People: New recruits for law firm’s senior management team; Board changes at listed furniture retailer; and more

Hull-headquartered litigation and commercial law firm, rradar, has made two key appointments to its Senior Leadership Team.

Sarah Blanchfield joins the firm as people director and is responsible for leading and driving the HR function and people strategy for the business. She is a highly experienced HR leader who has worked in the Financial Services and Business Process Outsourcing sectors operating at board level and on an international basis.

Blanchfield joins the business from Sedgwick International UK, where she was HR director with responsibility for leading culture, engagement and talent for both UK and international operations.

Prior to this, she led multi-country teams managing large scale people programmes including reward and recognition, recruitment, learning and development and talent development. She has played a pivotal role in supporting businesses and their people, for companies such as Capita, International Personal Finance and Bradford & Bingley.

Ruth Turner has been appointed as rradar’s new finance director. She will lead the Finance function both strategically and operationally for the business, with a specific focus alongside the Leadership Team, in leveraging its existing successful platform and driving further sustainable growth across broader business operations, as part of the firm’s long-term strategic plan.

Turner is an experienced Finance and business transformational leader, with significant experience across a wide range of sectors with large national and global organisations.

Starting her career at PWC, she has served at a senior level at Stock Exchange listed companies such as Merck Group and Associated British Ports and was the head of finance processes and systems at DLA Piper.

Gary Gallen, founder and CEO of rradar, said: “We are extremely excited by these appointments and are delighted to welcome both Sarah and Ruth to rradar. They have impressive track records and their experience and expertise will be invaluable to us.

“These key appointments further reinforce our strategy of bringing the industry’s best talent into our business.

“We are always looking out for ambitious, high-quality and driven people to join our business. People like Sarah and Ruth bring deep and diverse experiences and skills that will ensure the company’s continued growth.”

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The Board of listed furniture retailer DFS has said that due to her increased responsibilities as senior independent director of the company, Alison Hutchinson has stepped down as chairman of the Remuneration Committee, as of 17 January 2020.

DFS’s Board has also confirmed that Steve Johnson, a non-executive director and an existing member of the Remuneration Committee, has been appointed chairman of the Remuneration Committee.

Hutchinson will remain a member of the Board and its Committees.

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Commercial nursery Johnsons of Whixley has appointed a plant health specialist – one of the first businesses in the industry to take on a permanent member of staff in this role.

Rebekah Robinson joins North Yorkshire-based Johnsons from the Royal Horticultural Society, where her remit included delivery of plant health policy for RHS shows, staff training and diagnosing diseased plant samples in the laboratory for RHS members and garden staff.

She will take a role in ensuring all plants produced at the company’s sites in Whixley, Cattal and Roecliffe are in peak condition and ensure Johnsons’ employees are appropriately trained on plant health issues such as ash dieback, oak processionary moth (OPM) and xylella.

Robinson will run training sessions not only on identifying and dealing various plant diseases, but also on plants to watch, case studies and where to go for more on plant health.

She will also be working with the team who manage Johnsons’ quality assurance and environmental standards in maintaining and updating the plant health standard that sits alongside.

With a PhD in agricultural microbiology, Robinson has made a career as a plant health specialist and was eager to make the switch from the RHS to production horticulture with Johnsons.

She said: “In my previous role I was working at the customer end of the horticultural industry and I’m now looking forward to gaining a better understanding of the production end of the industry.

“I am also looking forward to adding my knowledge and experience to that already possessed by the team at Johnsons and developing our plant health systems to ensure they are robust enough to handle the future threats we may face. One of my key challenges will be to mitigate Johnsons’ exposure to these threats whilst maintaining regular operational levels.”

Graham Richardson, group managing director at Johnsons, said: “We felt that with the various threats to plant health that exist in the industry, Rebekah’s appointment is a timely one – particularly with Brexit around the corner.

“As a company, we take plant health seriously and Rebekah will play a key role in ensuring all our working practices are as rigorous and robust as possible.”

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The managing director of a pyrometallurgical engineering firm has been awarded fellowship of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3).

The fellowship is a prestigious grade for those who have established a record of achievement in the materials, minerals, mining or other technical disciplines covered by the institute.

Chris Oldroyd, who runs Wakefield-based Inprotec, was awarded the fellowship having made a significant contribution in a senior management role to the metals and processing equipment industry.

Having been nominated by Wardell Armstrong, a multidisciplinary engineering, environmental and mining consultancy which has worked with Inprotec since 2016, Oldroyd succeeded in a rigorous application process in which he was peer reviewed. His assessment resulted in an A-star rated application.

Oldroyd took over the business in 2010. Inprotec’s work across the globe has seen the development of new non-ferrous pyrometallurgical processes and equipment, specifically in the lead, antimony and precious metals sectors and has provided refineries across the globe with a dedicated engineering group.

Inprotec has become the forerunner of the Top Blown Rotary Converter (TBRC) and Short Rotary Furnace (SRF), which have been successfully used in various applications over the years with clients including global firms Johnson Matthey and Glencore.

Oldroyd said: “I’m extremely proud and honoured to have my work and contribution recognised by the IOM3. There’s no doubting that it has been a challenging sector to operate in over the last decade, but that has only inspired more hard-work and dedication from myself and my talented team, whom I’m hugely grateful to.”

Ian Bowbrick, director of membership and professional Standards of IOM3, said: “Chris clearly demonstrated an impressive responsibility for various different designs, of which there are very few fellows in the UK in this arena.

“It typically takes a minimum of 10 years to achieve fellowship by working in the industry and he started at a time it was beginning to reduce in the UK. In order for companies to survive they have had to change product lines and extend their markets overseas. To sustain a business in this sector in the UK is very notable. Chris is a respected practitioner who we are greatly enthused by and he is certainly deserving of the fellowship.”