals and support team leaders in the community.
It is hoped eventually to be able to offer training externally to other services and, perhaps, to relatives of clients who want to learn skills such as moving and handling or looking after people with dementia.
Tracy McConnachie, of Kendal, who started her career as a qualified staff nurse working in a hospital and in the community, joined Westmorland Homecare in August in the scheduling team.
She said: “The attraction of the training role was that it is very varied and enabled me to draw on the skills, knowledge and experience I have gained over the years and put that into practice in supporting other people to develop.”
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Stockport-based Digital ID, part of the global Barcodes group, has appointed Peter Walsh as its new head of mobile and enterprise solutions.
Walsh, former global business director at solutions specialist HID, brings an unrivalled array of knowledge and experience in the ID and security industry. Prior to joining Digital ID, Walsh was most recently the vice president global sales leader for international authority OpSec Security.
In his new role, Walsh will manage all aspects of the mobile solution for the company, including the development of a team to meet anticipated demand. He will also work to progress and improve ongoing relationships between Digital ID and the HID PACS (Physical Access Control) team in the UK.
Stephen Dodd, commercial director of Digital ID, said: “Mobile solutions is the fastest growing proportion of our business, as companies switch on to the benefits of digitalisation within access control.
Peter Walsh
“We felt that there was an opportunity to strengthen our knowledge and skills in this area and with Pete’s appointment, we can now offer our customers a clear upgrade path to mobile access. We knew we needed to make a big investment to make this happen, and I don’t think there’s anyone better qualified on mobile access in the UK than Peter Walsh.
“He has immense knowledge of the access control industry as a whole and has worked on some of the biggest mobile access projects in the country to date.”
He added: “We anticipate all organisations will be using mobile access in the next 3-5 years, and we have ambitious plans to dominate that space. In the early part of next year, we aim to target the higher education space initially as a sector in which we already have a large foothold. We see Peter’s appointment, along with our new department, as pivotal for our company to achieve our 2022 goals.”
Walsh’s vast knowledge will help clients understand the benefits of switching to mobile access, along with the risks and threats associated with outdated access control cards they may be currently using. His appointment will also bring opportunities to the local area, as the company hopes to recruit two new staff members to support him in his position.
The company has set a target of acquiring £3m of new business in 2022 from its mobile access offering, with the figure set to multiply in the upcoming years.
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The digital marketing team at Pixel Kicks, the Manchester based full-service digital agency, has appointed Helen Goodyear as its newest digital marketing executive.
Helen Goodyear
In her new role, Helen will mainly be focusing on devising strategically creative SEO campaigns and engaging content for Pixel Kicks’ diverse roster of clients. She will also be working on some PPC projects.
Prior to joining the agency, Helen worked at FNTC Training & Consultancy, iCandy Design and Rayburn Trading. She has also worked on a freelance basis.
Andrew Flynn, digital marketing manager at Pixel Kicks, said: “The past year has been really strong period for the DM team and we are delighted to welcome Helen to the Pixel Kicks family.”
The digital marketing team has also won a string of new clients, including Velocity Bridging, Kenny Refresh, which is the CV writing and interview coaching division of Kenny Recruitment, and catering company Robert and Victor.
