People: CG Professional; Stockport County Community Trust; Westbridge; Nisyst; Farleys Solicitors; New Care

Lauren Rattigan, William Pinnock, Jennifer Gallagher

North West law firm CG Professional has made three key senior appointments to support its continued growth across the region.

All three appointments are to the Commercial and Corporate Teams, two of which will be based at CG’s newest office in Liverpool and bolster the existing team’s ability to service clients across the North West.

Jennifer Gallagher joins as Corporate Partner from Brabners where she built a strong reputation over the past few years following a period of four years at a large international law firm based in Dubai.

William Pinnock joins as Partner from Glaisyers where he was head of the Corporate team and Lauren Rattigan joins the Commercial team having spent seven years with DWF in Liverpool where she trained and qualified.

Benjamin Dredge, Managing Partner at CG, said: “All three appointments have strong corporate and commercial experience and demonstrate CG’s commitment to ensuring city firm calibre lawyers to support our clients and is in reaction to increased demand for CG’s corporate and commercial services.”

Jennifer Gallagher has extensive experience in all aspects of corporate work, including mergers and acquisitions from SMEs to larger multinational companies and management teams. Having worked for a time in Dubai, Jennifer is highly experienced in UK and UAE cross border M & A transactions, corporate reorganisations, shareholders agreements and implementing joint venture structures.

Jennifer said: ”I’m really pleased to join the CG team. Their vision and culture is unique in the legal sector which is so refreshing and I’m really looking forward to playing my part in such a dynamic and growing firm.”

William Pinnock, formerly Head of Corporate at Glaisyers said: “The team that Ben has put together over the last few years in the Commercial and Corporate department at CG is very impressive. That, along with the firm’s ambitions of how they want to grow the business meant that this was just too good an opportunity to miss.”

Benjamin said: “We’re very pleased to welcome Jennifer, William and Lauren to the CG team. These appointments come off the back of our best financial year to date, showing year on year growth in turnover through increased client engagement for all our services.

“We’re around 12 months ahead of our initial forecast at the moment and we’re determined to keep that momentum up. It’s been an incredible journey going from a team of three five years ago to our current head count of more than 50 across offices in Lancashire, Manchester and Liverpool providing commercial, corporate, real estate and employment services to quality regional, blue chip and national clients.”

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As part of the development of the community work that Stockport County FC is keen to undertake, Stockport County Community Trust has appointed a new CEO, Alison Warwood, who joined the Trust at the start of January.

Alison has a long career of working in the charity sector, especially within sporting community programmes having previously worked for City in the Community and the equality and inclusion campaign, Kick It Out.

Alison Warwood

John Stevenson, Chair of the Trust, said: “Alison joins with excellent experience of senior management and leadership in the charity sector and will bring a wide range of skills to complement and develop the existing team, allowing the charity to grow and expand our work further in the community in line with the Trust and Club’s vision for the future.”

Jonathan Vaughan, Chief Executive of Stockport County Football Club, said: “I’m really excited about her appointment and what she will bring to complement the great work of the existing team. Alison brings energy and skills which will allow us to grow the Trust’s reach and the breadth of our work in the community.”

Alison said: “The Trust is already carrying out some important programmes that clearly benefit the local community and hopefully we can develop these further, working with local partners and stakeholders to really help to use football and the Club to change the lives of people across Stockport and the surrounding area.”

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Westbridge, the lower mid-market private equity firm, has announced a number of promotions following a successful 12 months during which it completed six transactions, including its exit from bChannels which generated a 4.2x multiple of cost.

Peter Barkley, who joined WestBridge in 2019 to head its Manchester office, has been promoted to partner. Barkley has made a significant contribution to the firm’s deal-making in the North West region.

James MacLeay and Ed Minton have both been recognised with several young and emerging deal-maker accolades in 2022. Having joined WestBridge in 2018, they have each been promoted to investment director.

Peter Barkley

Rory Whitrow has been promoted to investment executive. Whitrow joined WestBridge in 2021 as an analyst and has played a key supporting role in three of the firm’s 2022 transactions – the £17m investment in SCT, the £20m investment in Techex and, most recently, the £18.7m investment in Alpine.

WestBridge managing partner, Guy Davies, said: “We have created a strong, close knit and collaborative team at WestBridge that is laser focused on identifying and partnering with strong management teams of attractive niche businesses. All four individuals have made significant contributions to our activity, helping us deploy our Value Creation Model. Ultimately, they have contributed to WestBridge achieving an overall top quartile fund performance.

“These promotions are well deserved and we look forward to announcing new members of the team over the next few months.”

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Nisyst, a provider of electronic point of sale (EPoS) solutions into the charity sector, has started the new year on a high with a key promotion and several new starters.

