Appointments: Palatine Private Equity; PKF; Character World; and more

PALATINE Private Equity has appointed Steve Donaldson to the new role of head of portfolio.

He will work closely with the Palatine team in managing their portfolio companies’ organic and acquisitive growth plans, the company said.

Mr Donaldson was previously finance director of Card Warehouse Group, the greeting card retailer Palatine partners Gary Tipper and Ed Fazakerley backed in a £14m buyout whilst with Murray Johnstone.

Mr Donaldson was a member of the executive team that delivered a 165 store rollout programme and took the business to the number three position in the UK greeting card retail industry. He was also a key driver in the successful sale of Card Warehouse, in May 2003, which generated a 2.5 times return for Murray Johnstone.

More recently he spent five years as finance director of private equity-backed Americana International Group, the company behind fashion brands Bench and Hooch. Revenues at Americana grew from £35m to £80m during his time at the company and he was involved in a number of projects, including a refinancing of the business and the £192m secondary buyout.

He spent his early career in practice including more than 10 years in corporate finance at both Deloitte and Binder Hamlyn.

Mr  Donaldson said: “Having spent more than 10 years as a finance director in private equity backed businesses, I appreciate the impact such funding can have on growth and performance and also the demands on a business and management team as it grows. I am looking forward to working with the Palatine portfolio companies and supporting their ambitious expansion strategies.”

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SUE Hutchinson has joined the North West team of accountancy firm PKF from Baker Tilly as assurance and advisory director.

She brings with her extensive experience of working with a range of organisations including: not-for-profit; local regional and top 100 national charities; education establishments and social housing providers.

In addition to her assurance and advisory work, Ms Hutchinson has experience of fraud and due diligence assignments and has also presented on governance and accounting issues with ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations) and the CFDG (Charity Finance Director’s Group).

She said: “I am delighted to be joining the team at PKF and bringing my experience to the firm’s clients in order to help them grow their organisation. I am also looking forward to the challenges of this new role and working with the PKF team to help grow the business.”

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TWO well-known licensing industry figures have been appointed by Cheadle-based Character World, following its expansion into Europe.

The appointments come after the business was recently awarded the rights to supply Sega Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros licensed goods across Europe, for the first time in its history.

Irene Vedder takes on the role of European sales manager and Karen Creed-Stephenson has been hired as head of business development.

Ms Creed-Stephenson joins from Disney where she was the senior account manager for Asda. Her background includes senior buying positions at Mamas and Papas, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group and Matalan.  She is tasked with brand development on the Disney account and maximising existing and new retail opportunities.

Meanwhile, Ms Vedder worked as international sales manager at children’s furniture business Worlds Apart Ltd for five years. She was responsible for the development of global retail and distribution accounts. She will spearhead Character World’s Sega and Nintendo sales strategy across Europe.

Gareth Davies, sales director at Character World, said:“With our continued growth and overseas expansion, we are not only adding major client brands to our portfolio but top appointments to our team too. It’s an exciting time for Character World; we’re taking a lead in addressing market needs and the strength of our appointments reflects this.

“We are looking forward to working with Karen and Irene and benefitting from their wealth of experience. Our people are key to our success and we’re thrilled to have them on board.”

Cheadle based Character World supplies duvets, curtains, cushions and other products to UK retailers including Argos, Littlewoods and Amazon. It  has a range of licenses including One Direction, Club Penguin, Peppa Pig and Phineas and Ferb.

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BARNFIELD Construction has appointed Andrew Brown as estimator – after more than 22 years away from the business.

Mr Brown returns to Barnfield with a wealth of knowledge, memberships and qualifications into the estimating department.

His previous experience involves pricing residential, commercial, retail, education, ecclesiastical, civil engineering and healthcare schemes nationwide with values ranging from £100,000 to £40m.  He also worked on a £10m new build oil museum in Kuwait dessert.

He previously set-up Glovers Projects Services Limited, where he worked for 16 years and was a director.

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CLB Coopers has recruited Suzy Childs to its Bolton office as business services senior and Kevin Taylor to its Lancaster office as personal tax supervisor.

David Travis, managing partner, said: “As we see our client base growing, it is important to ensure that we continue to provide the dedicated and personal service that our clients expect.

“These latest appointments allow us to maintain this level of service and continue to deliver bespoke solutions and strategies.”

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BUSINESS Finance Solutions, the alternative lending arm of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, has appointed Brian Devlin to  its business finance team on secondment from NatWest Commercial Banking.

Mr Devlin has been seconded to head up RBS Group’s partnership with the Chamber’s Business Finance Solutions service, with the primary objective of helping finance businesses that have been unable to obtain some or all of the funding they need.

Steve Sankson, NatWest regional director for Greater Manchester, said: “Brian’s secondment to Business Finance Solutions reflects NatWest’s commitment to the SME business community.  Although we currently approve 85% of SME customer lending requests, this partnership will ensure that SMEs that don’t meet bank criteria can access the alternative sources of funding and advice that are available.”