Appointments: Manchester BID; Langtree; Clearwater; Bibby Financial; Croftons

NELSON Beaumont-Laurencia has been appointed as the Heart of Manchester Business Improvement District’s first events producer.

The newly created role involves managing a programme of events across the year in Manchester city centre including Dig the City, the annual urban gardening festival.

He has 10 years’ experience in event management, initially setting up an events company while at university and since 2007 he has worked for Cancer Research UK delivering events across the UK.

Most recently he has been working on the Race for Life for the North West region which generated £4m for the cancer charity.

Mr Beaumont-Laurencia, who was born in France and brought up in Portugal, said: “This brand new role gives me an excellent opportunity to contribute to the continuing success of city centre Manchester. I’m passionate about event management and have big ambitions and want to aim higher and raise the bar further. The BID team have big plans for Manchester and it’s great to be part of it.”

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PROPERTY group Langtree has expanded its team with the appointment of a new development director.
 
Neal Biddle joins the Newton-le-Willows firm after three years as development manager with Manchester Airports Group (MAG).
 
Langtree has recently acquired the Carrington site from Shell, and the former Parkside Colliery site, and formed joint ventures with both St Helens Council and Warrington Borough Council.
 
As well as assisting with these projects, Mr Biddle will also work on Sci-Tech Daresbury in Cheshire, which is a joint venture with Halton Borough Council and the Science and Technology Facilities Council. In his previous role, he was part of the delivery team for MAG’s £800m Airport City joint venture.

He said: “I have significant experience of working in joint venture partnerships and across a range of property types. I’m delighted to join Langtree at such an exciting time for the business and as it seeks to bring forward a number of strategically important developments across the North West and further afield.”

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CLEARWATER Corporate Finance has strengthened its Manchester team with three new senior appointments. Tom Barnwell joins as assistant director, alongside Oliver Wheatley and Aidan Miller, who both join as managers.
 
Barnwell joins from EY and will be the deal leader within Clearwater’s debt advisory team. Wheatley joins from Grant Thornton where he operated within the corporate finance team, while Miller was recruited from PwC where he focused on business recovery for corporates and SMEs in the North.  
 
Mike Reeves, managing partner at Clearwater, said: “We have had a strong start to 2014, completing four deals in the first four weeks, and this trend is set to continue as we progress through the year. The quality of our appointments is key to sustaining our high level of service and so we’re very pleased to welcome Tom, Oliver and Aidan.

“Tom has significant market knowledge to draw from and will be a real asset to our growing debt advisory team, while Oliver and Aidan will both be valuable additions to our corporate finance business where we are seeing clear signs of increasing activity.”

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INVOICE finance firm Bibby Financial Services (BFS), has restructured its sales team with the appointment of Dave Golding as UK sales director.

Golding, who has been with the business for 12 years, was formerly sales director of the BFS Corporate team which is responsible for delivering larger invoice finance transactions to the SME market.  

He said: “I have had an amazing 12 years at Bibby Financial Services and have seen the business go from strength-to-strength. We are now considered a major player in the business funding market.

“Over the past 12 months, we’ve invested heavily in people and technology. We are now in a great position to build on the success delivered in 2013.”

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MANCHESTER law firm Croftons Solicitors, which specialises in social housing and regeneration, has appointed Jo Savage as head of its regulatory and governance team.

She joins the firm from Trowers and Hamlins, where she spent more than nine years.

Managing partner Simon Leighton said: “As our core business is the housing and regeneration sector, I am particularly delighted to welcome Jo at a time when we are expanding to meet our clients’ increasing needs for services and added value.

“Our vision includes broadening our legal services to the housing and regeneration sector.  Governance issues arise in so many areas where we are already serving clients, and so Jo’s experience and sector understanding build our services perfectly.”