People: Select Property; DWF; Fletchers Group; Praetura Ventures; Liverpool Chamber; WHN Solicitors

Hannah Rockliffe-Wrigley

Select Property has bolstered its senior leadership team with the appointment of Hannah Rockliffe-Wrigley joining as global marketing director.

Rockliffe-Wrigley joins with more than 15 years’ marketing experience in the property industry having spent the past five years as marketing director at Bruntwood Works, during which Hannah headed up marketing and brand strategy across Bruntwood Works, Affleck’s, Hatch and Bruntwood’s town centres.

Prior to this, Rockliffe-Wrigley draws experience from Allied London, Radisson Hotel Group, Dock 10 and Holden Media.

In her new role, Rockliffe-Wrigley will develop and deliver Select Property’s marketing strategy, overseeing its marketing, corporate communications and brand strategy. This includes developing the global marketing strategy for existing brands such as Affinity Living, and Select Property’s recently announced flagship residential brand, the ‘Prestige Collection’ starting with the esteemed One Port Street development.

Chief executive, Adam Price, said: “Hannah brings a wealth of experience in property marketing and will help the business to reach new audiences across the world, developing the reputation of Select Property’s brands with investors and within the wider industry.”

Hannah Rockliffe-Wrigley said: “I am excited to have joined Select Property. The business has a reputation for delivering industry-leading Built-To-Rent projects in the UK’s top performing investment cities, as well as a great development pipeline. I’m looking forward to building upon the great work the business is already doing, bringing new exciting brands to market.”

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DWF, the global provider of integrated legal and business services, has announced 19 promotions in its Liverpool office.

The legal business, based at 5 St Paul’s Square in the city, has promoted corporate lawyer William Munday to partner. Meanwhile, head of Motor Volume Express, Emma Louise Smith, real estate lawyer Tom Hubbard, insurance lawyer Heather Keenan and regulatory and compliance lawyer Sarah Smith have all been promoted to director.

Will Munday

The full list of promotions is: William Munday, partner, Emma Louise Smith, director, Tom Hubbard, director, Heather Keenan, director, Sarah Smith, director, Gregory Chambers, senior associate, Jamie Johnson, senior associate, Natalie Malone, senior associate, Lauren Murray, associate, James Douglas, associate, Daniel Thomas, associate, Judith Knowles, associate, Isobel Betts, associate, David Jeanrenaud, associate, Rhiannon Evans, associate, Charlotte Hampson, associate, Peter Murray, specialist lead, Thomas Mellish, lead paralegal, and Laura Collison, lead paralegal.

Graham Dagnall, office managing partner of DWF in Liverpool, said: “I’m overjoyed to see so many Liverpool colleagues advancing in their career at DWF.

“I would like to congratulate each of them on their well-deserved promotions and thank them for their excellent performances for the business to date.”

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Fletchers Group, a medical negligence and personal injury firm with offices in Manchester, Southport and Leeds, has appointed Zoe Holland as its new chief commercial officer.

With more than 25 years’ industry experience, Holland is regarded as one of the UK’s most seasoned practitioners in mergers and acquisitions, business growth and operational due diligence matters. Using her background as a serious injury/clinical negligence lawyer together with management board and finance experience, she has advised on some of the sector’s highest profile transactions in recent years.

In this newly created role, Holland will be helping Fletchers Group identify attractive M&A opportunities and develop new businesses as the firm looks to grow through further acquisitions after adding Minton Morrill, Cycle SOS and Blume to its roster since its acquisition by Sun Capital in October 2021.

Zoe Holland

She will help build internal operational capability and act as a coach and mentor for high potential female leaders in the business. She will also join the executive leadership team and report directly to Peter Haden, Fletchers Group chief executive.

Holland is widely recognised for her expertise and success in helping legal and financial businesses scale, grow and innovate. In 2021, she was appointed to the board of Frenkel Topping Group as the AIM-listed group embarked on an aggressive acquisition drive.

