People: Cowgills; Leonard Curtis Legal; Together; Duo Consulting; Solomon Commercials; Mills & Reeve
Business and Advisory firm Cowgills has announced three new partners who will work across its offices in Bolton, Manchester and Liverpool.
Caroline Snape and Georges Daubney, who have both been with Cowgills since 2007, have been promoted to partnership positions in the audit and advisory and tax advisory teams, respectively.
Since joining, Caroline has rapidly developed her skills in the audit team and has developed a portfolio of growing and entrepreneurial clients, which is a key focus of the Cowgills business.
Georges joined Cowgills on the firm’s highly successful graduate programme and has a wide-ranging role within the tax advisory team. He was instrumental in developing Cowgills’ tax transaction services offering and will continue to develop this area.
The promotions follow the appointment, last month, of Helen Mills who joined the Liverpool team as an audit partner.
Cowgills managing partner, Paul Stringer, said: “It is great to welcome new people like Helen to the team at the same time as promoting our existing colleagues.
“Caroline has done a great job in cementing many of our key client relationships and building a strong team which looks after our more complex audits. Georges has been with the firm almost his entire career and is a great demonstration of the many opportunities that are available at Cowgills.
“All three are very welcome appointments and we are looking forward to them further strengthening and continuing to diversify our partnership board.”
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Leonard Curtis Legal (LCL), a division of Leonard Curtis Business Solutions Group, has strengthened its commercial property services with the appointment of Kulzinder Garcha as associate based in the Manchester head office.
Continuing the firm’s commitment to growing the real estate practice to meet client demand, Kulzinder joins LCL at an exciting time of growth for the business, which has announced a commitment to double in turnover by 2025.
Working alongside property expert Alicia Renshaw, Kulzinder will continue the development of commercial property services, complementing the wider Leonard Curtis Group offering.
Kulzinder Garcha
With more than 10 years’ experience in real estate, Kulzinder is a specialist in all aspects of commercial transactions of property and land such as, acquisitions, sales, lease negotiation, and assisting companies with their property due diligence for the purposes of refinancing.
She brings vast experience across multiple sectors including retail, restaurants, education, industry and manufacturing.
Alicia said: “Kulzinder’s appointment is key in strengthening our capabilities which enable us to provide our growing client base with the highest quality property law advice.”
Kulzinder said: “This is an exciting time to join the team which has such a wide group offering and the ability to support clients with comprehensive legal advice alongside other solutions. I look forward to working across the group to continue developing property as a core practice area.”
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Specialist lender Together is growing its team across the country, with a series of new senior appointments.
Danielle Potter, Pall Thorarinsson and Jamie Grimshaw will join the Cheadle-based company as business development directors, bolstering the group’s regional teams and increasing its footprint across the UK. All three will report to Sean Williams, head of professional sector at Together.
The group, which has a loan book of more than £4.8bn, provides finance for a wide range of customers from large businesses to individual investors and SMEs, seeking to raise capital or acquire property or land.
Pall Thorarinsson, Danielle Potter, Jamie Grimshaw
Danielle Potter will be working across the Manchester and Cheshire region. She has nine years’ experience working in banking, largely across property lending, for Handelsbanken. Danielle is a Chartered Banker, CeMap qualified and brings a wealth of experience looking after high net-worth property investors around the North West.
Pall Thorarinsson will be based in London, working to increase Together’s footprint across the capital and the South. Pall has worked in banking and financial services for 15 years, previously for Cynergy Bank and ICICI Bank UK, and also holds CFA and IMC qualifications. His experience is across real estate funding, corporate finance and commercial banking.
Jamie Grimshaw is a certified Chartered Banker with more than 23 years’ experience in the financial services industry across the North West. In his previous roles he specialised in corporate and commercial banking for NatWest group and investment funding with FW Capital via the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). Jamie will bring extensive experience of finance in the SME market place, and will be focusing on all aspects of property funding across Lancashire and Cumbria.
