People: Marketing Lancashire; Manchester Camerata; Clough & Willis & more

TONY Attard, founder and chief executive of Lancashire-based textile firm Panaz, has been appointed chair of the county’s place marketing organisation, Marketing Lancashire.

Mr Attard, a former North West chairman of the IoD, succeeds chef and restaurant entrepreneur Paul Heathcote, who stood down earlier this year after three years.

Ruth Connor, chief executive of Marketing Lancashire said:”Tony Attard has an exceptional track-record as a successful business entrepreneur with global connections. His Burnley-based company Panaz exports to 46 countries, demonstrating one of Lancashire’s core strengths in creating and making products that are in demand the world-over.

“Marketing Lancashire’s role is to promote Lancashire on a national and international scale, Tony brings extensive business experience and credibility, helping Marketing Lancashire to continue to raise the profile of Lancashire as a place for business and investment, as well as for leisure, education and culture.”

Attard said: “I’m looking forward to working with Ruth and the Marketing Lancashire Board to share Lancashire’s success stories widely, confidently and coherently to attract new business and investment into the county.

“Marketing Lancashire is working closely with the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership on a new ‘Lancashire Story’ that will enable us to market Lancashire in a better way and have a strong identity that promotes our key assets.

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SPEEDY Hire, the listed Newton-le-Willows-based , equipment and plant hire services company, operating across the construction, infrastructure and industrial markets, has appointed Chris Morgan as interim finance director.

Morgan, who has joined the business with immediate effect, is a former chief financial officer at Go Outdoors, Focus DIY and before that held a number of senior finance positions at Tesco.

Russell Down, chief executive, said: “We are delighted that Chris is joining us as interim finance director. He brings a wealth of finance experience and I am looking forward to working with him.”

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THREE senior executives have joined the board of Manchester Camerata.

The new directors are: Penny Early, Deborah McLaughlin and Stephen Dauncey. Penny Early had a long public sector career with Manchester City Council, including leading special projects such as The Bridgewater Hall, Velodrome Arena, Art Gallery Extension and Urbis. She was also a director for the Commonwealth Games.

Deborah McLaughlin is chief executive of Manchester Place,  the city council’s partnership with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), which was established in 2014 to drive the  delivery of new quality homes and neighbourhoods.

Stephen Dauncey, is a founding director of and chief finance officer for Highways England.  He is also on the board of the University of Manchester and chairs its audit committee.

Judith Watson, chair of Manchester Camerata, said: “We are delighted to welcome Penny, Deborah and Stephen onto our board.  Their wealth of experience will bring new skills and ideas to Camerata, which has wide-ranging and ambitious plans for the future.”

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LAW firm Clough & Willis  has promoted two of its solicitors to associate level.

Sally Cook joined the firm in February 2014 and leads the private client team, while Karen Yates has been with the firm for 10 years and also works in the private client department and also deals with property transactions and residential conveyancing matters for clients. After her promotion she will be based at the firm’s new office in Bolton.

Clough & Willis managing partner Shefali Talukdar said: “Both Sally and Karen are fantastic lawyers and their promotions are much deserved. They are both dedicated to their careers and strive to offer the best possible service to their clients. Therefore, we felt it was right to formally recognise their effort and we look forward to seeing them progress their careers over the coming years.”

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REGIONAL accountancy firm Mitchell Charlesworth has appointed Dean Curtis as a senior corporate finance executive in its MC Vanguard corporate finance division based in Manchester.

Curtis joins from BTG Corporate Finance and has also worked for DTE Business Advisers and Mazars.

MC Vanguard partner Brian McCann said: “We are very pleased to welcome Dean into the team. From the outset he has shown the attributes and experience to help continue the growth of our division. Adding Dean to our already experienced team means we can continue to offer a first class service.”

Mitchell Charlesworth has offices in Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Warrington and Widnes.

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IT experts at MWL Systems has boosted its team with the hire of Hugh Valentine, a specialist in cloud technology.

Valentine, 29, from Bangor on Dee, joins the team with 10 years of Microsoft specialist knowledge under his belt, having deployed cloud technologies for a large number of businesses ranging from small companies all the way to enterprise customers of 10,000+ users.   

He said: “I’m an enthusiastic, driven individual who likes to provide solutions for sometimes complex problems customers bring to me, helping companies innovate and improve whilst keeping an eye on cost.”