People: YFM Equity Partners; Taylor & Emmet; Tyr Law; and more

Expanding Private Equity house YFM Equity Partners (YFM), which has offices in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London, has appointed Roshan Puri as an investment director.

Puri joins YFM from Calculus Capital where he invested in companies across the software, business services and consumer sectors.

He also sat on various boards helping investee companies deliver their growth plans and realise value.

His previous investments include the workforce optimisation software business ActiveOps, digital asset management software company IPV and marketing agency Once Upon a Time.

Jamie Roberts, partner at YFM, said: “It’s great that we are welcoming Roshan as the second new recruit to join the YFM investment team this month.

“Roshan has significant experience, particularly in the tech sector, which will help us accelerate the investment rate from our recently raised £80m Buyout Fund II and our growth capital focused VCTs.

“The committed capital across both of our investment strategies means we remain very much open for business and are still actively looking for new investments.

“Throughout YFM’s 38 year history of supporting SMEs, we have invested through various economic cycles and growing our team reflects our commitment to continuing to do that.”

YFM typically invests between £3m and £10m per transaction into businesses with strong growth potential located across the UK regions through YFM’s network of offices in London, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham.

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Sheffield’s Taylor & Emmet has announced promotions to recognise the ability and efforts of those delivering the firm’s range of legal services to local residents.

The solicitors is rewarding a total of 11 employees for their hard work, granting six partner status and elevating a further five to associate.

Four of Taylor & Emmet’s new partners are from its largest department – residential conveyancing. They are Sally Todd and Stacey Baxter, both members of its Ecclesall Road team, along with Sally Winter and Sarah Khatib, from its city centre headquarters.

The quartet is joined by personal injury specialist, John Green and Bakewell-based wills and probate expert, Hannah Montague.

The firm’s five new associates include clinical negligence solicitor, Corinna Lincoln, childcare expert, Eleanor Hopwood, Elizabeth Alderson from residential conveyancing, plus John Tunnard and Komal Landa, who are both members of the contentious probate team.

Sharna Poxon, Taylor & Emmet’s head of human resources, said: “A sense of direction is incredibly important for our employees and clients and we feel extremely proud to have so many ambitious and dedicated individuals working for us.

“Some of those included in this round of promotions began their careers as trainees at the firm and their commitment is ensuring our continued growth, through the delivery of great service and collaborative teamwork.”

Chief executive, Steve Hinshelwood, added: “As a new recruit myself, I am extremely excited by these deserving promotions, which support our vision for Taylor&Emmet’s future.

“I would like to congratulate everyone on their achievements and look forward to working with them in their new roles.”

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Leeds based commercial law firm Tyr Law has sealed its first year with two further recruits.

Lyn Dario has joined as a partner from Shulmans where she was head of environmental and regulatory, having previously worked at Nabarro in London and Sheffield.

Eleanor Berryman-Athey has joined as an associate from the Commercial Litigation team at DLA.

Tyr Law opened in Leeds last May and has gone through a successful initial period, tripling in size, taking significant office space at 36 Park Row, and considerably exceeding its projected turnover.

Commercial litigation partner, Alistair Kennedy, said: “We have quickly established a reputation as a top-quality boutique commercial practice that is trusted to deliver exceptional service to its clients.

“We are delighted to have Lyn join the firm and to be able to offer a leading regulatory service to our clients.

“Eleanor joins from a well-known international practice and adds to the growing commercial litigation team, which has attracted numerous high quality and complex claims many of which have already been brought to a successful outcome for our clients. #

“These are challenging times, but we intend to be bold and continue to build on our very strong start. We will always take opportunities to recruit lawyers of the highest calibre.”

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Huddersfield-headquartered integrated communications provider Adare SEC has further enhanced the credentials of its executive team with the appointment of a new director of growth and client development.

Allan Rowan joins after almost six years at customer communications provider Communisis, where he was most recently sales and marketing director.

He joins an executive team of five which has been strengthened significantly since the appointment of Rachael Nevins as chief executive officer in 2018.

Adare SEC employs close to 400 people and has additional facilities in Redditch and Nottingham.

Last year, the company produced and sent around 750 million critical customer communications, in both physical and digital formats.

The business provides supplies to the NHS and UK government bodies and supports many other clients in the management of mandatory and regulatory communications.

Rowan will be responsible for overseeing client relationships, account management and sales development activities.

As part of this, he will be working closely with the wider executive team to collaboratively develop a sales strategy which amplifies Adare SEC’s portfolio of customer-centric products and services and builds on the history and heritage of the brand.

Adare SEC’s latest senior appointment comes soon after the company announced a 52% increase in EBITDA to £5.401m and a £1.7m increase in revenues to £71.4m for the year to 31 October 2019.

Adare SEC’s chief executive officer, Rachael Nevins, said: “Allan has a wealth of experience in customer communications and delivering business growth.

“This newly created role will harness Allan’s expertise and further enable us to continue to delight and inspire our clients whilst providing the highest standards of service excellence.

“Our clients are relying on us for support with their critical communications throughout the challenging circumstances of Covid-19.

“Our executive team is now stronger than ever and will play an invaluable role in ensuring we continue to meet the same high standards they have come to expect.”