People: Napthens; GC Business Finance; Consensus Workspace; Davis Blank Furniss; RDS; Algeos; Colliers
North West law firm Napthens has welcomed Kieran Donovan as partner and new head of its Liverpool office, with the established dealmaker set to lead operations across the city region.
Kieran brings more than 20 years of corporate transactional experience to the firm and joins from Weightmans, where he led its owner-managed business group across the Liverpool City Region from 2017 to 2022. Previously, he was head of corporate at a regional law firm and prior to that a partner at an international law firm, operating out of Liverpool.
Acting for a wide range of clients from early stage ventures to established owner-managed businesses, family companies, large corporates, and institutional investors, Kieran works across a wide range of industry sectors. He regularly advises on M&A, buy-and-build strategies, disposals, venture capital, private equity and other investments, succession planning, joint ventures and shareholder reorganisations.
He is recognised in the Legal 500 as a ‘leading individual’ in corporate law in the North West of England. He is also chair of the Liverpool City Region Corporate Finance Group that comprises 50-plus members across the city region’s corporate finance community.
He will continue this work in his new role and will be responsible for continued development of the firm’s Liverpool offering. His appointment follows a series of senior hires over the past 12 months and a significant upgrade to a larger city centre office location in The Plaza on Old Hall Street.
Kieran will work alongside Gareth McIntegart, a regional dealmaker and Legal 500 ‘leading individual’. Having joined Napthens in 2016 and launched its Liverpool office in 2018, Gareth has driven forward the firm’s corporate offering and the full service capabilities that are now available from its Liverpool office. He has been instrumental in Napthens’ success to date and, alongside his in-house client roles, will continue to play a pivotal role with Kieran in developing the office going forward.
CEO, Alexandra Hatchman, said: “Kieran joins the firm at an exciting time. Our Liverpool team has recently opened a new office whilst our corporate team, led by Keith Melling, has just achieved a record year. Kieran, Gareth and Keith have known each other for many years, and form a potent combination. I am looking forward to the success they will achieve working together.”
Kieran Donovan said:“The Liverpool City Region has a rich community of high growth businesses, investors and professional services and there is huge potential here for Napthens. The firm’s reputation for building strong, lasting relationships with its clients and intermediary connections through quality service is clear throughout the firm, and I look forward to building on the success that Gareth and the team have achieved to date.”
Gareth McIntegart said: “I’m very proud of how far the team in Liverpool has come over the last six years, and having previously worked together for 11 years, I am delighted that Kieran is joining us.”
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GC Business Finance has appointed two new senior loan managers, Paul Deighton and Alison Powell, to strengthen its team and support more businesses across the North West in 2022.
Alison and Paul will play an important role in delivering finance to businesses in the North West. Paul joins from Barclays where he spent four years working with SMEs based in Stockport and Manchester, managing their business banking relationship, and providing a range of lending products and services. His focus will be on delivering the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), which provides loans of £25,000 to £100,000 backed by the Recovery Loan Scheme to growing businesses across the North West.
Paul Deighton, Matt Robinson and Alison Powell
Alison joins from HSBC where she served as a business specialist, helping start-ups and small businesses to achieve their goals by providing tailored products and services, valuable advice and establishing key networks. She will be focused on delivering NPIF loans across the North West with a specific focus on Cumbria and Lancashire.
Paul and Alison join Matt Robinson, who was promoted to head of lending in October 2021. Having previously worked as fund manager for Lancashire Country Council’s Rosebud Fund, Matt has brought a wealth of experience in both business development and the strategic management of funds to the wider GC Business Finance team.
Matt Robinson said: “Paul and Alison are fantastic additions to our team and are equipped with the regional insight and experience to help businesses who have been unable to access finance from mainstream providers.”
Paul Deighton said: “It’s been great working with the team at GC Business Finance and getting embedded in the role, continuing to support businesses in this region. There are so many brilliant businesses out there, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know them and providing them with funding where they otherwise might not have been able to.”
Alison Powell said: “We are at a pivotal moment now, where many businesses have weathered the worst of the pandemic and are turning their focus from survival and recovery to growth. I’m looking forward to helping businesses to take advantage of our broad range of finance and support them on their journey.”
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Altrincham’s Consensus Workspace has promoted Lochlan Hall to assistant project manager.
Lochan, 23, has been with the company since it launched nearly four years ago. He first joined as a junior site manager, reporting to director Ollie Plastow.
Lochlan Hall
His new role will see him take on more client liaison and team leadership, recruiting and managing contractors and growing the southern side of the North West business alongside Ollie.
Ollie said: “We’ve been growing exponentially since we launched and a lot of that is down to Lochlan’s hard work. While we are well established here in the North West and in Scotland, our strategy is to grow our southern presence more and with recent wins in Reading and London, we are on set to do that.”
Lochlan said: “I’m delighted to be working more closely with clients and to help Ollie build up the business further. We have been in Birmingham and Bristol and will spend the next week in London – there is a lot to do and I can’t wait to get started.”
