People: Alderstone Solicitors; Beever and Struthers; Moneypenny; Propertymark; Express Solicitors; CoolKit
Manchester-based Alderstone Solicitors has promoted three members of its serious and catastrophic personal injury team to associate solicitors.
Claire Cully, Terri Duncan and Amanda O’Sullivan have all been promoted within the firm’s serious and catastrophic injury department. All three have been promoted in recognition of their experience and hard work supporting clients and their families who are coping with life-changing injuries and fatalities.
Claire, 33, and Amanda, 31, have been qualified solicitors for more than four years. Terri, 33, has been qualified for more than five years.
Quentin Underhill, partner, director and head of serious and catastrophic injury, said: “Claire, Terri and Amanda are vital members of our specialist team and thoroughly deserve their promotions. They are skilled and committed professionals, and the families that they help also appreciate their warmth and empathy during extremely challenging times.
“Our latest promotions are part of our strategy to build and strengthen our serious and catastrophic injury expertise. We are a growing firm of solicitors looking for good people to join and we are committed to supporting the development of their legal careers with us.”
Alderstone Solicitors is focused on life-changing personal injury, clinical negligence, industrial disease, asbestos-related diseases, and professional negligence. The firm has offices in Manchester and Chester and supports more than 500 clients across England and Wales.
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Narinder Sandher has been promoted to partner at accountants and business advisors Beever and Struthers within the firm’s risk, audit, assurance and advisory team.
He will operate between the Manchester, Blackburn and Birmingham offices.
Narinder joined as director in 2019, and has been instrumental in the growth and diversification of the firm’s internal audit and consulting services across the social housing, charity, and education sectors.
Narinder Sandher
He also established an IT audit team which provides specialist IT audit services across the public, not for profit and commercial sectors.
Following an increase in income and enjoying ongoing growth, the not-for-profit division at Beever and Struthers, including risk, audit, assurance and advisory, now consists of 90 dedicated colleagues.
Narinder said: “I’m proud to work with a dedicated and professional team able to deliver such outstanding client service resulting in a huge range of new opportunities for the firm”.
Maria Hallows, head of social housing and executive partner at Beever and Struthers, said: “We are thrilled that Narinder is a partner with the firm, and this is testament to the hard work put in by him and our team. We continue to invest in the future of our firm, and Narinder has been instrumental in helping us deliver consistent performance across our locations.”
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Moneypenny, a provider of call answering and live chat services with offices in the UK and US has appointed a new group chief people officer, Fiona Armstrong.
Fiona brings a wealth of experience from a career in large scale people leadership roles, most notably LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) and The LCap Group.
Fiona’s expertise lies in leading the people agenda and she is passionate about supporting globally-based diverse teams full of fantastic talent. Her role at Wrexham-based Moneypenny will be all encompassing with a focus on attracting, developing and retaining the talented and diverse individuals who make Moneypenny what it is today.
Fiona Armstrong
Fiona will leverage her extensive knowledge to support the businesses and talent processes to enhance all aspects of the Moneypenny experience.
CEO, Joanna Swash, said: “Since day one of Moneypenny, our people have always been, and will always be, our most important and most powerful asset. I am so impressed by Fiona’s passion for the impact that brilliant talent has on the success of every business. She’s an excellent addition to our team, and her experience and expertise will be invaluable as we continue to strengthen the Moneypenny brand and position the company for continued growth in both the UK and US.”
Fiona said: “I am thrilled to be joining Moneypenny at such an exciting time, particularly with the exciting expansion plans in place for both the UK and US. People are at the heart of Moneypenny’s business strategy, and I am really looking forward to taking the lead on the ambitious people and culture agenda, scaling the people strategy in line with Moneypenny’s growth.”
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A Lake District property expert has been given a prestigious new role representing property agents and helping to uphold standards in the profession.
Gemma Dawe, owner of Lake District Relocation, has been appointed Cumbria and Lancashire regional executive for Propertymark, a membership body for property agents.
Gemma said: “I am really honoured to have been chosen for this role. Propertymark are the main player in the UK representing estate agents and property professionals, their qualifications set the gold standard.”
Gemma Dawe
Gemma will represent colleagues across the region for Propertymark which is based in Warwick and has 18,000 members nationally. She will also help promote the organisation’s qualifications. She said: “I have been a member of Propertymark for more than a decade. Propertymark is about driving standards in estate agency and raising the bar within the profession so that customers have the best possible experience working with property professionals.”
