People: Shakespeare Martineau; Kinver Business Solutions; Notepad

Shakespeare Martineau has bolstered its building communities offering in Birmingham with the appointment of experienced finance solicitor Jon Coane.

With more than 27 years post-qualified experience, he joins the firm as a partner following eight years at Anthony Collins Solicitors.

Throughout his career, Coane has focused on advising on loan finance that makes a difference to communities, such as building schools, recycling centres, and social housing.

He specialises in advising housing associations and not for profit organisations on the structuring and documentation of their funding, including bonds, private placements (UK and US), bank loan agreements, aggregators loans and social investment. He also advises funders, local authorities, infrastructure companies, and energy companies in relation to the structuring and documentation of their debt funding, including their funding for infrastructure projects, joint ventures and other transactions.

Coane, who is based in Birmingham but works with clients nationally, said: “I am extremely passionate about sustainability and, in particular, the creation of sustainable communities. With this in mind, I have spent a large part of my career helping with the funding of these communities, so Shakespeare Martineau’s building communities team is very inspiring and I am thrilled to be helping fulfil that vision.

“In addition, hearing about the direction of the firm as a whole was the icing on the cake – I believe that for a modern law practice to be successful, it has to be a sustainable, socially-responsible business, which Shakespeare Martineau is striving to achieve. I am looking forward to helping the firm reach its goal, while also growing the social housing practice and building communities team.”

Rachel Gwynne, head of social housing at Shakespeare Martineau, said: “Jon joins the team to provide greater strength and depth to our finance offering for our social housing, public sector, and wider charity and not for profit clients, who will all benefit from his expansive experience in this specialised area of work.

“We have ambitious growth and expansion plans to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our clients. Jon’s arrival is part of the investment we are making in our social housing offering to drive forward our growth strategy.

“This enables us to work alongside our clients, providing pragmatic legal advice and innovative strategic thinking as they tackle some of society’s biggest challenges – from achieving net zero to increasing affordable housing supply – while delivering excellent landlord services to their customers.”

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Project management firm Kinver Business Solutions has appointed Matt Fletcher to a newly created role of senior consultant.

Fletcher, who has 20 years experience of delivering public sector focused projects and services, has significant knowledge in the fields of economic development, regeneration, business case development and place management.

Managing director Darowen Jones said: “We are delighted to welcome Matt to the Kinver family. He has a deep understanding of the how the public sector works, with excellent problem solving skills and a diverse knowledge base that our clients can tap into. I’m very much looking forward to be able to offer clients the additional skills that Matt has to offer.”

Fletcher said: “The opportunity at Kinver Business Solutions, is simply one I couldn’t turn down. I’m looking forward to using my knowledge gained over the last 20 years to support projects to succeed and learn from highly experienced colleagues already in the business.”

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Birmingham-based brand and creative content studio Notepad has announced a string of new hires to support the demand for its new design and content service offering, Amplify.

The agency, based in the Jewellery Quarter but operating worldwide, which counts WWF, Glenmorangie and NHS England among its clients, has developed a flexible, scalable and transparent agency model which gives more control to clients and “ditches bloated and tired retainers”, said founder Naeem Alvi-Assinder.

“The old network model of tieing brands into inflexible and inescapable retainers is prime for disruption. With the rise of freelance talent and so many great boutique agencies, brand leaders know they can find talent as and when they need it. With Amplify, we’ve made this easy, giving brands a world-class team and the ability to scale up and down their creative and content with zero hassle and no long-term tie-ins.”

Since launching the proposition 18 months ago, Notepad has welcomed a string of new clients, including Glenmorangie, SCC, and The MCG Group.

The agency is now aiming to triple in size over the next three years. To support this growth, the agency has brought on three new hires since the end of last year, including Juliette Neault, who joins the leadership team as Client Services Director.

She is joined by Claudia Cooke in the role of Senior Client Partner, and Liam Basford on the Brand Design Team. Notepad also announced a series of promotions, including Dominic Reddi to Mid-Weight Strategist, Josh Cutts to Mid-Weight Designer and Anita Sanghera to Senior Client Partner. The team also welcomed Head of Operations Krishna Chauhan back from maternity leave.

Neault, who brings extensive experience in marketing, strategy and creative, said: “With our ground-breaking service model, the agency continues to grow, and we have some great projects in the pipeline.

“Everyone’s committed to creating world-class brand and creative content for clients, and everyone’s striving to deliver their best work.”

Neault has worked at a string of top agencies throughout her career, and with brands including BSkyB, Jaguar, Bentley Motors and Virgin Trains.

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