Appointments: Baker Tilly; CLB Coopers; Fentons; Detectronic; Liverpool John Lennon

BAKER Tilly has strengthened its restructuring and recovery team in the North West with the promotion of Keith Algie to director and the appointment of Alex Birch as associate director.

Both will provide corporate restructuring and general advisory services to clients across the region. Algie will be based at the firm’s offices in Hardman

Street in Manchester, while Birch will divide her time between the Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent offices.

Algie has more than 18 years of experience dealing in contentious insolvency, bankruptcy assignments linked to fraud and public interest investigations for HMRC. Birch, who joins from KPMG, has 18 years’ accounting, insolvency and restructuring advisory experience gained in a wide range of sectors.

Partner Lindsey Cooper said: “The North West economy is still struggling and there are a large number of small and medium sized businesses experiencing different degrees of financial distress. The skills and experience that Keith and Alex bring to our senior team will help strengthen our offering to these businesses, and provide a better service to HMRC and our solicitor intermediaries across the region.”

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NELSON water industry instrumentation specialist Detectronic has appointed Mike Leafe as its data centre manager.

A chartered engineer and member of The Institution of Civil Engineers, he has 30 years of water industry experience.

He has worked with water companies, survey companies and civil engineering contractors on sewer surveys and flow monitoring exercises. His experience includes Thames Tideway Tunnels CSO monitoring and key PFI projects in Scotland at Esk Valley and Leven Mouth.

He said: “Detectronic is a growing business and I am really pleased to be joining them during this key development phase. I look forward to

developing the data side of the business so that it becomes a major resource for the industry. Instrumentation of the sewer network is the core business of

Detectronic, but with more data there is an urgent need for expert analysis and interpretation.”

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ACCOUNTANCY firm CLB Coopers has appointed Angela Carey as a corporate tax manager from Deloitte.

The Manchester firm has also appointed Stephanie Donaldson and Jack McBennett as tax trainees.

Tax partner Colin Abrahams said: “These appointments reflect our ambitions to be the ‘go to’ tax practice in the North West. We have recruited a number of exceptionally talented and experienced individuals who will further enhance the firm’s tax offering and continued growth.”

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Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) has appointed Mark Povall as its new director of air service development.
 
He will be responsible for driving the development of airline passenger traffic and capacity at Liverpool John Lennon Airport both through the addition of new airlines and with existing carriers.

He joins LJLA having most recently worked for the Abu Dhabi Airports Company where he spent the past five years successfully raising the profile of Abu Dhabi in the airline industry.

Matthew Thomas, chief executive for Liverpool John Lennon Airport, said: “I am delighted that Mark joins the Executive Management Team here at the airport at an exciting time for the business as we look to grow our destinations and airline customers.”

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PERSONAL injury firm Fentons Solicitors has made a number of new appointments.

It has recruited Zoe Sutton to head the firm’s growing military claims department, and Hywel Thomas to lead the abuse compensation department.

Sutton, formerly of Irwin Mitchell, has successfully settled many high profile claims, including a £1.3m settlement for a Scots Guard who was injured on patrol in Iraq, and £740,000 for a female AGC Sergeant who was subject of a negligent discharge while on a firing range.

Hywel Thomas joins from Abney Garsden and after specialising in abuse claims for more than 11 years. He will lead the team of lawyers at Fentons acting on behalf of those affected by historic and institutional child abuse and sexual offences.

Operating from sites in Manchester and London, Fentons now employs more than 200 people across its Princess Street and Failsworth offices in the North West and more than 100 in its central London office in Chancery Lane.