People: Wain Estates; Simpson Millar; Huddart; Davis Blank Furniss; Somo Bridging; Simpson Millar; Impression; B8RE
Experienced planner and project manager, Natalie Webster, has joined Wain Estates as associate planning and development director.
Natalie spent five years with Homes England as senior planning and enabling manager, most recently working on York Central, a 45ha brownfield regeneration site in York, with potential to deliver up to 2,500 homes and 87,693 sq m of office space, 11,991 sq m retail and leisure, 400-bed hotel a new central park and other community uses.
She joins Wain Estates’ growing land promotion business, with a brief to lead strategic projects from acquisition to gaining planning to disposal to the open market. Natalie said: “This is an exciting hybrid role, where I can utilise all my delivery experience and planning background to help bring a wide range of land assets across the UK to market for development.”
Natalie will be based at Wain Estates’ offices at Birchwood, Warrington.
Angela Heaney, managing director at Wain Estates Land Promotion, said: “Natalie brings a broad knowledge and hands-on experience to the team. Her ability to bring multiple stakeholders to the table and make progress is a huge asset and critical to bringing sites to the open market.”
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Richard Holt
Worsley-based Chartered Accountants, Huddart, has appointed Richard Holt as senior manager to lead the firm as it grows and takes on new clients.
Richard has spent the past 10 years working in practice. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant with the ICAEW and brings with him a wealth of expertise in looking after a portfolio of owner-managed businesses in a wide range of industry sectors. Richard is client-focused with a background in accounts, management accounts and tax.
He said: “I decided to join Huddart as we share the same values, with an emphasis on building and maintaining strong relationships with clients.”
Director, Lee Sugden, said: “Richard is a dynamic and value driven leader, with a strong background in accounting. His professionalism in building strong relationships with clients makes him the perfect fit for Huddart.”
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Seán Hackett
Davis Blank Furniss, the Manchester and Glossop-based law firm, has named Seán Hackett as a partner and its new head of Property Litigation. He will be working closely with the wider property group, including Richard Hamilton, managing partner and head of Property, and Rosie Korcz, Commercial Property partner, as well as the Dispute Resolution team.
Seán has more than 20 years’ experience in real estate litigation, landlord and tenant litigation and advisory work. He has been consistently ranked in both Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners for more than 10 years.
He was previously head of the Property Litigation Department at Myerson Solicitors and prior to that he was a director in the Property Litigation team at Pannone Corporate.
Seán said: “Joining the Property Group – and working alongside top legal talent like Rosie and Richard – was an exciting opportunity which I could not pass on.
Richard Hamilton said: “Seán is a fantastic addition to the firm. We are looking forward to him embedding himself in the firm and growing our property litigation department over the coming years.”
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Andrew Marsland
Manchester-based specialist lending firm, Somo Bridging, has appointed Andrew Marsland as its new relationship director – Wales.
A seasoned lending professional, Andrew has more than 22 years’ experience in the financial services industry covering mortgages, underwriting, business development and sales.
Splitting his time between office-based work in Manchester and meeting with broker clients in Wales, Andrew will use his expertise to advise on and sell its bridge lending portfolio, including its Valuation Only and Second Charge products.
Andrew said: “Joining such an innovative business in a fast growing industry is really exciting. It’s a totally different way of working for me. We get the freedom to find ways to offer deals that don’t fit the standard lending criteria. This means we can look at each individual situation, talk through the options with brokers and, if it’s safe and viable, make an offer.“
In September Somo became a patron lender of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB), the UK’s largest independent trade body for commercial finance brokers.
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Sarah Warburton
Consumer law firm Simpson Millar has expanded its Child Care Proceedings department with the appointment of solicitor Sarah Warburton, and paralegal Josie Gabriel.
Joining the firm from 174 Family Law, Sarah brings with her a passion for representing parents and other family members in care proceedings and the pre-proceedings process.
Representing clients across the North West, and working out of Simpson Millar’s Manchester office, she brings more than three years of specialising in family law and child protection issues to the role, including representation in matters involving social services such as care proceedings, discharge of care orders and contact with children in care.
Josie Gabriel, based in Leeds, also joins the firm’s national Child Care Proceedings department, which forms part of Simpson Millar’s wider Public Law division.
A Law graduate from the University of Cambridge, she will provide support across the team which is highly regarded for its work representing families in disputes relating to the care of children, including care proceedings brought by the local authority, or privately between parents or other individuals.
The pair have been welcomed by Simpson Millar’s head of Child Care Proceedings, Patricia Cannon, who said that their ‘empathy and understanding’ meant they were ideally placed to support clients.
The appointments follow a number of recent promotions within the 19-strong team in response to increased demand from clients in need of specialist advice, including Lidia Foster promoted to senior associate, and Sean Harrison promoted to associate.
Patricia Cannon said: “Both Sarah and Josie are extremely passionate about the work that they do.”
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Impression new recruits
Digital marketing agency Impression has opened a Manchester office, its third in England, with the additional appointment of three senior hires situated in the North.
The launch of a Manchester location in Ancoats marks a third UK office space for the company, after its London Bridge location and its headquarters in central Nottingham, bolstering its presence across the UK. As a result of numerous high profile client wins, the growth of new services and client demand, Impression has also hired three senior digital marketers based in the North.
Formerly of Endless Gain and Jaywing, Michael Weir joins as head of Behavioural Science. His experience collaborating with brands such as PrettyLittleThing, Fragrance Direct, Studio and Autotrader will feed into new client relationships and help build on Impression’s new digital experience offering, formerly CRO.
Also joining the agency is Nick Handley as head of PPC Performance, formerly director of Performance at Rise at Seven.
Alongside Mike and Nick, the Growth team has expanded with the hire of Jamie Pollard, formerly Journey Further, as growth consultant, utilising his 10+ years of experience to navigate the complexities of commercial challenges that businesses face.
Commercial director, Mikey Emery, said: “We’re very excited to open our third office space and expand in the North. Our growing northern presence marks a huge step forward in Impression’s growth and will support our rapidly growing client portfolio across the UK.”
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B8RE team
B8RE, the Warrington-based industrial agency founded by Simon Wood, Steve Johnson and Jon Thorne in 2011, has announced a series of promotions to director and associate director.
John Burrows, who focuses on North West industrial investment, and Will Kenyon, who focuses on industrial leasing, have been appointed directors. In addition, Anthony Mellor, Thomas Marriott, Alex Perratt and Joe Sinclair have all been promoted to associate directors.
In 2022 B8RE announced the business sale to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) whereby all the members of staff have an ownership in the company.
Simon Wood said: “We remain committed to building on our position as a leading independent force in the market and we are very excited with these deserved promotions which follow on from the EOT announcement and recognise the importance of our team and their exceptional commitment.”
On behalf of the wider B8RE team, John Burrows, said: “It’s great that the continued success over the last few years has been recognised and rewarded by the founding directors, as the team continues to develop and grow. Looking forward, this is a very exciting time to be part of B8RE as the EOT progresses.”
