Appointments: Harrison Drury; Optionis; Peppermint Soda and more

The 33-year-old specialises in all aspects of commercial property and has experience of advising on acquisitions, disposals of real estate and other assets, and leases.

Owen McKenna, head of the property team at Harrison Drury, said: “Simon is an excellent addition to our firm. Our property client portfolio has grown during the past two years and it was important to find an experienced lawyer that can help our clients across complex problems.”

England said: “Harrison Drury is clearly an ambitious firm that has built a strong reputation for its quality of work, values and investment in people. We all have some exciting opportunities ahead of us.”

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WARRINGTON business services group Optionis has promoted Jeff Blakemore to the role of sales director. 

The 38-year-old joined the firm in August 2011 as group head of sales. He has also overseen a re-organisation of the group’s business development operation.

Blakemore’s new role will see him focus on the “workforce management” side of the group’s activities, covering employment services provider Parasol and ClearSky Accounting.

Derek Kelly, managing director at Optionis, said: “Jeff has been instrumental in our success since joining us two years ago, and he fully deserves this promotion. His new role will allow Jeff to focus on building and maintaining relationships with Britain’s biggest staffing firms and employers, and growing our presence in key growth sectors.”

Blakemore said: “I’m naturally thrilled to be promoted, and am looking forward to getting stuck into my new role. This change is testament to the hard work, creativity and commitment of our entire sales and business development team over the past two years.”

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HALE marketing and PR agency Peppermint Soda has appointed five new staff, including media director Leigh Purves.

Miss Purves, who has moved from London is a former editor of the Daily Star’s gossip column and has worked on a number of magazines including More!.

The other newscomers are: American Andrea Smart, who joins as a business-to-business account manager; account manager Joanna Drake, who joins from Beattie Communications; Stephanie Cureton, a former journalist  joins as account executive, following three years at the Wirral Globe.

Finally Sophie Greenwood has been hired s am account executive, having managed social media for the chief executive of Manchester datacentre company UKFast.

Jean-Philippe Glaskie, managing director at Peppermint Soda, said: “These latest appointments demonstrate our continuing commitment to invest in the very best talent.” 

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CHEADLE IT provider SolutionsPT has appointed Kraig Appleton as a “solutions architect”.

In the new role, Mr Appleton will lead a multidisciplinary technical team, “enabling SolutionsPT to create, design and implement full technological infrastructures” for industrial clients.

He has joined from Northampton-based renewable power firm Infinis.

He said: “My initial focus will be on developing our operational intelligence and smart infrastructure offering, helping our customers to harness the data they produce and turn that into a competitive advantage, ultimately improving profitability.”

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AINTREE University Hospital has appointed David Fillingham, chief executive of the Advancing Quality Alliance (AQuA), to its board of directors as a non-executive.

He replaces Frank McKenna, founder of Downtown in Business, who has retired on reaching the end of his second term.

Fillingham, 53, has worked in the health service for more than two decades and has held chief executive positions at a number of health trusts across the North West.

The trust’s chairman Christopher Baker said: “I am delighted to welcome David to the board. He has a wealth of experience in driving improvement in the health service and I am confident he will do an excellent job of challenging and supporting the decisions that the board makes as we strive to do the very best for our patients.”