People: Law firm welcomes back commercial property lawyer; New chair and board member for growth hub

Commercial property lawyer Robert Sprake has rejoined Excello Law bringing with him over 25 years’ experience of commercial law and major real estate transactions.

Qualifying in 1992, Sprake developed his legal career at Wragge and Co in Birmingham for 11 years, before heading up the commercial property teams at two firms in Worcester.

After initially joining Excello Law in 2012, he left in 2018 to pursue opportunities elsewhere, but has rejoined full-time, acting for property investors, developers and landowners, landlords and tenants in all aspects of their portfolios.

He said: “I am so happy to be returning to Excello to work closely with my current and future clients as we navigate these strange times together.  Thankfully, already we are starting to see new opportunities materialising in the real estate world and being on hand to provide partner-level timely and commercially sensible advice has never been more important.”

Joanne Losty, director at Excello Law, said: “We’re delighted to welcome back an old friend of the firm. We’ve enjoyed a buoyant spring in terms of recruitment as our fully agile business model continues to offer partner-level lawyers the freedom and flexibility to develop their practice.”

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Martyn Hollingsworth

A business support organisations in Coventry and Warwickshire has appointed a new chair and board member.

Martyn Hollingsworth has taken over as chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) Growth Hub Subsidiary Board from Martin Kane, a special advisor to the executive team at Severn Trent.

Brian Colquhoun, who worked for Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, now Virgin Money, for 39 years has been appointed a non-executive director.

Hollingsworth worked at Jaguar Land Rover until 2014 rising to director, engineering technical services, and when he retired was asked to lead the formation of Jaguar Land Rover’s heritage department, part of the special operations division. He then became a director of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust until his retirement last August, and was a founding board member of the CWLEP.

He also set-up a consultancy business called MPH Consultancies several years ago to provide management advice.

He said: “We are going through extraordinary times at the moment and the focus of the Growth Hub is on helping local businesses and enterprises during these troubling times, giving them the help and support they need,” he said.

“The Growth Hub has never experienced a more important time to help businesses get back on their feet again.

“The new normal, whatever that may turn out to be, will be very different for us all and I think the Growth Hub will be in high demand in the next few years to help businesses adapt.

“There is an excellent team at the Growth Hub including the managing director and account managers who have all gone above and beyond over the last few months to give businesses the support they need.

“That has been possible because of the foundations which have been laid over the last few years focusing on supporting Coventry and Warwickshire businesses.”

Colquhoun was the regional director for Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank for the Midlands for six years which involved being responsible for the bank’s centre in Birmingham, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Northampton, Peterborough, Oxford, Gloucester and Exeter until he was promoted to UK head of commercial banking.

He was also the first chair of the CWLEP’s Access to Finance Business Group and he believes this experience will be invaluable in his new role.

He said: “The CWLEP Growth Hub is a stellar example of why these organisations were launched because they are a shining light of best practice.

“Now more than ever, the Growth Hub is providing an essential service because of the Covid-19 restrictions and all the challenges it is bringing because it is key to the continued success of the local economy.

“I think my experience from my career and being part of the LEP Access to Finance Business Group which was all about different sorts of finance such as Business Angels or Venture Capital will be important since the Growth Hub is helping to protect businesses and keep them in existence.”