People: Keepmoat; M3.agency; Crowe
Keepmoat has announced the appointment of Ben Leather as regional managing director, to head up the West Midlands and South West regions.
In his role as regional managing director, Leather will focus on implementing new strategies for the region, supporting the land acquisition strategy and driving growth.
With a wealth of experience within the sector, Leather most recently worked as managing director at Spitfire. He brings more than 20 years of industry experience to the role with knowledge of growing and scaling business operations, securing land and building partnerships.
He said: “I am thrilled to have been appointed by such a well-established, national homebuilder. Over the past few years the West Midlands and South West have seen significant successes and has grown to become one of Keepmoat’s flagship regions. I have a strong track record sourcing and securing new land opportunities and I look forward to bringing my expertise from previous roles as both Land Director and Managing Director.
“Keepmoat’s vision is to build communities and transform lives, and its sustainability activity contributes towards the delivery of this ambition. I strive towards achieving the company’s goal of improving the quality of new homes and creating communities that leave a lasting legacy for future generations.”
Charlotte Goode, divisional chair at Keepmoat, added: “I’m pleased that Ben has joined the team and I look forward to working with him to further strengthen our land pipeline and support the growth of our business.
“Our West Midlands and South West team is currently delivering across five operational sites and has completed 240 new homes in the last year. We specialise in developing brownfield land and we are committed to building 4,000 future homes with net carbon zero emissions – namely on our Winterstoke Gate development in Weston-super-Mare.
“I’m excited to see Ben push forward our goal to regenerate areas through our partnership model and drive relationships with landowners to create thriving, sustainable communities.”
A West-midlands full-service marketing agency has made three appointments to its senior leadership team.
The senior leadership team
M3.agency, which has offices in Albrighton, Birmingham and London, has promoted Justin Griffiths to group creative director and Candice Donnelly to group account director, while Lightbox founder Rob Pollard has been recruited to fill the roll of client strategy director.
Rob Pollard ran his own agency for 17 years, bringing with him a wealth of leadership, operational and strategic skills.
He has also brought with him four members of staff and accounts with Purity Brewery, Davisons Law and WHG.
He said: “This is an exciting personal opportunity as I know that my 17 years of agency experience and client-facing skills can add real value and tie in well with the company’s ambitious expansion plans. Being able to bring four members of the team from Lightbox into the M3.agency fold has also been great and we’ve all hit the ground running with accounts across food and drink, professional services and renewable energy.”
Candice Donnelly has been involved in marketing for over 25 years and has been at M3.agency for over a decade now.
As part of the senior leadership team, she will give a voice to other members of the team and support the company’s upcoming B-Corp submission.
Justin Griffiths became group creative director in 2022 after completing a UAL Creative Direction course.
Under his stewardship, he has helped M3.agency forge a working relationship with Disney UK through a partnership with ‘Inside Out 2’ and retained the MG Motor UK account, spearheading the recent ‘Feel Good’ TV campaign.
Griffiths said: “It has been a really rewarding 18 months, working on some brilliant creative work and, most importantly, building a strong studio team that I’m really proud of. A good studio culture is super important and I’m excited to see how my colleagues thrive.”
Crowe, an audit, tax, advisory and risk firm with offices in Oldbury, Cheltenham and Bristol, has added a new partner to its workforce advisory team.
John Manis joins the team with over 15 years of experience, and will further strengthen the practice with his depth of experience working with employee share schemes, employee ownership trusts, and advising management teams regarding mergers and acquisitions.
John Manis
Manis specialises in providing tax and executive incentivisation advice, with particular expertise in the taxation of investment funds, including carried interest and co-investment.
He advises companies and employees on setting up tax-advantaged incentivisation structures and equity plans and works with investment funds on their investment advisory structures, and transactions.
Nigel Bostock, chief executive of Crowe, said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome John to the partnership. John is yet another example of the firm’s commitment to further strengthen the firm with top talent and advisors, and I look forward to seeing his wealth of experience propel the Workforce Advisory team to new heights. Welcome John.”
Dinesh Jangra, partner in the Workforce Advisory team at Crowe, said: “John’s arrival comes at an exciting time for our Workforce Advisory team. His depth of knowledge and experience will enhance our national workforce advisory capability for employers, as well as our advisory capability in a number of other key areas and markets.”
