People: Assetz Capital; Hollis; Edgefold Homes; Distec; TLT; DWF
Assetz Capital has promoted two staff members to relationship director-portfolio to strengthen its growing origination team in the North.
Sarah Ellison has been promoted from relationship support manager, having joined Assetz Capital in March 2021. In her new role, Sarah will work alongside relationship director Lucie Martin, helping to maintain existing customer relationships post-drawdown, follow up on new lending, and onboard a significant planned number of new developer clients across Scotland.
Dean Kilbryde has been promoted from assistant relationship director, having joined Assetz in May 2018. Dean will work alongside relationship director Ciaran McGivern, supporting significant planned growth of new house-builder clients within the North of England.
The relationship director-portfolio position is a complete shadow role of Manchester-based Assetz Capital’s existing relationship director role, focused on high origination growth, and will enable full regional coverage to support the lender’s customer growth journey.
The promotions follow a number of recent recruits to Assetz Capital’s growing origination team, as the lender targets ambitious lending figures for 2022 and beyond. In January 2022, it recruited relationship directors James Evans and Paul Williams from Santander and HSBC, respectively.
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International, independent real estate consultancy Hollis has welcomed a new starter to its Manchester office.
Sai Thein joins as an associate supporting the M&E services team and client projects locally across Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool. Sai has more than nine years’ experience in M&E, specialising in detailed design works, condition surveys and reporting, project management and client M&E brief development.
Sai Thein
Director and head of Hollis in Manchester, David McBride, said: “Despite the uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant, demand for commercial property in Manchester remains strong as the city looks to build back better. Hollis is committed to significant expansion over the next year as we look to support our strong and growing client base across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, and Manchester represents a large piece of that pie.
“We are pleased to welcome Sai to Hollis – his combined industry knowledge and experience will prove an asset to our team in Manchester. I look forward to seeing his career flourish at Hollis.”
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Bolton based Edgefold Homes has welcomed two new senior staff appointments as it breaks ground at a site in Cheshire.
Charlie Welsby has joined the company as site manager for a new development of seven luxury homes in Dunham Massey, while Steven Bowen has joined the team as senior quantity surveyor working across Edgefold’s portfolio of sites.
The two appointments and the new development has led to a positive start for 2022. The housebuilder began work on its Barns Lane scheme in Dunham Massey in early January and Charlie Welsby joined the company in December as site manager to lead the project.
Steven Bowen, left, and Charlie Welsby
He brings with him more than 20 years’ experience in the construction industry and is relishing the opportunity to work at Edgefold Homes and take charge of the site. He said: “After working as contracts manager across lots of different sites for many years I am delighted to have made the move to this new position. The biggest draw for me was to be able to concentrate fully on one site and ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible and the team has been really welcoming.”
Charlie’s appointment comes following the arrival of Steven Bowen as senior quantity surveyor in late 2021. His responsibilities include overseeing all costs across Edgefold’s portfolio of sites to ensure that targets are met and exceeded.
Jack Seddon, construction director at Edgefold Homes, said he welcomed Charlie and Steven, saying: “Not only do they both bring a wealth of experience, but they share the ethos and values of Edgefold Homes, which is absolutely vital to us as a business.”
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Distec, the Manchester-based hybrid technology solutions provider, has appointed Dean Challinor as its new general manager following the retirement of co-founder Noel Sheppard.
Noel is stepping away from the role after nearly 30 years after he co-founded Distec in 1992. The company, which was acquired by Swedish giant KAMIC Group AB in 2019, offers total solutions including support to customers in many different sectors across the UK and Irish markets, with a large number of world leading manufacturers such as ELO, Red Lion Controls, Nexcom, CKS Global, Wincomm, and Siemens.
Dean Challinor
Noel’s successor Dean is coming into the role from the point-of-sale (PoS) industry where he has worked for 13 years. He boasts a track record of growing an IT-related business and increasing profitability, managing Aures Technologies for six years after joining the business as a sales executive two years prior. He also led the expansion of Oxhoo France into the UK market in 2016, heading up the business for three years.
Dean said: “Noel has dedicated the last 30 years of his career building the Distec team and brand into what it is today. That being a business at the forefront of technological advances within the industrial automation, medical and digital signage industries. I am extremely proud and excited to be joining the business following Noel’s deserved retirement.”
A Distec spokesperson said: “We thank Noel for his dedication over the past three decades. We are excited to have Dean on board and continue to build on his legacy.”
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Law firm TLT has appointed Agnes Altmets, one of edie’s ‘30 under 30’ next generation of sustainability leaders (2019), as a senior sustainability manager to support its ambitious plans to become a net zero organisation.
Agnes was previously sustainability manager at TLT and has held sustainability roles in organisations including the GC Business Growth Hub, Auto Trader UK and Tallinn University. She is also a founding member of the Warrior Women Network, a support network for women improving the lives of others and saving the planet.
In line with the Science Based Target initiative’s new Net-Zero Standard, which was launched in October 2021, TLT has set the ambitious target of becoming carbon neutral by 2025 and is working with Carbon Intelligence on its net zero roadmap. This will help to identify key areas of focus and what actions are needed to reach critical milestones, including setting science-based targets, and give TLT a solid framework to support monitoring and reporting.
Agnes Altmets
Maria Connolly, head of clean energy and real estate and executive board member responsible for sustainability at TLT, said: “Agnes’s appointment has been absolutely transformational, and will have a significant bearing on our journey to net zero. We have already made significant strides towards achieving our objectives, but there’s a long way to go, and we are looking forward to completing our current work with Carbon Intelligence this year. This will really help to clarify our net zero journey and enable us to focus on the biggest opportunities to deliver change at pace.”
Agnes Altmets, who is based in Manchester, said: “I’ve been working in sustainability for over 10 years, and it’s an absolute honour to work with such a passionate and progressive law firm as TLT. Sustainability is a key part of the firm’s strategy and we are making significant headway as we formalise our plans and work hard to bring about measurable changes in how we operate.”
TLT works with various third parties on joint sustainability programmes, including Forest Green Rovers – the world’s greenest football club – The Chancery Lane Project (net zero drafting), Action Net Zero (delivering sustainability in communities), and as a member/signatory of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, The Legal Renewables Initiative, the Greener Litigation Pledge and Aldersgate Group.
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Manchester law firm DWF has announced 34 senior promotions as part of its annual promotions process.
The promotions include 17 new partners and four other senior promotions of an equivalent grade. In addition, there are 13 promotions for existing DWF partners or equivalent moving up within the partnership structure.
Sir Nigel Knowles
A total of 223 colleagues across the business have received promotions incorporating each of DWF’s three divisions of legal advisory, mindcrest and connected services.
The North West promotions include: Colin Bushell, partner, Manchester; Christopher King, partner, Liverpool; Stuart McCann, partner, Manchester; Sarah Mir, partner, Liverpool; Lee Norman, partner, Manchester; Darren Ormsby, partner, Manchester; Daniel Williams, partner, Manchester.
Sir Nigel Knowles, CEO of DWF Group, said: “To be able to offer promotions to more than 200 colleagues across all grades and in every division is a great reflection of the talent that spans our global business. I congratulate everybody on their accomplishment, in contributing so much to the continuing success of our business in what has been a transformational year.”