Gemma achieved Fellow Member status last year after gaining Propertymark’s level four residential sales qualification. She was also a finalist for Learner of the Year in the Propertymark Qualifications Awards held in London in October.
Last year she took part in a scheme run by charity Agents Together where she received mentoring from Phil Spencer, co-host of Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location programme.
Stephen McCarron, national president of Propertymak, said: “We went through a stringent interview process to fill this vacancy and I am delighted that we have ended up with Gemma in the regional executive role. Her expertise will significantly strengthen our ability to represent property agents and uphold standards in the region.”
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Express Solicitors, the personal injury law firm, has welcomed a team of six experienced serious injury specialists from Linder Myers.
The Manchester-based personal injury firm has been able to retain valuable senior knowledge and sector experience with partners Andrew McBride and Mark Howarth, both well respected individuals, joining the personal injury firm.
Following Andrew and Mark from Linder Myers is Associate Chartered Legal Executive, Claire Reddicen, trainee solicitors Dominic Stait and Lottie Brenton, and legal secretary Joanna Quiligotti.
From left: Joanna Quiligotti, Andrew McBride, Mark Howarth, Claire Reddicen
Express Solicitors said it was keen on keeping the strong team of serious injury experts together, to offer a seamless transition for current clients and adding much needed capacity and further depth of serious injury handling to Express Solicitors’ offering.
The team of six appointments strengthens the personal injury team to more than 500 employees for the Top 100 law firm.
Managing partner, James Maxey, said: “These six high calibre professionals slotted straight into our working life and business practices. With a proven track record of success, a previous strong working relationship, and shared similar values, all the new recruits have been a welcome addition to an already flourishing department.”
McBride said: “This offered a great opportunity for me and the team to continue to work with existing clients. Express Solicitors has welcomed and supported us all.”
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CoolKit, the Burnley-based specialist in temperature-controlled vans, has completed a restructuring of its executive team following the recent announcement of its record order intake of £20.1m for 2022.
Founder and chief executive, Rupert Gatty, has promoted finance director Daniel Miller – who joined the business last year to oversee digital transformation and growth – to managing director.
Motor industry veteran, Mike Scappaticci, has joined the business as head of fleet sales and is joined by Matthew Kershaw, a highly experienced engineer and director of the Northern Automotive Alliance, as head of operations.
From left: Matthew Kershaw, Daniel Miller, Rupert Gatty, Mike Scappaticci
Rupert, who launched CoolKit in 2005, said: “Bringing in consummate professionals in their respective fields to the business is a crucial, transformational step change for CoolKit.
“By creating an experienced executive team, we are now firmly out of the blocks for 2023. I’ve never been more excited about the prospects for the business as we support our customers on their journey towards more sustainable fleets by choosing alternatively fuelled vehicles and more.”
By promoting Daniel to managing director, Rupert’s intention is to step away from the day-to-day management of the business to concentrate on strategic development. He said: “Daniel has already brought in a great deal of positive change across the business, and it is my intention now to allow him to build on that by focusing on strategy implementation and innovation.”
Chartered accountant Daniel joined the company in February 2022, from Finnish paper and energy technology supplier Valmet, where he was UK managing director. He said: “I am excited by the opportunity to introduce new initiatives across the board – ones which will support employee retention, personal development and product quality.”
For the past 25 years, new head of fleet sales, Mike, worked within the Mercedes Benz commercial vehicle dealer network and headed up the e-Grocery side of the business for 12 years. He said: “CoolKit already has a phenomenal business model, but it’s my intention to build further upon that by taking collaboration and communication to a new high.”
Quality, safety and efficiency are the aims of new head of operations Matthew, 47, who brings his career-long experience as an engineer in the automotive industry to CoolKit. He spent 14 years with SETCO Automotive UK, a company designing turbochargers which worked directly with major OEM’s including Ford, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo on the development of their engines from initial design, through vehicle testing, to supply to the customer.
Matthew also holds a position as a director of the Northern Automotive Alliance, whom he assists by promoting and supporting the interests of the automotive industry across the Northern Powerhouse region. He said: “CoolKit is a business which has clearly enjoyed substantial recent growth but is also one that still has enormous potential which I look forward to helping to realise.”