Sean Williams said: “We’re incredibly pleased to welcome Danielle, Paul and Jamie to the Together team. They bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be a huge asset to our company. They will help us meet our ambitious growth aspirations by supporting even more individuals, businesses and their advisers.”
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Strategic communications and public relations agency, Duo Consulting, has appointed seasoned communications professional, Will Stone, as associate director.
Stone brings with him more than 20 years of communications experience, gained across global businesses and agencies. He previously worked for techUK, Atmos International and UPM and has worked with scale-up businesses in Finland and the UK.
Dan Sheridan, founder and MD of Duo Consulting, said: “As we continue with our growth plans, making a senior appointment is critical to developing our offer and expertise. Will’s experience in B2B manufacturing, tech and education complements our existing and future client base. In addition, he has significant knowledge of sustainability, innovation and stakeholder engagement.”
Will Stone
Will Stone said: “Dan’s passion and vision for Duo Consulting was the main driver for me to join the business. I’m really looking forward to helping Dan grow the business and to work with the calibre of clients we currently have on our roster.”
Duo Consulting has also appointed its first external advisor. David de Koning, recently director of investor relations and communications at Funding Circle, has more than a decade of experience working at the heart of high growth business, both pre- and post-IPO. He will support management with development of client service propositions, and lend first hand insight to Duo’s scale-up clients, particularly in finance and tech.
The appointments follow new clients for Duo including Garrison, a London-headquartered cybersecurity specialist, and Vypr, a Manchester-based innovation intelligence platform.
The business, which is based in Altrincham, is currently recruiting for a senior consultant to join the team.
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Lancashire-based Solomon Commercials, a manufacturer of temperature-controlled vehicles, has promoted Kieran Taylor to head of operations.
Kieran, previously the company’s head of aftersales, has been with the business for 11 years but has more than 20 years in the automotive engineering industry, having worked at Allied Coach Bodies and Mellor Bus. He will now oversee the company’s manufacturing and business operations.
Solomon manufactures approximately 3,500 temperature-controlled vehicles each year for independent businesses, SMEs and blue-chip clients. The business is also witnessing an increased demand for electric vehicles as businesses aim to work toward carbon-neutral operations.
Kieran Taylor
Kieran said: “Solomon Commercials is known as the leader in its field for designing, engineering and manufacturing temperature-controlled rigid vehicles. It’s a privilege to be promoted to a key position within the organisation. I look forward to working with the senior management team to ensure we maintain our position as the market leader.”
Solomon’s sales director, Anthony Clegg, said: “Kieran is an asset to the company, and it’s good to see him progress within the business. The head of operations is a key role at Solomons and we’re extremely confident he’ll succeed in it.”
In the past 18 months, Solomon Commercials invested £2m at its Haslingden headquarters to increase production capacity, grew its workforce to 450 employees and opened a 35,000 sq ft production facility in Darwen, taking its production capacity to more than 240,000 sq ft.
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National law firm Mills & Reeve has announced seven promotions in its Manchester office.
Vicky Protano has been promoted to partner in the corporate team. Vicky, who joined in 2018, is a corporate lawyer with a particular focus in the life sciences and technology sectors. She advises on a variety of matters including disposals, acquisitions, investments (equity and debt), corporate governance, shareholder and joint venture arrangements and corporate restructures and reorganisations.
Vicky Protano
Among those promoted to principal associate are Pili Fernandez-Mahoney in the employment team, and professional indemnity and insurance disputes specialist, Adrian Kwintner.
Elsewhere, Tom Hasoon in the employment team, Holly Hill, who specialises in real estate disputes, Laura Wells in the commercial team, and private client specialist Faith Gandhi have been promoted to senior associate.
Caroline Hanratty, partner and acting head of the Manchester office, said: “Vicky has made a huge contribution to the corporate team since she joined us in 2018, having built a strong client base and developed a great reputation in the market. Mills & Reeve is committed to promoting talented and highly skilled lawyers and I would like to congratulate Vicky, Pili, Adrian, Tom, Laura, Faith and Holly whom I am confident will make a significant contribution to the firm in the years ahead.”