The firm is based in Bolton and has a UK-wide charity and hospice customer base providing CHARiotWeb – a cutting-edge charity EPoS solution with full Gift Aid functionality.

Recent team expansions for Nisyst include longstanding team member, Kalpesh Taratiya, who has been promoted to head up the Project and Training team. With 18 years under his belt with Nisyst, Kalpesh has renowned support manager experience, which he will bring forward into his new role.

Victoria McAfee, Marc Wilkinson, Kalpesh Taratiya

Kalpesh’s knowledge will continue to add great value to Nisyst, as the business moves to its latest EPoS charity solution – CHARiotWeb.

Marc Wilkinson has recently joined as a Business Development Manager. Marc has more than three decades of experience in the business solutions sector, with 24 years specifically in the EPoS industry.

Victoria McAfee has also recently joined Nisyst as an Account Manager. Victoria has six years of account management experience, primarily within the public sector, managing hospitals, councils and universities.

Nisyst has expanded its team further at the end of 2022 to add key resource across support, development, and training teams. Further expansion is on the horizon for 2023.

Bob Chunilal, Managing Director, said: “2023 is set to be an exciting and groundbreaking year at Nisyst, as we continue to grow our charity customer base and expand the team.”

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North West law firm Farleys Solicitors has kicked off the new year with a boost to the firm’s partnership, with five promotions across the firm’s practice areas.

Richard Bell, Jane Chadwick, Kelly Darlington, Mark Hague, and Victoria Mitchell have all been appointed as partners of the 150 strong, full service firm.

Corporate law specialist and Legal 500 recommended lawyer, Richard Bell, takes up his new position, having joined the firm in 2021. With an impressive SME client base, including key links within the healthcare sector, Richard acts on a wide range of matters nationally, including business sales, acquisitions and mergers together with corporate restructures and advice on the finance and ownership of businesses.

Jane Chadwick is a highly experienced personal injury solicitor, having trained at Farleys and gone on to establish her position as an integral part of the firm’s serious injury and medical negligence team. Jane has an impressive caseload, many with settlement values into seven figure damages.

From left: Richard Bell, Victoria Mitchell, Mark Hague, Kelly Darlington, Jane Chadwick

A nationally recognised specialist in inquests, Kelly Darlington is another who started her legal career and trained at the firm. Recommended in the Legal 500 for her work and recently named as The Times ‘Lawyer of the Week’, Kelly represents clients across the country in a wide range of high profile inquest proceedings, human rights claims, and actions against public authorities in relation to issues with the provision of care.

Mark Hague joined Farleys in early 2019 and heads up the firm’s insolvency team. A Legal 500 recommended lawyer, he has been a driving force in the rapid growth of the firm’s specialist insolvency offering in recent years. Working with insolvency practitioners, directors, creditors, private individuals, and lenders, Mark’s practice covers all aspects of corporate and personal insolvency.

Victoria Mitchell heads Farleys’ employment & HR team, having established the department upon her appointment to the firm. She is highly experienced with considerable commercial expertise, providing specialist employment advice on a full range of matters including disciplinary and grievance, employment tribunals, strategic planning, re-structuring and employment documentation.

“All five are commended for their talent, hard work and are highly valued by colleagues and clients alike”, said Ian Liddle, managing partner. “These well deserved promotions, along with other recent developments at Farleys, positions us well for continued growth in 2023 and beyond.”

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Farai Hanyane and Hannah Sparks have been appointed registered manager and deputy manager, respectively, at New Care’s latest care centre, Statham Manor in Lymm.

Using their many combined years of experience in health and social care, the duo will take responsibility for the day-to-day running of the new home on Statham Avenue, working together to deliver a high standard of person-centred care for residents.

Prior to joining New Care, Farai worked for a large corporate company for more than 14 years, progressing from nurse to operations manager covering homes across England, Scotland and Wales.

Hannah Sparks and Farai Hanyane

Hannah started her career at a nursing home before moving to St Roccos Hospice in Warrington where she focused on providing specialist palliative care, both holistic symptom management and end-of-life care to patients and support to their loved ones.

Both Registered General Nurses, the pair have extensive additional professional qualifications but agree that elderly care is most definitely a calling for both of them.

Farai said: “After working in the corporate world I was attracted to New Care as it was a smaller and more intimate company that would allow me to be my own person, connect with my team and deliver a wonderful quality of care to the people living in our home.”

Hannah said: “I’m really looking forward to meeting our new residents and the wider team and it’s exciting that we are all starting out on this new venture at the same time as a new family.”

Part of the McGoff Group, Statham Manor provides a purpose-built 66-bedroom care home featuring fully furnished bedrooms, each with a private en suite wet room, plus a selection of communal lounges and dining rooms.

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