People: Senior London tax partner joins PwC’s Leeds office; Equity partners promoted at law firm and raft of hires at BemroseBooth

Senior partner Nick Woodford is joining the Leeds team of PwC, moving up from London.

The international tax partner has more than 30 years experience in his field, working with UK, US and Japanese private and listed companies.

Woodford will join from 17 April, and also leads the PwC UK Japanese Business Network which brings together PwC professionals from Assurance, Tax, Deals and Consulting, who are committed to helping Japanese businesses succeed in the UK and Europe.

In his new role Nick will be responsible for growing the region’s corporate tax portfolio, building PwC’s Japanese and wider international client base in the north.

Nick Woodford, international tax partner at PwC commented: “I’m delighted to be joining the PwC Leeds practice. The region has a strong and vibrant economy with many successful UK and international businesses. I am looking forward to working with these companies.

“At PwC we recognise that tax complexities exist for all companies which operate across borders or are seeking to expand overseas. In bringing my international experience to the region I’m hoping that I can support businesses here and help them develop successful strategies and business models as they seek to navigate the impact of the increasingly complex UK and international tax environment.”

Will Richardson, PwC’s Leeds office senior partner, added; “I’m delighted to welcome Nick to our team. Following our move to Central Square we have stated our commitment to continue to invest and grow in this great region. This investment includes bringing more specialisms into our local team, and Nick’s appointment is testament to our commitment and ambition.”

“As well as being a senior and very experienced tax practitioner, Nick brings an unprecedented level of international expertise to our tax practice and I’m confident that his wealth of experience will be appreciated by both our domestic and international clients across the region.”

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Two equity partners have been promoted at Sheffield law firm taylor & Emmet.

Solicitors James Drydale and Neil Riley are the first employees to be accepted as equity partners in nearly ten years.
Riley is a conveyancing specialist who joined the firm in 2006. He secured promotion to associate only a year after his appointment and being made a partner in 2012.

He said: “The most notable shift in my role in the years I’ve worked at Taylor&Emmet is the speed at which we convey properties. Keeping pace with clients’ expectations remains a huge challenge and going forward, we need to continue to embrace technology and adapt to change, whilst retaining the standards of customer care that set us apart from the competition.”

Drydale, head of clinical negligence, has worked at the firm for eight years and was described by The Legal 500 last year as leading a “thorough and user-friendly team.” He became a partner in 2013 and is a senior litigator for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, as well as a member of the Law Society’s Clinical Negligence Panel.

He added: “Against a backdrop of regulatory change and increasing competition, Taylor&Emmet has grown steadily and now has more than 200 employees, thanks to its commercial edge and focus on what’s important. In recent years, this has included embracing the power of social media, which allows us to speak directly to local people and build a level of trust that is essential in the solicitor/client relationship.”

Taylor&Emmet has appointed the first non-solicitor associates in its 150-year history. Residential property experts, Sally Winter and Sally Todd, both trained vocationally, holding legal executive and licensed conveyancer qualifications respectively.

Anthony Long, Taylor&Emmet’s chief executive, concluded: “We are lucky to have such a wealth of talent within our private client teams. Neil and James exemplify the positive impact enthusiasm and hard work has on the firm, both in terms of their leadership skills and client relationships and as equity partners, I have no doubt they will make a valuable contribution to our collective prospects.”

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Hull mass transit ticketing specialist BemroseBooth Paragon has hired ten new operators to work at its manufacturing facility, bringing staff numbers to more than 100.

The operators have been appointed following a training programme to allow them to work on presses which are used to produce more than a billion magnetic tickets each year for customers across the globe.

General Manager of BBP, Paul McEnaney said: “We are very pleased to welcome the ten new production colleagues to our business. This further reinforces our growth and the need to increase our capacity. We are the leading global manufacturer of magnetic tickets in Europe and this added resource means that we are able to push forward with our strategic plans, including further emphasis on research and development.”

The BBP manufacturing facility in Hull is complemented by BBP tech, the Boston based division which specialises in RFID and contactless applications across a range of sectors.