People: Unity Trust Bank; Ampa; Churchill China

Unity Trust Bank has announced the appointment of a new chief commercial officer, Alexandra Rice, who will be leading the bank’s customer facing operations across commercial, marketing and digital services.

Rice has 20 years of banking experience across Barclays, Coutts and most recently Santander.

In her new role, she will be responsible for developing Unity’s commercial strategy, alongside managing Unity’s front office, customer support and marketing teams.

She’ll be using her depth of knowledge in the field to explore market entry opportunities to support the bank’s growth. From her base within Unity’s head office in Birmingham, Rice will also oversee regional customer-facing operations in Manchester and London.

Rice said: “It’s wonderful to be working for a specialist bank that is both socially minded and well positioned to drive further impact. I’ve come to Unity so I can combine my passion for Unity’s purpose with my corporate banking experience and add that to the collective effort to help enhance the state of our social fabric. That matters more than ever as we face into a more turbulent economic environment. Even after taking that context into account, there are still exciting growth opportunities that lie ahead.”

Deborah Hazell, CEO of Unity Trust Bank, said: “We are very pleased to welcome Alexandra to Unity and to strengthen the executive team during our next exciting phase of growth. Alexandra has an excellent track record and many years of experience in delivering successful commercial and data-driven strategies to corporate and SME customers. She will help the bank to ensure that we are seen, in our target markets, as the partner of choice for ethically minded, value-driven businesses.”

:::

Legal and professional services group Ampa has announced promotions in the West Midlands across its house of brands including Shakespeare Martineau and Marrons.

Promoted to associate within Shakespeare Martineau is Elaine Hart, Fatema Miah and Victoria Kirkpatrick.

Hart, associate within the private client team in Solihull, is an expert in probate matters including inheritance tax bearing estates.

Miah is an experienced real estate lawyer advising on a range of high value and complex transactions. She specialises is Islamic finance and provides a professional and knowledgeable service to real estate finance clients, while Victoria deals with a wide range of commercial disputes including contractual, shareholder and partnership disputes, both at the Birmingham hub.

Planning experts Sachin Parmar and Alasdair Thorne, who work within Ampa’s non-legal planning, design and development consultancy brand Marrons, have been promoted to planning director and associate director, respectively.

Parmar, who also recently supported the set-up of Marrons’ Birmingham base, will be responsible for driving the growth of the Birmingham hub, supported by Thorne. They will continue to support clients with complex planning applications and appeals, offering expert planning advice and formulating strategies that ensure development proposals have the best possible chance of obtaining planning permission.

Joanna Deffley, West Midlands regional head for Shakespeare Martineau, said: “It’s really important to our brands that we retain talent and empower our people to develop at a pace that suits them.

“Recently we have updated our promotions process, offering more opportunities within the year for people to take on greater responsibility and receive the recognition they deserve.

“Congratulations to all our people who have been promoted.”

:::

Churchill China has announced that Michael Cunningham will be appointed as chief financial officer and company secretary.

His appointment follows the company’s announcement earlier this month of the planned succession of David Taylor, who will step down as finance director and company secretary in April.

Cunningham brings considerable expertise to the board, with over 20 years of financial experience including senior positions at quoted and private businesses. He joins from AIM-quoted Surface Transforms plc, a manufacturer of advanced materials, where he is currently CFO.

Alan McWalter, chairman of Churchill China, said: “We are delighted that Michael will be joining the business next year and have no doubt he will make a considerable contribution to the development of the business.”