Consensus Workspace is a family-run interior fit out company with more than 25 years’ of expertise. Clients include The Peel Group, commercial real estate services company CBRE, office provider Orega and Deloitte. The company is on target for turnover of £8m by the end of this year.
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Davis Blank Furniss, the Manchester and Glossop-based law firm, has promoted Rebecca Taylor to senior associate solicitor in its dispute resolution team. Lauren Sever has been promoted to associate solicitor in the commercial, corporate and employment department, and Joanne Mercer has become an associate probate manager in the private client team.
Rebecca graduated from the University of Manchester in 2014 and completed her LPC at the College of Law. She joined Davis Blank Furniss as a trainee solicitor in September 2016, and was admitted as a solicitor in September 2018. She works on a variety of commercial and property disputes and, in particular, commercial contract disputes, shareholder disputes, beneficial ownership of property disputes, rights of way disputes and landlord/tenant disputes.
From left: Joanne Mercer, Rebecca Taylor, Lauren Sever
Lauren joined the firm in March 2017, initially in the personal injury team followed by a two year training contract. On qualification in September 2019, she then moved across to the commercial, corporate and employment department. She now focuses on various matters including mergers and acquisitions, shareholder agreements, sale and purchase of businesses, company re-organisations and corporate assistance.
Joanne Mercer has worked at Davis Blank Furniss since 1996. She deals with all aspects of the administration of an estate. The firm says she is also one of the UK’s most experienced traded endowment policy experts and is adept at managing specialist volume work.
Kate Oldfield, managing partner, said: “All three of these promotions are very much deserved. Rebecca, Lauren and Joanne are all experts in their respective fields and are dedicated to delivering a first class level of service for their clients.”
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Altrincham-based, Research and Development Specialists has added two new members to its growing team as bosses aim to triple the size of the business.
Sonny Wilson, 24, from Timperley, will join the established sales team to help expand its current client base. Sonny previously held positions as a business development manager at Add People and senior finance manager at debt solutions firm, Money Advisor.
Also being brought on board is Mustafa Estwani, 22, from Timperley, who brings with him three years of experience in customer facing roles.
Both join the business at a period of exponential growth. The company has already helped businesses to claim more than £23,000,000 through the Government’s HMRC tax incentive for research and development.
Sonny Wilson and Mustafa Estwani
The latest two appointments are the first of many, as the business aims to bring on board one new member to the sales team per month for the next five months. CEO Mark Joyner said he wants the business to grow threefold in the next five years.
He said: “We have very clear growth plans and that’s something everyone in the business buys into, but we also know that to achieve those goals, we need to invest in our team, bringing more like-minded people onboard.
“Each person brings a unique perspective that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts. We welcome our two new members on board and look forward to helping them get to work and the opportunities that will bring.”
Sonny said: “Working for RDS appealed to me because of the different type of projects they help businesses with and the diversity that comes with each one, meaning no two days are the same.”
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Liverpool-based family-run medical products business Algeos has strengthened its leadership team planning for the future, with new managing director Max Sheridan heading up the business, alongside product director Marc Cameron, operations manager Neil Smith and financial controller Jennifer Jackson.
Upholding its 62-strong team and promoting 10 current employees in Q1, Max Sheridan who has more than a decade’s worth of experience at the company, has moved into the hot seat, with Algeos aiming to break into untapped markets in a post-pandemic world, to generate further profitable growth.
From left: Neil Smith, Jennifer Jackson, Max Sheridan, Marc Cameron
Marc Cameron joined the Algeos team as a marketing executive in 2000, and has since gone on to work on the management of the company’s purchasing department and existing product portfolio management, with his role set to evolve further throughout the months and years to come.
Jennifer Jackson has five years of experience already under her belt at Algeos and almost 15 years experience in finance, with her strong leadership style and commitment to implementing streamline processes making her a valuable asset to the company.
Neil Smith brings more than 30 year’s worth of operations experience to Algeos, with his expertise and first class knowledge coming within category management, general merchandise, logistics, utilities, and e-commerce.
Max Sheridan said: “Our leadership team has bought into our long term vision and after working collaboratively throughout the pandemic, we are now looking to go from strength to strength as a family-run business. Personally, Algeos has been in my family since 1990 and to now be managing director is an incredibly proud moment for me – with Marc, Neil and Jennifer, alongside the rest of our team, working towards a bright future.”
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Colliers has recognised four employees in Manchester through its annual promotions process, effective April 1, 2022.
Dominic Pozzoni
James Preston (national capital markets) has been promoted to director, James Barrett (valuations and advisory services) and Alan Wales (project and building consultancy) have been promoted to associate director and Cameron Reekie (project and building consultancy) to senior surveyor.
Dominic Pozzoni, head of Colliers’ Manchester office, said: “The greatest strength of our Manchester office is our people and I am so pleased to see the hard work of these four exceptional candidates being recognised through our latest round of promotions.”
Across the business, 84 have been recognised in total, with 15 promoted to director, 28 to associate director, 22 to senior surveyor and 19 to senior business support roles.