Previously, Holland established niche business Zebra LC in 2013, a specialist personal injury/clinical negligence audit, due diligence consulting firm dedicated to helping legal practices and stakeholders embrace the changing legal landscape. Her work with Zebra LC earned her a host of awards including ‘Outstanding Innovator of the Year’ at the Claims Innovation Awards, ‘Legal Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Modern Law Awards, plus a finalist in both the ‘Great British Entrepreneur Awards’ and Lloyds Bank ‘National Business Awards.’

She originally trained as a clinical negligence specialist and prior to Zebra LC, held prominent positions including CEO and head of clinical negligence at a number of highly respected law firms.

In addition to being a board trustee and executive coach working towards ICF Master Accreditation, Holland has also been a member of the Civil Justice Council, supporting the NIHL & Clinical Negligence Claimant Working Group.

Peter Haden said: “Zoe is a proven leader and innovator, and a fantastic addition to the team. Her M&A experience and perspective on operational effectiveness will perfectly complement our existing strengths and will be enormously relevant as we identify and target new acquisitions moving forward. She has a tremendous reputation in the industry and brings a rare and valuable combination of skills, not least as an accomplished lawyer in her own right.

“We have massively enjoyed working with Zoe at Zebra LC, and I know she’s going to excel in this new role and be an integral part in taking Fletchers to the next level.”

Zoe Holland said: “I am absolutely thrilled to join such an exceptional executive team and to help shape the next exciting chapter of the Fletchers Group journey. Fletchers’ strategic roadmap, high quality offering, ambition and people philosophy gives the firm a very strong position in this market with a compelling potential for growth, particularly as the PI/MN sector continues to consolidate. I cannot think of a more exciting time to join the business and look forward to driving the next phase of growth.”

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Praetura Ventures has appointed three experienced industry leaders as partners to support its ambitions to grow its presence within the tech and health sectors.

Lee Forster, Colin Greene and Andy Barrow have all been named partners at the Manchester-based venture capital (VC) investor. This comes as it aims to bolster its backing for its growing portfolio of businesses and identify new early stage investment opportunities.

Lee, a former Team GB swimmer-turned-prolific health entrepreneur, is the chairman and exited founder of bespoke supplement subscription brand Neat Nutrition, which has sold more than one million products in 32 countries since launching in 2015.

Prior to starting Neat, Forster also launched his own healthcare strategy consulting company within KnowledgePoint360 Group, ahead of the company being sold to UDG and Forster joining the product development giant Science Group as the company’s group SVP and head of commercial strategy.

From left: Colin Greene, Andy Barrow, David Foreman, Lee Forster

At Praetura, he will oversee all health and life sciences investments, drawing on his experience and track record to identify new businesses and provide expert support. Forster will also work closely with the GMC Life Sciences Fund by Praetura, a £20m life sciences focused fund launched in 2022 in partnership with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Cheshire and Warrington LEP and Bruntwood SciTech.

Joining Lee is Silicon Valley leader Colin Greene, who spent 12 years at Apple in various senior country leader roles in Asia and the US before joining Praetura in 2021 as part of the VC’s operational partner programme. The operational partner team consists of eight experienced mentors who’ve helped scale AO Group, The Co-operative Bank, Dr Martens, MPP Global, OSTC, Social Chain and many others to success.

Colin will oversee Praetura’s growth platform which provides ‘more than money’ support to the Praetura portfolio, including assigning operational partners to help founders in areas ranging from culture and hiring to expanding internationally.

The final partner is Andy Barrow, who initially joined the business as an operational partner in 2022. Andy will use his considerable industry know-how to oversee new investment opportunities in growing tech businesses and help existing portfolio businesses to scale and develop.

Andy previously spent more than 15 years as CTO of cloud computing giant ANS until its sale to Inflexion, during which time he helped transform the company into a breakout Northern success employing in excess of 300 staff.

