People: R3; Culture Shift; Northern Gritstone; Fractory; Career Connect
Four insolvency and restructuring professionals from the North West have joined the region’s committee at R3, the insolvency and restructuring trade body.
Gavin Clarke, legal director with Gateley Legal, and Rebecca O’Callaghan, legal director at Addleshaw Goddard, are both based in Manchester. Mark Davies is partner and head of restructuring and insolvency at Chester-based Aaron & Partners, while Hemal Mistry is a director and insolvency practitioner with Horsfields in Bury.
They will work with the existing committee members to arrange technical and networking events and conferences for insolvency and restructuring professionals in R3’s North West region, which covers Carlisle, Chester, Manchester, Liverpool and Salford.
Allan Cadman, North West chair of R3, said: “Our new committee members will provide additional local and professional input which will boost our efforts to support our members in North West as they help financially distressed people and businesses.
“All the signs are pointing to the fact that 2023 is going to be just as challenging as the past two years and the work our members do to help turn around businesses, save jobs and help people return to a surer financial footing will be even more critical than it has been in recent times.”
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Culture Shift, the Manchester-based tech for good developer, has bolstered its senior team with two new appointments and a new addition to its board.
With almost 15 years of experience, Jules Curtin has joined Culture Shift’s growing team as vice president of sales, while Naomi Davidson has been appointed head of success.
As part of her role, Jules will be responsible for maintaining relationships with Culture Shift’s existing clients, while playing a key role in the firm’s growth and long term ambition to improve the world of work and study. Working alongside Jules, Naomi has joined the team to help streamline the way in which Culture Shift works with new and existing clients.
Gemma McCall
The firm has also expanded its board in recent months, with Geraldine Osman joining as an advisory board member. Geraldine brings a wealth of experience, having successfully founded and exited StaffConnect Group, a mobile employee engagement platform helping to connect and engage workforces nationwide. Geraldine has also supported other organisations through periods of accelerated growth.
Jules said: “I’m really excited to join Culture Shift at a time of such enormous growth and look forward to being able to facilitate more and more people having access to such a critical platform.”
Naomi said: “I’m excited to have joined the team during a transformational period, where growth is key. Culture Shifts’ purposeful vision inspires me, and working with our partners to embed the system across organisations is a crucial part of this journey.”
Gemma McCall, CEO and co-founder, said: “Over recent years, we’ve seen significant growth within the business, and welcoming Jules and Naomi to the team is the next step in our journey. Our board has also grown in size, with Geraldine joining as an advisory board member. Our team, and ultimately the business, is growing rapidly and I can’t wait to see where the future takes us.”
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Northern Gritstone, the investment business dedicated to supporting university spin-outs and start-ups in the North of England, has appointed Andy Naylor as an investment director.
Andy is the third investment director to join Northern Gritstone in the past six months. He will work alongside chief investment officer, Marion Bernard, to help the business to identify further funding opportunities in innovative northern companies.
Andy brings more than 17 years’ experience of growing technology businesses as an investor, advisor and CEO. He joins Northern Gritstone after five years as CEO of Nottingham Technology Ventures, where he was responsible for managing the University of Nottingham’s spin-out portfolio and associated investment funds.
Andy Naylor
Northern Gritstone, which is chaired by Lord Jim O’Neill, was launched in July 2021 by the Universities of Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield to invest in science and technology-enabled spin-outs in the North of England, while delivering its philosophy of ‘profit with purpose.’
After the company’s first close of £215m in May, it has already announced initial investments in four life sciences and technology-focused companies: Imperagen, Iceotope, Phlux Technologies and Opteran.
Andy will work as part of the investment team across Northern Gritstone’s offices in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield. His appointment follows those of investment directors, Gareth Llewellyn and Mark Wyatt, and investment manager, Alison Maughan, who all joined the company in 2022.
Northern Gritstone CEO, Duncan Johnson, said: “To attract someone with Andy’s stature and experience in developing early-stage businesses is another sign of Northern Gritstone’s ambition. I look forward to working with Andy as we build on our momentum from 2022 and invest in more ground breaking university spin-outs in the North of England.”
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Cloud manufacturing company, Fractory, one of Estonia’s high growth start-up businesses, has appointed a UK sales manager to cover the company’s growth in the British market. Ashley Hickling has more than a decade of sales and account management expertise with Stanley Black and Decker as well as Klaxon Signals.
He said: “Fractory is growing in the UK and now is the time to better understand our customers and ensure they get the best value from the services we offer.”
Ashley will work with a team of 20 sales engineers in the UK, based out of Fractory’s HQ in the Bonded Warehouse, Enterprise City, in Manchester.
Part of Ashley’s remit for 2023 is to ensure that existing customers understand the different ways they can use Fractory for prototyping, for series manufacturing and for large scale project managed jobs.
Villem Hion
Meanwhile, Villem Hion, who ran Fractory’s UK operations for three years, growing the business here from scratch, returns to Estonia where he becomes global supply chain development manager, a role created to look after Fractory’s increasing international supply chain needs. He looks to expand capacity and capability in new regions around the world, better helping customers fulfil their business needs, while maintaining and increasing supply chain reliability and flexibility.
He said: “Our customer base has grown steadily across Northern Europe since our 2017 launch in Estonia, and across the UK since we began operating there in 2019. But we continue to secure new customers globally and our supply chain has to expand to meet their requirements. And of course, there are European and UK customers who, for various reasons, seek international suppliers, so Fractory requires access to manufacturing capacity not just where it is based, but where there is resource.”
Fractory is connecting the different players in the fragmented manufacturing ecosystem and helping its suppliers and customers through some of the issues the industry currently faces, including inflationary pressures, labour shortages, supply chain disruptions and the imbalances between supply and demand.
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Sheila Clark has been appointed as CEO of Liverpool-based careers charity Career Connect.
Sheila, who was previously deputy CEO of the charity, takes up her new permanent role at the start of January 2023.
She has been an intrinsic part of Career Connect’s strategic leadership team since its inception 20 years ago.
A successful company director with significant experience in developing and leading services with local authorities, schools and businesses, Sheila has headed up HR, workforce development, quality improvement, commercial services and international business development in her role as deputy CEO at Career Connect.
As Career Connect’s first female CEO, she will continue to lead the charity in its new vision and mission and delivery of its five-year strategy, with a focus on impact and growth.
Sheila Clark
Career Connect works to empower individuals and help them on their career path. Through its subsidiary company, Achieve Northwest Connect (ANWC), it provides employment, education and training support to offenders and ex-offenders. Its training centre also offers accredited training programmes for careers professionals.
The charity works across the North West and nationally, holding contracts with local authorities, schools and within the justice sector.
Sheila said: “Career Connect has a mission to drive social mobility by enabling more people to access and succeed in education, training and employment. This mission, and our vision of a society where every individual realises their full potential, is at the heart of everything I will do as CEO of our charity.”
Lorraine Dodd, chair of the Career Connect board, said: “The board and I were very impressed by Sheila’s vision for the future of the charity, delivering against our strategy and upholding our values.
“Sheila brings exceptional experience from within the charity, most recently as deputy CEO working closely with our previous CEO Barry Fletcher, delivering on our ambitious plans.”
