People: Persimmon Homes; Tilia Homes Northern; mmadigital; Dovehaven; BDO; Hill Dickinson
Housebuilder Persimmon Homes has strengthened its North West team with the appointment of a new technical and commercial director.
Andrew Farley brings with him more than 25 years’ experience within a housebuilding environment, and says he is looking forward to the challenges ahead.
“We have two excellent, tight knit teams within the technical and commercial departments, both with a wealth of experience, and I relish the opportunity to steer them forward while delivering much needed new homes to our customers across the North West,” he said.
“My initial areas of focus will be to work closely with the land team to best assist in the appraising of new development opportunities, to continue the current thoughtful design and planning approach, to utilise and support the existing technical knowledge to efficiently progress on site and to achieve best value for infrastructure works, and to enhance the good working relationships with suppliers and subcontractors.”
Andrew said the main challenges faced by the industry will be the consistent cost effective procurement of materials and price negotiation with subcontractors during the current, uncertain supply conditions.
Originally from Chorley, Andrew gained a Higher National Diploma in Construction from University College Salford. His career has included a trio of spells with WainHomes North West culminating in heading up its commercial function as commercial director, a role he also held with Redrow Lancashire.
Andrew’s appointment is not the only senior change at the Urmston-based business. Former managing director Karl Wiseman has been promoted to regional managing director for North West and Yorkshire, while former technical director Alan Cawley has been promoted to managing director.
Alan said: “In heading up these two key disciplines we are confident that Andrew will facilitate Persimmon’s continued growth across the region and delivery of cost effective, high quality new homes.”
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Warrington-based Tilia Homes Northern has appointed Emily Ratcliffe to head up its new dedicated customer services team.
Emily started her career in financial services before moving into a customer-focused role within the construction sector seven years ago. She worked her way up to customer services manager at Redrow Homes before moving to Bellway Homes as customer care manager where she developed and delivered processes to improve customer satisfaction within the organisation.
Emily Ratcliffe
In her new role at Tilia, Emily will head up a team dedicated to ensuring customers feel valued and supported during the homebuying process and have the best possible experience
Tilia Homes was established in June 2021 following the sale of Kier Living from Kier Group to private equity firm Terra Firma. The business now has ambitious plans to grow its Northern region, significantly expanding its presence across the North West, North East and Yorkshire.
Emily said: “It was an exciting prospect to join a newly created brand and be part of an ambitious growth journey. Providing a quality home and great customer service is very much part of the Tilia culture. I’m looking forward to building a specialist team that puts the customer at the heart of everything we do.”
Stuart Craig, interim regional managing director for Tilia Homes Northern, said: “Emily is passionate about customer service. Ensuring we consistently deliver a first class service for every customer will be integral to our success and having someone of Emily’s experience and ability in that senior role will help us to achieve our goals.”
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Manchester-based customer acquisition specialist for the legal sector, mmadigital, has announced the appointment of Anne Geddes to the role of PR manager.
In her new role, Geddes will manage the internal and external PR, news content and communication requirements for mmadigital and its customer facing consumer brands – The Compensation Experts and The Medical Negligence Experts.
Anne Geddes
With a strong marketing and communications background spanning more than 20 years, Geddes has considerable legal sector expertise working both agency and client side with firms including Hill Dickinson. She joins mmadigital to lead the development and implementation of the PR and social media strategy, with particular focus on elevating the brand profile as it goes through a period of significant change and growth.
Dez Derry, mmadigital’s CEO and founder, said: “I’m thrilled to welcome Anne on board at a time when PR will be instrumental to scaling up the business moving forward. She has a great deal of B2B and consumer PR and communications experience, a strong understanding of the legal sector and a natural enthusiasm that I know will serve our people and clients well, making her the perfect fit.”
Anne Geddes said: “It’s great to be joining mmadigital at such a crucial juncture for the company with so many exciting projects taking place and major developments in the pipeline – mmadigital has such a strong and energetic company culture and a clear vision for the future, so I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead and to being part of such a creative, enthusiastic and growing team.”
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Southport care homes operator Dovehaven has appointed Jenny Davies as its first ever chief executive.
Davies has spent her career working at senior levels in regulated utilities, telecoms and retail and has been CEO in THG Ingenuity and M247 prior to joining the business.
Jenny Davies
Her appointment comes after the group has grown rapidly over recent years, now owning 22 homes across Merseyside and Lancashire and is set to grow further under Davies’s leadership.
