Appointments: FD for Bibby Distribution; Irwin Mitchell, Stobart & more
RICHARD Morson has been appointed to the new role of finance director at Bibby Distribution, the haulage arm of Liverpool’s Bibby Line Group.
Mr Morson has 11 years’ experience in the sector and will be based at the company’s headquarters in Duke Street, Liverpool, reporting directly to chief operating officer Paul Kavanagh.
He was selected due to his previous sector specific experience and most recently held the positions of finance director and group financial controller with Norbert Dentressangle and TDG respectively.
Paul Cullingford, chief financial officer of Bibby Distribution said: “Richard is an advocate of the importance of finance as a value added service to the business through active business partnering.
“He also has significant experience of change projects and new project implementations both internally and with large blue chip customers. He will be a strong addition to the team.”
::
THE Manchester office of law firm, Irwin Mitchell hired insolvency solicitor, Nicole Spratling, from George Davies.
In her new role, Miss Spratling will work closely with corporate restructuring and insolvency partner, Chris Jones, while also supporting the firm’s national team.
She said: “This is an exciting time to be joining Irwin Mitchell, particularly in Manchester where the firm has a strong reputation in insolvency work and continues to invest in building a strong business legal services team.”
Chris Jones, partner at Irwin Mitchell in Manchester, added: “I’m delighted Nicole has decided to join us. She is well-known and respected within the Manchester professional services community and I have no doubt that she will be an asset to the firm as it continues to build a first-class business team.”
::
KNIGHT Frank has appointed Matthew Duckworth to its North West office agency 
and development team.
He is currently overseeing all agency matters at Knight Frank’s Ho Chi Minh City office in Vietnam, and will start his role as associate at the Manchester office on October 1.
Duckworth previously spent five years working with Bruntwood, supervising the disposal of various buildings throughout Manchester city centre, as well as the wider Greater Manchester office market.
David Porter, partner at Knight Frank, said: “Matthew will be a real asset to the team and his experience working in the overseas market will be of great benefit to our clients.
“Matthew will work alongside myself and Paul Kelly on disposal and acquisition work across the North West, and we look forward to welcoming him to the team in October.”
Duckworth said: “This is an exciting opportunity for me to re-join the Manchester office market. Knight Frank has a strong reputation in the marketplace and having worked under the Knight Frank Asia-Pacific banner for the last two years, I am looking forward to furthering my career with the consultancy and building upon the reputation Knight Frank has in the North West of England.”
::
LOGISTICS group Stobart has made three senior appointments.
Avril Palmer-Baunack, former chief executive of vehicle transporter business Autologic which was acquired for £12.4m by Stobart in June, has become the deputy chief executive and a member of the plc board.
William Stobart has been re-appointed as an executive director and will rejoin the plc board after focusing on the restructuring division.
And Richard Butcher has been made chief executive of Stobart Estates with additional responsibilities for identifying investment opportunities for Stobart Biomass.
Rodney Baker-Bates, non-executive chairman of the Warrington group, said: “In pursuit of our stated strategy we have taken this opportunity to strengthen the executive composition of the board.
“With the recent acquisition of Autologic, we have been fortunate to secure the services of Avril Palmer-Baunack, who has a considerable depth of experience in the public company market and in the automotive sector in particular.
“We are also pleased to welcome back to the board, William Stobart, who can now devote more of his time to wider operational issues after completing much of the restructuring work in the Transport division. Richard Butcher also becomes chief executive officer of the estates division, which has become an increasingly important part of the group.”
::
THREE new staff are joining SmartKem, the developer of high performance, organic semiconductor materials for flexible electronics industry.
The company which is based in St Asaph in North Wales and had research labs in Blackley, Manchester has hired Dr Hugh Williamson as chief operating officer, while Dr Muhammad Raza and Dr Keith Lumbard will join as scientists and be based in Manchester.
