People: Senior appointment at professional services advisory business; Sports facilities company takes on new consultant; Project Manager hired; and more

Professional services advisory firm, Oakwood Corporate Services, has announced the appointment of Lauren Cavanagh as Associate Director.

Cavanagh joins Oakwood from DLA Piper, a global law firm with offices in Leeds and Sheffield, where she held the position of Legal Director and was a member of the corporate team for over ten years. Her areas of specialism include corporate mergers and acquisitions, investments, group re-organisations and general company law compliance.

She is joining Oakwood’s Senior Management Team and will be focusing on Oakwood’s portfolio of Yorkshire-based clients and relationship law firms, including major regional legal practices, Walker Morris and Gordons – and food manufacturer, Symington’s.

She said: “Oakwood has a great reputation and a strong track record for providing an exceptionally high quality of service to businesses of all sizes, including major multinationals, private equity-backed groups and SMEs. The firm is well known within the legal services market. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me.”

Oakwood is an independent provider of company secretarial, company formation and compliance services, delivering outsourced company secretarial and Companies House compliance and filing services, using state-of-the-art systems and software. Clients include global giants General Electric, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Carnival Corporation, as well as listed British firms, Countrywide, JD Sports, MoneySuperMarket and Associated British Foods.

Michael Harris, Co-founder and Director at Oakwood, said: “We’ve seen significant growth recently, acting for over a hundred new companies in the last three months. This success has allowed us to invest in talent to ensure we continue to grow.

“Lauren is a first-class corporate lawyer, with an established reputation and fantastic experience of delivering high-quality advice to a range of high-profile clients. We are delighted to welcome her to the team.”

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Bingley-based STRI Group has taken on Kelly-Marie Clack, who has joined the business as a Consultant Agronomist.

She will be working with a range of sports facilities across the UK delivering STRI’s suite of services and agronomic support for clients.

She has worked in the amenity industry for over ten years, most recently with AGS, where she discovered a passion for soil health and biology.

Clack said: “I’m over the moon to have joined STRI Group. It’s an exciting time for the business and I’m relishing starting this journey with them. I have lots to learn over the coming months and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

She is one of several new faces to join STRI Group in the last three months, as the business continues to grow across its global territories. A number of new diverse roles have recently been created and STRI said it is looking for talented individuals to fill them.

Agronomy General Manager, Paul Woodham, said: “Kelly has been on our radar for a while and this is the perfect time to welcome her to STRI Group. Her skill sets and enthusiasm are well suited to our team who work across a diverse range of sports.

“Kelly’s recruitment has been well received in the industry and she’ll be out meeting clients in the coming months.”

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York-based Ben Johnson Interiors has welcome Daniel Robinson to its growing team.

Robinson, 31, from Bradford, has been recruited to the expanding design and build company as Project Manager and brings valuable and varied project management experience to the role, along with impressive construction qualifications.

Straight from school, Robinson worked on site in construction gaining hands-on experience. After four years, he decided he wanted to work in construction management.

He now has a BTEC Diploma in Construction, an HND in Construction from Bradford College and a BEng degree in Construction Engineering from Bradford University.

He became a Project Co-ordinator and was then promoted to Project Manager in banking refurbishments all over the UK, working in over 300 buildings from small village banks in the Highlands and islands of Scotland, to three-storey glass palaces in the City of London.

Robinson then spent time as a Project Manager in retail refurbishment and worked extensively for big High Street brands like Foot Locker, H&M and Cineworld multiplex cinemas, managing refurbishment programmes from £300,000 up to £5m.

Robinson said: “I knew about Ben Johnson Interiors as they have a good reputation in the design and build business. But what impressed me most about the company was the large amount of returning clients they have – which I think says everything about the quality of their work and their client relationships.

“They also appear to be growing steadily and gaining an impressive list of new clients within Yorkshire, as well as out of the area. I thought to myself – ‘this is an organisation where I can really develop my career and go places.’ I’ve only been here a week or so but I’m already loving it. There’s a great team of people here.

“I enjoy working with different people at various levels from designers to fitters to clients. It’s great being involved in a project from the outset. You get a great sense of achievement when you know a project has turned out well and the client is really happy.”

Matthew Day, Director of Design and Build at Ben Johnson Interiors, said: “Daniel brings an ideal combination of hands-on experience with superb qualifications, which means he can understand and manage a project on many different levels.

“He’s also extremely enthusiastic and passionate about his work, which we particularly like at Ben Johnson Interiors as we are the same. We think he’ll be a huge asset to the company.”

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