People: Commercial solicitor recruited; New hire at online training developer; and more

Commercial solicitor Sarah Podesta has joined the team of experienced former in-house lawyers at Haddletons, bringing specific expertise in Pharmaceuticals and Food.

She has built her experience in commercial and competition law, mostly in-house with large multi-national businesses such as Bayer. Her most recent role was head of legal for Arla Foods UK.

Haddletons is headquartered in Harrogate and its 27-strong team operates nationwide. The firm has completed work for clients including retailer Iceland, food manufacturer Dr Oetker and sustainable property developer Citu.

Haddletons also supports spin out and growth companies backed by investment funds with their strategic support and administration services.

CEO James Haddleton said: “Sarah has a huge amount of experience advising at board level and collaborating with teams in multi-national organisations. Her strengths lie in using legal, compliance and risk management tools to solve problems and maximise business value.”

Podesta said: “I am very excited about being part of Haddletons’ team of experts.

“I admire the firm’s forward-thinking approach which gives businesses of all sizes access to fixed price legal, risk and compliance services delivered by lawyers who have worked within companies as part of their teams and truly understand the issues they face.”

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Online training developers, adaptiVLE, continue to expand its team, with the addition of a new head of platform development.

This follows the appointment earlier this year of a business relationship manager.

Charlie Horton joins the North Yorkshire-based business after 15 years at Leeds City College Group, where he developed learning platforms for students.

Horton’s role at adaptiVLE will see him pushing the boundaries of learning management software, to bring innovative training solutions to the company’s growing list of clients.

He said, “I’m really excited to be joining adaptiVLE after following their success for a number of years. They work with customers across a variety of industries, so it will be a welcome change from building platforms purely for education.”

AdaptiVLE managing director, Lewis Carr, said: “Charlie has a real talent for creating bespoke learning portals and has extensive knowledge of the Moodle software which powers the majority of our training systems.

“His skills will allow us to offer exciting new services to our clients, improving the learning experience for training managers and staff alike.

“Since launching the company in 2015, I have been heavily involved in the platform development side of things, so Charlie’s appointment will allow me to spend more time working on growing the business.”

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Ben Pretty, a partner at global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield, has taken up his place on the Institute of Economic Development (IED) Board of Directors after being formally co-opted in December 2019.

Pretty, who is based in Cushman & Wakefield’s Leeds regional office, has over 15 years’ consultancy experience, largely advising public and private sector organisations on property development, infrastructure, regeneration and economic development projects. He is a Chartered Surveyor and works mainly in the field of regeneration and economic development.

His appointment as a Partner last year means he leads much of Cushman & Wakefield’s economic development and growth-based work nationally. He advises Local Enterprise Partnerships, Combined Authorities and Local Authorities and developers on the development and appraisal of business cases to secure public sector investment in infrastructure and property schemes with a focus on commercial, residential and mixed-use schemes.

He is also involved in making the case for investment in a number of large-scale infrastructure schemes and is currently involved in the regeneration of town centres through to the delivery of major residential schemes.

Pretty said: “I have been involved in economic development since 2007 and an awful lot has changed during this time.

“I have always wanted the opportunity to have an influence on change in our sector, rather than sitting back and responding to changes, so when the chance to join the Board came up it was something I was keen to pursue.

“I have been a member of the IED for 10 years – and I have seen the Institute become more and more influential over the years – so I am looking forward to supporting the next phase of its journey.

“The IED is definitely more recognised as a body and a collective group of core individuals now, with more influence and say, and that has benefited members through the representation of our interests.

“I am excited about supporting further proactive engagement with members, whether that is through thought leadership, CPD or something entirely different, and ultimately enhance the brand, profile and reach of the IED as the leading professional body in the field of economic development.”

IED chairman, Bev Hurley, said: “The Board are delighted to welcome Ben and we are sure his consultancy experience across the public and private sector, and expertise in property development, infrastructure, regeneration and economic development, will be of great value to the Institute and its members.”

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The Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA) has appointed Dr Ben Martyn as cluster development manager as the alliance strengthens its team following a multi-million pound funding boost.

The internal appointment sees Martyn move from his previous role as business development officer and analyst – a joint role shared between the NHSA and Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network – into a newly created position leading the NHSA’s cluster development activity.

It comes following the announcement of a £4.5m partnership project between the NHSA and MedCity, funded by Research England, part of UK Research and Innovation, which will improve the visibility of UK life sciences expertise on the international stage.

A core element of this collaborative work includes connecting the UK’s life sciences clusters and delivering joint projects and programmes of work with the goal of creating a ‘Federation of UK Life Sciences Clusters’.

Martyn will continue to develop the NHSA as an exemplary cluster supporting public and private sector health and life science activity in the North of England, with a particular focus on the NHSA’s core areas of activity, which include healthy ageing, data and learning systems, health inequalities, mental health, and translational research.

Martyn, who is based in Sheffield, said: “2020 marks an exciting new phase for the NHSA following the Research England funding and I’m looking forward to playing an important role in shaping our future cluster development activity around the project.

“The North of England has some incredible assets when it comes to health innovation and my new role will focus on utilising the strengths across our region by bringing together research experts from NHS trusts, universities, Academic Health Science Networks and industry to create networks that can, ultimately, bring health and economic benefits to the North.

“We have a lot to offer as a region and by working collectively we can increase the visibility of our world-class capabilities on a national and international scale to bring opportunities and investment into the North of England.”

Dr Séamus O’Neill, chief executive of the Northern Health Science Alliance, said: “It’s with great pleasure that we welcome Ben into this new role at the NHSA. Ben has been instrumental in raising the profile of the NHSA and its members regionally, nationally and globally over the last couple of years, making him ideally placed to lead the NHSA’s cluster development activity as we enter a new chapter in our journey.”