People: Friend MTS appoints chief commercial officer; Law firm’s Birmingham office growth continues; Director appointments help Warwickshire machine tool specialist target £35m; and more

Friend MTS, the Birmingham-based content and revenue protection specialist, has appointed Simon Williamson as chief commercial officer to drive global business growth.

Williamson’s key priorities are to support Friend MTS’ fast growing business in North America and APAC, and to further strengthen the company’s position as a world leader in content protection against streaming piracy.

His responsibilities include worldwide sales, marketing and the development of technology partnerships.

He joins Friend MTS from Amdocs, the provider of software and services to telecoms and media companies, where he held the role of VP client business.

Prior to Amdocs, Williamson held leadership positions at successful technology startup JacobsRimell and media giant Thompson Reuters.

“Simon’s senior leadership experience will be a huge asset to Friend MTS, and we’re thrilled to have him strengthen our commercial team,” said Jonathan Friend, CEO of Friend MTS.

“We’re seeing significant growth in the adoption of our theft prevention technologies – including our market-leading ASiD product – to protect against revenue loss to pirate IPTV and other illicit video services.   Simon’s knowledge and track record in driving growth through an innovative and consultative approach to business development gels well with our position and reputation in the market.”

Williamson added: “In addition to driving business expansion, I’m really looking forward to building relationships with Friend MTS’ existing client base, which includes industry titans like Sky, Premier League, BT Sport, CBS, NBC Sports, Univision and DirecTV Latin America.”

Friend MTS works closely with many of the world’s largest media and entertainment companies to secure their content against streaming piracy. Its services protect premium sports and entertainment, including live channels, PPV events and on-demand assets.

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Trowers & Hamlins’ commercial and property litigation teams in Birmingham have doubled in size in less than two years with two recent senior associate recruits.

Jamie De Souza joins from Higgs & Sons and Nicola Gee from Clyde and Co have joined the firm.

De Souza is experienced in advising clients on commercial disputes and Gee brings with her an extensive track record dealing with high profile property litigation matters nationally and internationally.

In two years the Birmingham litigation practice has more than doubled to more than 20 lawyers.

The success in the Birmingham office has also continued with the promotion of commercial property expert Simon Robinson to the firm’s partnership.

Amardeep Gill, partner and head of the Birmingham office, said: “I would like to congratulate Simon on his well-deserved promotion and welcome our new senior associates to our team. It’s an exciting time in Birmingham right now and we are proud to be involved in its thriving business community. Our growth is a reflection of the hard work and success of our teams and I’d like to thank everybody for their continued efforts to develop our expanding business across the region.”

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One of the UK’s leading machine tools suppliers is predicting a strong second half to 2018 after appointing two directors.

The Engineering Technology Group (ETG), which employs over 100 people at its headquarters in Warwickshire, has promoted Steve Brown and Martin Price to sales director and operations director respectively, to support ambitious growth plans.

Bosses at the firm are looking to increase the number of high-end turnkey solutions they sell in the UK and believe expansion across the range will help it target £35m sales by the end of the year.

“Automotive, aerospace, medical and high value engineering are thriving in this country and, increasingly, our clients are looking to source technology that makes their production process quicker, accurate and more cost effective,” said Martin Doyle, managing director of ETG.

“This is exactly what we are trying to give our customers and recent visits to Germany gave our experts the opportunity to see how CNC machine tools are moving forward in terms of multi-spindle capability, horizontal machining, new turning features, cutting parameters and built in automation to encourage the move to ‘lights out’ production.”

He continued: “As well as sourcing the latest technology, we have also made two important appointments to the senior team giving us the perfect platform to move forward with the confidence that we can make the most of new opportunities, whilst delivering the best possible support for our existing customers.”

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A well-known figure in the West Midlands financial services community has retired.

Paul Brooksbank stepped down from his role at Handelsbanken in Leamington Spa at the end of June after a career spanning almost 46 years.

During his career, he led a number of deals that have contributed to boosting the local economy, including providing finance for Shire Leasing to help them achieve a £150m turnover and more than 250 employees.

He said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my career and can say that I am proud of my achievements. I have led deals that have seen the construction of a Sikh temple; the 226-student bedroom Station House in Leamington and 2,500 new homes with local housing associations Bourneville Village Trust, Jephson and Orbit.

“I have met some terrific people over the years and I will definitely miss working daily with such an ambitious and highly motivated team.”