People: Appointments to firm’s corporate finance team; New operations head at food storage and distribution firm; Senior recruit at electric vehicle charging specialist; and more
Dow Schofield Watts has made two new appointments to its corporate finance team in Yorkshire & the North East in response to a high level of new deal activity.
Matt Spence and Jonathan Wilkinson both join from EY in Leeds, where they qualified as chartered accountants. Spence spent six years at EY advising clients ranging from FTSE 100 businesses and multinational groups to private mid-market companies across sectors including manufacturing, real estate and renewable energy.
Wilkinson, who holds a first-class honours degree in Business Management with Finance, worked with a wide range of regional businesses during his three years at EY. He previously worked in Treasury for a private-equity backed mortgage lender and gained experience working on various debt issuances.
The team is led by Roger Esler and Paul Herriott. Esler said: “Regional businesses are enjoying an environment where most have several strategic options available to them.
“This is driving high levels of deal activity across the M&A, private equity and debt markets and the demand for objective corporate finance advice to appraise the alternative routes and to execute the best option. Our specialist team is growing accordingly.”
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Yorkshire-based temperature controlled storage and distribution business Reed Boardall has appointed Patrick Haslam as head of operations in its cold store division.
He joins from Wensleydale Dairy Products where he spent almost three years as supply chain manager, responsible for purchasing, scheduling, logistics outbound, procurement and stores. Previously, he worked as a general manager at Sigma and as a customer services director at Moores Furniture Group.
With a proven track record of strategic leadership within programme management and supply chain operations, Haslam has led major operational improvement within manufacturing operations and delivered multi-million pound programmes of capital investment to the retail industry.
In his new role with Reed Boardall, he will lead operations at the group’s cold store division, using his operational management skills, experience of scheduling and Lean Six Sigma expertise to implement further improvements and efficiencies.
Andrew Baldwin, managing director of Reed Boardall’s cold storage division, said: “There are so many facets to the role that, with his breadth of management experience, Patrick is perfect for this position. He will bring some fresh-thinking to the internal and external processes within our cold store operation and help us to become even better at what we do.”
Haslam said: “I see this move as a great opportunity to join a long-established, successful family business which has an appetite to move forward and is open to change.
“I am really looking forward to working alongside Andrew to drive further operational efficiencies and make Reed Boardall even more competitive and customer-focused.”
Reed Boardall is one of the largest temperature controlled food distribution businesses in the UK, storing and delivering frozen food from manufacturers across Britain, Europe and further afield to all the UK’s best-known supermarkets.
The firm’s 170-strong fleet of vehicles moves an average of 12,000 pallets a day and it stores around £100m worth of products on behalf of its customers. It employs over 750 staff at its single site in Boroughbridge, Yorkshire.
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Sheffield-based Fulcrum has strengthened the expertise within its Electric Vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure operations with the appointment of industry specialist Alex Hinchcliffe as head of business development.
Hinchcliffe will lead Fulcrum’s EV business development division and will be responsible for building relationships with new and existing customers to deliver bespoke EV charging solutions.
With extensive knowledge of the sector, having co-founded an EV charging business and recently providing management consultancy services to a Charge Point Operator, he will develop Fulcrum’s EV service and grow its EV infrastructure capabilities across complementary areas of the group, such as in its industrial and commercial and housing utility infrastructure divisions.
He also takes an active role in the development of the UK’s overall rollout of EV charging infrastructure, being a member of the Renewable Energy Association’s (REA) EV Steering Group, which includes prominent figures from the EV charge point operations sector.
The steering group identifies the barriers to effective roll out of a viable public EV charge point network and works collectively to support the development of solutions to encourage the wide-scale adoption of the technology.
Prior to joining Fulcrum, Hinchcliffe has enjoyed a broad and varied career, which began in recruitment, taking him to Australia to establish a specialist education division for Hays. While in Australia he made a career change becoming a personal trainer, which led to him managing a team of more than 50 trainers.
He returned to the UK in 2015, remaining in the fitness industry for a year before co-founding Alfa Power, which went on to set a number of EV charging industry-firsts, including being the first company to launch a 120kW charger.
Hinchcliffe said: “Fulcrum is in an excellent position to help deliver the infrastructure the UK requires to create an effective and robust EV charging network that will have a significant impact on the low-carbon ambitions of the country.
“Through my work in this sector I am keen to build on the relationships that Fulcrum has already established in the EV market, while also exploring the opportunities to further incorporate charging infrastructure projects into other areas of the group’s operations.”
Craig Baugh, director of sales and marketing at Fulcrum, said: “Alex brings considerable expertise and knowledge of the EV charging market, which will complement the strong team of specialists we have developed at Fulcrum.
“Fulcrum is committed to playing a key role in supporting the UK’s target of increasing the use of electric vehicles as part of the decarbonisation of our environment. As a result, we are working closely with our customers and industry stakeholders, to deliver a nation-wide network of new charging points.”
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A Leeds-based architecture practice has appointed three architectural assistants as part of its future talent development programme and ongoing expansion.
Rebecca Hazzard joins Brewster Bye Architects as a RIBA Part 2 architectural assistant and Andrew Stanway and Ben Crayton as RIBA Part 1 architectural assistants. All three will work with the firm’s established teams on projects in both the residential and commercial property sectors.
Cambridge University graduate, Hazzard, has a 2:1 BA Hons Degree in Architecture as well as a Merit in Architecture from the Manchester School of Architecture. She completed her two-year Part 1 qualification at two practices in Cambridge, working as an architectural assistant.
Stanway achieved a 2:1 BA Hons Degree in Architecture from Leeds Beckett University and has experience working in an architectural practice in Leeds, where he started to learn software design Revit skills. Crayton has recently graduated from Northumbria University, where he achieved a BA Hons Degree in Architecture. He has a product design background and is a talented 3-D modeller.
Chris Austin, managing director at Brewster Bye Architects, said: “Qualifying to become an architect takes huge levels of talent, commitment and time.
“Typically, aspiring architects study for five years at university and complete a minimum of two years’ practical experience. Every year we employ at least three new architectural assistants and have found that their dedication to the profession and willingness to learn is exceptional.
“Our latest talented trio are a welcome addition to our ever expanding and experienced team. They will work alongside our senior people who will nurture their creativity and design skills, whilst they complete this part of their qualifications.”
