People: Napthens; I-COM; 360 Audit & more

PRESTON-based Napthens solicitors has appointed a new member to its internal HR support team.

Toni Brockbank joins from Lancashire County Council where she held roles including, most recently, business support officer in the executive support team.

Her role at the county council saw her support the authority’s employment programmes by appearing on local radio and giving presentations about her experiences.

Kay Jackson-Leigh, director of HR said: “Napthens is a growing firm, and with that growth comes the need for increased HR support, in bringing new people on board and in developing and supporting our 220 plus staff in their day-to-day roles. Toni will play a vital part in this.”

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MANCHESTER digital marketing agency I-COM has started the year with a newly appointed sales and marketing team and a partnership with marketing automation platform SharpSpring.

The full-service agency’s sales and marketing team has been bolstered by two new business development managers, Dan Beardshall and Michael Beardsell, and a marketing executive, Rachel Bell, who has also joined the company in the last quarter.

In a further boost to the company’s drive to win new business and grow its retained client base in 2016, I-COM invested in the SharpSpring marketing automation platform and has been through the certification process to become the first Manchester-based Silver Partner.

Mike Blackburn, managing director at I-COM, said: “Marketing automation is a relatively new idea for many businesses. We can now recognise when specific individuals visit our website, we can understand what pages they visit and what content they read. Armed with this information, we are able to automatically deliver additional relevant content to the visitor or initiate contact when the time is right.”

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INTERNATIONAL royalty auditing business 360 Audit, which has offices at Daresbury, Cheshire and Bury, has recruited Philia Riaz as global head of audit.

360 Audit carries out royalty audit programmes across the UK, Europe, Australia, USA, Latin America and South East Asia. Philia joins the Daresbury headquartered business following senior auditing roles at PwC, Arup and Grant Thornton. She will be responsible for overseeing overseas audits.
 
360 Audit is headed up by Henna Riaz who recently bought out her co-partners to take full ownership of the business. The business has secured contracts with high profile brands including Nickelodeon, WWE, Michelin Tyres and more recently, Jamie Oliver and Gary Barlow.
 
Henna Riaz, managing director, said: “We have ambitious international growth plans and Philia is perfectly placed to lead the business forward in this area.  She brings a wealth of experience to the role and joins us at an exciting time as we experience demand for our services in new territories. In the next 12 months we have plans underway to open a US office and grow our team of experienced auditors.”

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STOCKPORT-based materials handling specialist FPE Global has appointed David Cooper as its chief executive.  

He joins from his role as managing director of Matcon, where he led numerous strategic initiatives resulting in significant and sustained growth in revenue and profitability over almost 15 years of service.

Cooper was instrumental in helping to drive the international growth of the company across Europe, the USA, South East Asia, India and China. David started his new role with FPE Global on 1st March 2016.  

Cheadle-based FPE Global manufactures machinery for dry bulk material handling across a number of sectors including food, aggregates, chemicals and energy.

The company employs 65 staff and has turnover of about £14m – around half of which comes from export markets.

Cooper said: “It is a privilege to be joining FPE Global, where we have an opportunity to build a world leading materials handling platform that delivers significant and unique value to our customers and shareholders.

“We’ve seen increased demand for innovation and excellence in materials handling on a global scale, which presents a huge opportunity for the business. I am very excited to be leading the company through this next phase of growth.”

Peter Williamson, chairman at FPE Global, added: “We’re really pleased to welcome David to the team. He was instrumental in the transformation of Matcon and his expertise of servicing the food and pharmaceutical sectors will add tremendous value to FPE as we target expansion in overseas markets.”

The company, which is backed by NorthEdge Capital, recently relocated its headquarters to Cheadle to increase the firm’s operations capacity, implement a new innovation and test facility and to support the company’s growth expectations.