People: Bank attracts top talent to corporate lending team; Partner hire for law firm; and more

Shawbrook Bank continues to attract top talent as demand for its corporate lending proposition continues to grow across the Midlands.

Ian Bath has joined Shawbrook as senior director in corporate lending, with more than 35 years experience in senior debt and Asset Based Lending (ABL), gained with a variety of High Street banks, asset based lenders, and alternative lenders.

He said: “It’s fantastic to be part of the team at Shawbrook. The bank has an enviable reputation for delivering innovative, structured and flexible working capital solutions to a range of SME and Mid-Market businesses.

“It’s Shawbrook’s ability to offer both asset based and leveraged solutions, or a combination of the two, that will be key to meeting the needs of our customers – including Advisors, Introducers, Sponsors, and their Clients – as we emerge from the pandemic.”

Prior to joining Shawbrook, Bath was head of ABL sales with Nucleus Commercial Finance and previously spent time at Lloyds, RBS and KBC Bank.

Amy Beasley also recently joined Shawbrook as director, having previously worked at HSBC where she was relationship director, overseeing a portfolio and building a base of new customers. Prior to this, she specialised in business development at companies including Frontier Development Capital and Mazars, both in Birmingham.

Mark Parsons, managing director and head of asset based lending at Shawbrook, said: “In response to activity we’re seeing from businesses across the Midlands, including growing demand from clients in the region, we’re continuing to build capacity by attracting more fantastic talent to Shawbrook.”

“New people we welcome to the business – along with existing colleagues in the Corporate Lending team – have an amazing opportunity to make a real difference to clients in Birmingham and beyond.”

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Anthony Collins Solicitors (ACS) has appointed a new partner to its local government team, bringing more than 19 years of legal experience to the social purpose law firm.

Claire Ward, a leading lawyer in local government, joins the firm bringing extensive expertise, most recently as monitoring officer and director of governance and legal services at Herefordshire Council, where she also served as acting deputy chief executive.

In her new position at ACS, she will play a key advisory role in supporting local authorities nationwide and in offering important advice for council monitoring officers, chief executives and other senior officers on governance issues.

She said: “It is a great time to be joining the growing team at ACS, working with Olwen Brown and other colleagues as the firm’s local government work and national reputation for its governance work goes from strength to strength.

“ACS’s mission and core values resonate with my own purpose as a legal professional with a passion for local government, and I look forward to the results that we’ll achieve as a team.”

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A new apprentice has joined Principle Estate Management’s finance department, taking that specialist team’s staff numbers up to 10.

Aneesa Ali joins the company as an accounts apprentice after previous roles waiting at large events, working as a cash and carry shop assistant and volunteering as a nursery nurse.

She started her role earlier this month after being recruited via Protocol Consultancy Services, which specialises in training and apprenticeships, and her main role will be processing payments on the purchase ledger.

Daniel Lannon, a finance administrator at Principle, said: “We are pleased to have appointed Aneesa, who stood out at interview with her keenness to learn new skills and her previous experience in customer service roles.

“Her appointment takes our finance team up to 10 people which is fitting, as we like round numbers!

“Once up to speed, Aneesa will really help as the business continues to grow and we have more supply partner invoices to pay.

“Our suppliers really appreciate our weekly payment runs and mention that a lot of other agents don’t do this.

“Having Aneesa on the team will allow me to spend more time on improving our Qube setup to make our people’s work easier and enhance services to our customers.”