People: Mills & Reeve; CBRE; CBP; Myerson Solicitors; Miller Homes; Flow Creative
Mills & Reeve construction lawyer, Catherine Kay, has joined the development board of the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM).
Catherine has advised RNCM for more than 20 years. She has acted on several high profile projects including the £4m revamp of its student social space and the £4.5m redevelopment of its state-of-the-art main theatre.
Catherine said: “We have been a legal partner of RNCM for many years. It is an honour to be appointed to the development board as the college forges ahead with its ambitious strategic plans to enable future sustainability, further cementing its reputation on the global stage and enhancing its contributions to the North West arts scene.”
Rhiannon McKay-Smith, director of development, said: “We are pleased to have Catherine as part of our development board, further extending the longstanding partnership between RNCM and Mills & Reeve.
“The development board aims to support the RNCM’s fundraising strategy and ambitions to grow our philanthropic income and reach, and we know Catherine will be a great asset to the team.”
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Hannah Blunstone
CBRE’s planning and development team has named Hannah Blunstone as its new director to join the Northern business, in an internal move to focus on the teams alternative use capabilities.
Hannah has been with CBRE for more than a decade and was previously a director in the London and South East team. She brings more than 15 years’ experience as a Chartered Town Planner across a range of sectors, most recently focusing on life sciences, higher education and student accommodation, film studios, healthcare and mixed use development.
Hannah will be based out of both Manchester and Leeds, with a focus on identified growth sectors across the region.
Iain Jenkinson, executive director, CBRE Planning & Development, said: “Hannah brings a wealth of experience from London and the South East in many of the growth areas we are seeing right now and will add depth to our strategic advice and the project management of major planning applications in these sectors. We look forward to Hannah joining us.”
Hannah said: “With the Government’s focus on the regeneration of Northern towns and cities and many transformational projects identified, it is an exciting time to be joining the growing Northern Planning & Development team. I am looking forward to utilising my recent experience in some of the alternative use classes which are key to many large scale regeneration projects.”
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Jaydee Davis
Blackburn-based business support organisation, Community & Business Partners CIC (CBP), has a new leader and a new strategic direction.
CBP, which is a not-for-profit with a unique focus on delivering community impact, has appointed Jaydee Davis as its managing director. Under Jaydee’s leadership CBP will sharpen its focus on delivering four specific areas of social impact — business, community, environment and skills.
She said: “I’m excited to build on our long standing and successful history, as we take CBP in a new direction from a predominantly funded model to a more commercial one. We still see funded projects as important to what we do, but by expanding our commercial model, we will ensure that not only will we have a more sustainable future, but we will be able to offer even more for our businesses and the community alike.”
Jaydee, who will celebrate 10 years at CBP in the next year, joined as operations manager and has been working as operations director since 2020. CBP has a network of 150 industry experts.
Its community focus is carried out through the work at SAMS @ Community & Business Partners, which rescues manufactured materials which would otherwise head to landfill and takes in surplus food from local suppliers. The food is supplied to families in need.
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Jordana Reynolds
Myerson Solicitors has promoted Jordanna Reynolds to the role of people director, heading the people and culture team.
Jordanna’s journey with the Altrincham firm began in 2016 when she joined as the human resources manager. In her new role, Jordanna will lead the firm’s people agenda, taking on strategic oversight of human resources and playing a pivotal role in shaping the organisation’s culture and talent management initiatives.
She brings a wealth of experience to her position, having previously held generalist HR roles within the property and recruitment sectors. She said: “I am truly honoured to be appointed as people director during such an exciting time for our firm. I am thrilled to lead our people and culture initiatives as we continue to grow and provide top tier legal services to our clients.”
Jordanna holds a Level 7 qualification from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and she earned her BSc in Human Communication Science from Sheffield University in 2012. She furthered her education with an MSc in Human Resource Management from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2014.
Carl Newton, CEO at Myerson Solicitors, said: “We are thrilled to promote Jordanna Reynolds to the position of people director. Jordanna’s passion for human resources, her impressive credentials, and her dedication to our firm’s values make her the perfect fit for this role.”
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Matt Paul, left, and John Hardy
Miller Homes has appointed John Hardy as the new land director, and Matthew Paul as the commercial director for its North West region.
John Hardy brings more than two decades of invaluable experience to the table. His journey in the housebuilding industry began as a land buyer, and in excess of 14 years at Jones Homes UK where he progressed through the ranks to the position of land director.
Hardy said: “I am thrilled to join the Miller Homes team. I am excited to contribute my experience to further enhance the company’s success.”
Matthew Paul’s impressive journey in the industry saw him spend more than two decades at Barratt Homes, where he began as a trainee quantity surveyor and progressively worked his way up to become the commercial director.
He said: “I am honoured to join Miller Homes. I look forward to leading the team and contributing to the company’s ongoing and future projects.”
David Brackley, regional operations director at Miller Homes North West, said: “John and Matthew bring to the team a wealth of experience from a portfolio of respected homebuilders, they will further strengthen the Miller Homes North West board as we celebrate an extremely positive first half to the year. We’re excited to see further successes under their direction.”
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Matt, Winston and Clare
Flow Creative has made two critical hires, and an internal promotion to bolster its senior team.
Clare O’Mahoney, ex Modern Designers, starts as head of creative production, Matt Volp, ex Havas, starts as head of animation, and animator and illustrator Winston Tsang, who has been an animator at Flow for four years, starts as art director. The appointments come as Flow’s offering evolves and strengthens the branding, motion and narrative animation capabilities at the agency.
Matt Volp will head up Flow’s animation team. With over 10 years experience in motion design both as freelance and in-house, Matt has worked for, and collaborated with, some of the biggest brands and studios in the world including Columbia Pictures, Manchester United and Nike.
In her new role Clare will oversee all client accounts and ensure a smooth creative operation of Flow studio as it evolves its offer. With more than a decade working in the cultural and design industry in Manchester, Clare is also the co-founder of the Pilkington Club, a network designed to support women in their careers at all stages.
Winston Tsang, previously of Hungry Sandwich Club in Leeds, started with Flow in 2019 as an animator, and has worked on illustration, animation and art directing animation projects for the studio since. This promotion will see Winston lead the art direction for all of the agency’s projects, especially the narrative, character-led animation work.
Karl Doran remains creative director at Manchester-based Flow, leading the studio’s advertising and campaign work, and guiding the team. Karl said: “As Flow evolves as a creative agency and the ways in which we can help our clients expands, it is essential we have talented leaders in the team in all areas of focus. Together Clare, Matt and Winston will ensure we offer amazing service and creativity to all our clients.”
