People: Recruitment firm bolsters board of directors; Festival organisation appoints new executive; and more

Elevation Recruitment Group has announced the appointment of two businesswomen to its Board of Directors.

Joanna Dobson joins Elevation following a career at several organisations including Stoma, Interserve, and Tribal.

Dobson brings a wealth of board level management experience across a wide variety of functions including finance, IT, marketing, facilities, administration, compliance and HR.

As Commercial Director at Elevation, Dobson will work with Founder and CEO Greg Parkinson to maximise business growth across the group, as well as taking full responsibility for the Marketing, HR, Compliance, Administration, IT and Finance departments.

Parkinson said: “Joanna is an outstanding businesswoman with a proven track record of driving commercial growth in many high-profile SME’s, and I am delighted that she will be joining the board at Elevation.

“The recruitment of a specialist of Joanna’s calibre is a sign of our commitment to invest in and grow the business and Joanna will play a pivotal role in maximising opportunities across the whole organisation.”

Joanna follows Emma Noble, who has also recently joined Elevation’s Group Board following a period as the Group’s Operations Director which has resulted in a record breaking 12 months for the  organisation.

Noble joins the Board with over 20 years’ specialist recruitment experience that includes previous appoints as Managing Director and Non-Executive Director level and Partner all within specialist SME Yorkshire based recruitment businesses.

Parkinson added: “Emma has been a very effective and popular appointment across the whole of the group and has very quickly demonstrated her vast recruitment experience and expertise especially within a management and leadership capacity.

“Emma and Joanna’s appointment has certainly strengthened our Group Board considerably and I am very excited about working with them both on the on-going development of the  organisation.”

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Leeds International Festival (LIF), which is funded by LeedsBID, has appointed Gemma Holsgrove as its new Festival Executive.

LIF, which was launched in 2017, is a cultural festival that combines music, moving image and technology to highlight these industries across the city.

Holsgrove’s employment history has seen her pioneer the first regional pilot project bringing theatre to veterans, Armed Forces family members, Reservists and others with ties to the Armed Forces.

She engaged with wounded, injured and sick veterans, and those suffering with mental health or physical disabilities, to use theatre as a form of recovery. This project has since been emulated in other UK cities.

Holsgrove has project managed “Winchester, The Royal City” for Hampshire Cultural Trust which celebrated and promoted this city as a centre for the development of English culture.  

She was also Creative Producer at York Mediale last year, where she lead a new 10-day international media art festival covering music, dance, theatre, symposia, contemporary art and more.

Holsgrove said: “I am so excited to get to work on Leeds International Festival 2019. Building on previous years’ exceptional line-ups, I plan to continue to push those boundaries, encouraging innovative and experimental thinking here in the city of Leeds, and beyond.”

Andrew Cooper, Chief Executive of LeedsBID, added: “The Leeds International Festival has become an established showcase event in the city. Using events to amplify and raise the profile of Leeds is key and Gemma’s expertise will enable and support this ambition.”

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A Harrogate-based independent finance company has further strengthened its team with the addition of a new sales manager.

Garry Gilmour has joined the team at Ethos Asset Finance after a background working in car sales, having built up three car dealerships from scratch and added another two.

Sales increased from 150 vehicles a year in 2008 rising to 3,400 by the end of 2016. In 2014 this earned the Fleet Team of the Year Award from Mercedes UK.

Chris Brown, who set up Ethos Asset Finance in 2007 after 20 years in the banking industry, said: “Having someone of Gary’s sales experience joining the growing Ethos team is testament to our standing in the motor industry.

“Over the last decade he has worked extensively with Mercedes Benz with a client base from single clients to multinational and large fleet leasing companies.”

Gilmour added: “Starting with Ethos Asset Finance marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in my career. Ethos is recognised as a market leader in its field and is the ‘go to expert’ for those looking to invest in new vehicles for their own businesses.

“I will be using my experience and the contacts I have made over the years to help Ethos’s maintain and grow its own business and maintain its position as the country’s leading independent providers of finance.”

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A digital technology company, specialising in interactive quiz software, has added two new employees to the team.

With a background in social media marketing, Joel Slinn, joined at the beginning of August 2018 to lead the digital marketing department.

The second addition, Phil Marsh has been appointed as sales executive. Marsh, who has experience managing accounts for international companies like WorldPay, joined in October.

Slinn said: “I’ve been working here 3 months now and I’m still as thrilled as I was on my first day. Everyone has a real passion for the product and wants it to succeed. It’s contagious”.

Marsh added: “There’s a real energy in the office and I’m excited to use and develop my existing skills to help the business grow.”

Established in 2016 by CEO and Founder Mark Walsh, KwizzBit is a cloud-based quiz service played on a smartphone.

Having walked away from an appearance on BBC2’s Dragons Den in 2017 without investment, Mark has grown the firm by 764% in its second year and now features in over 450 pubs and bars across the UK.

Walsh said, “We’re delighted to welcome Joel and Phil to the KwizzBit team. We’ve grown the team massively in such a short space of time and we’re just getting started. There are big things in the works, which are going to change the way quiz nights are operated across the UK, so they’ve joined at a very exciting time for the business”.

“With Phil’s sales experience and Joel’s creativity, we’re looking forward to seeing them help the business achieve its potential and their careers flourish”.

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