In addition to the appointment of the new partners, Praetura has promoted Sim Singh-Landa to investment director and Tom Hardman to portfolio director.

David Foreman, managing partner, said: “We’ve worked closely with Lee, Colin and Andy and have been incredibly impressed with their vision for Praetura Ventures and the quality of support they’ve provided to our portfolio. Between them, they boast a colossal amount of experience across tech, health and the wider life sciences space, and I am incredibly excited to be working with them as partners.

“The North’s ecosystem is bursting with untapped potential, with so many exceptional founders creating countless new, innovative businesses with global ambitions. These appointments mark a major step towards realising Praetura’s goal to be the VC of choice for founders, investors and advisers in the North of England.”

Lee, Colin and Andy will all join the board of Praetura Ventures, which is predominantly focused on tech, health and life sciences, and will take a more prominent role in identifying the businesses the company invests in.

Last year, Praetura Ventures invested £30m into early-stage companies and grew its portfolio to 33 businesses. It also became the largest partner on British Business Investments’ regional angels programme, which aims to rebalance the access to equity investment for start-ups across the UK.

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Liverpool Chamber has appointed new members to its board and business policy committee.

Prof Atif Waraich, director at the School of Computer Science and Mathematics at Liverpool John Moores University, becomes a non-executive director and will support the chamber with its work on governance, equality and social value.

Donna Hewitt, place strategy director at Liverpool One, and Iestyn Adams, group head of strategy and public affairs at Torus, have both joined the business policy committee.

They are joined by fellow new members Paul Trickett, business development manager at Bathgate Business Finance, Kelly Godfrey, social value and sustainability manager at Hive Projects, and Alex Pilkington, regional executive at ICAEW. Mark Barlow of Curtins joins the committee as a representative of the Future Impact Board.

In November, Liverpool Chamber officially appointed Alison Lobb, managing partner at Morecrofts Solicitors, as chair and Chris Waine, director at Hive Projects, as deputy chair.

Prof Atif Waraich

Alison Lobb said: “As the chamber continues to grow and expand its support to businesses, it’s crucial that we are able to attract a broad church of new voices and perspectives to our own leadership teams.

“We are pleased to be able to add so many highly experienced professionals to the board and business policy committee and I am sure their guidance will be invaluable to the chamber and our members as we navigate a difficult economic period and look for new growth opportunities.”

Paul Cherpeau, chief executive at Liverpool Chamber, said: “Our board and committee members play a pivotal role in shaping our organisation and ensuring it continues to represent the best interests of our members. These latest appointments are sure to have a hugely positive impact on our membership and the wider business community in the Liverpool City Region.”

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Greater Manchester and Lancashire law firm Woodcocks Haworth and Nuttall Solicitors (WHN) has strengthened its legal team with the appointment of a new residential conveyancing solicitor.

Lisha Broderick will advise WHN clients on areas of residential conveyancing including transactions, remortgages and transfers of equity. She will work primarily at WHN’s Rawtenstall office but will assist the firm’s clients across the North West.

She has joined the firm from another local law firm where she spent five years, starting as a paralegal and trainee before qualifying as a solicitor.

Lisha Broderick

Michael Shroot, CEO, WHN Solicitors, said: “We’re seeing increased demand for our residential conveyancing legal services across all of our offices and as we continue to grow it’s important that we bring in experienced and passionate professionals.

“Lisha has strong knowledge and experience of the Lancashire residential market and is already having a big impact with clients.”

WHN Solicitors has eight offices across Lancashire and Greater Manchester. The firm advises businesses, individuals and families across the North on a full range of legal matters.

Lisha said: “WHN’s commitment to helping its clients and looking after its people are things that really appealed to me and I’m excited to be working at a firm with values that align with my own.”

Lisha studied a degree in law at the University of Chester before studying her Legal Practice Course at the University of Law in Manchester.

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