Mark Gilbert, owner and chairman, said: “We are so happy to have somebody with Jenny’s broad experience join the Dovehaven board. Although Jenny is new to the sector, she has many years’ experience in highly regulated businesses and, importantly, has led large people centric organisations. It was not only Jenny’s commercial acumen that attracted us, but her genuine people centred leadership that made her the right choice for Dovehaven.”
Jenny Davies said: “I knew that my next role needed to be somewhere with a strong purpose and the health and social care sector has shown us all, no more than recently, how important high quality adult social care is to the people in our lives. I look forward to working with the owners and the capable team at Dovehaven to take the business forward and build the leading care home provider in the North West.”
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Accountancy and business advisory firm BDO has made two new hires to its national minimum wage (NMW) team, as it continues to invest in talent across the Northern Employment Tax team, headed by Steve Talbot, partner.
Dale O’Reggio has been appointed as national minimum wage technical lead in the North to support with active HMRC compliance investigations and help employers take proactive steps to improve their governance control environment to ensure ongoing compliance with the NMW regulations. Dale has built a strong track record in helping employers with NMW requirements, having worked as the National Minimum Wage Employment Tribunal lead at HMRC.
This role was created at HMRC due to the ever increasing complexity of NMW and Dale also had the expertise of navigating the more technical employer cases that HMRC enforce. He has more than six years’ experience in applying and interpreting complicated NMW legislation, with end-to-end experience of NMW investigations.
Kyle Newton
Rhys Tomlinson joins as assistant manager, having worked at HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for five years as a higher officer within its NMW department. He was responsible for carrying out worker and third party risk assessments, as well as working alongside employers in meeting their NMW obligations. At BDO, he will support clients in relation to NMW legislation, providing guidance on areas such as current HMRC reviews.
Kyle Newton, Northern NMW leader at BDO, said: “The national minimum wage landscape is complex and under regular scrutiny by the Government and the Low Pay Commission. The Government continues to invest in expanding its enforcement and there are a number of technicalities commonly enforced by HMRC beyond unpaid working time. NMW can present considerable challenges to businesses and payroll departments, particularly those with a large number of workers and typically can impact workers up to £30k and in some cases beyond this level.”
According to the latest government figures, since 2015, the Government have ordered employers to repay more than £100m to one million workers and in the latest naming and shaming list published in December a further 200 employers were reported for NMW breaches.
Dale O’Reggio said: “I’m delighted to be joining BDO at a time of continued change within the NMW field. As we expand our capabilities and extend our NMW service, we will be perfectly positioned to ensure clients meet their NMW obligations and continue to pay employees the legal minimum wage, particularly at a time when the cost of living crisis is reaching unprecedented levels.”
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Matt Noon, partner and head of corporate with Liverpool-based law firm hill Dickinson, has been announced as head of office for Liverpool, a new position that will act as a focal point for local issues, communications and engagement.
Hill Dickinson has grown its workforce by around 10% since 2019 and now employs 950 people across nine UK and international office locations, of which more than 200 are partners and legal directors. The Liverpool office remains the firm’s largest single office location, employing more than 400 people, including most administrative and non-client-facing support services for the firm worldwide.
Matt Noon
Hill Dickinson CEO, Peter Jackson, said: “Hill Dickinson is an international law firm that I’m proud to be able to say has a strong and unified culture across all offices and countries that we operate in. As we grow our offering and our workforce, we, nevertheless, recognise the importance of being responsive to local trading conditions and meeting the varying needs of our people and clients in different locations. Matt’s appointment as head of office for Liverpool is designed to meet that need.”
Referencing the firm’s ‘people-first’ focus, he added: “We have always said that to preserve our culture as an employer of choice we need to listen to and bring our people along with us as we grow. Matt has been with Hill Dickinson for many years. He understands our vision and where we are headed, and what we need to do to get there.
“He is also well known to and trusted by his Liverpool colleagues, as well as those in our eight other offices and externally to local professional organisations and to our clients.”
Matt Noon said: “I feel proud to take on the role as head of office for Liverpool, particularly now as we return to office working in greater numbers and rebuild internal and professional networks. Liverpool is my home turf and, as a key employer, we are part of the city’s thriving business community. Acting as the focal point for local issues and engagement will strengthen our team and, in turn, help ensure we continue to provide exceptional service to our clients.”
