People: TL Dallas; Knight Frank; Engage; and more
An insurance professional with almost 30 years’ industry experience has joined TL Dallas to spearhead the next phase of growth within its commercial division.
Tim Mortimer has been appointed managing director – commercial at Bradford-headquartered TL Dallas, an independent insurance broking and risk management group.
He joins from UK insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh Commercial, which was previously known as Jelf and Bluefin, where he led a team of 150 across 11 offices in his role as northern regional director.
He will lead TL Dallas’ 70 -strong commercial team, which is based across the firm’s 10 offices throughout the UK, offering a full range of insurance services including commercial, trade credit and private client insurances, as well as independent financial services.
The company’s clients range from sole traders to public sector organisations, and listed companies to charities.
Mortimer is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute (ACII), and has an MBA and a degree in economics.
He said: “I’m excited to have joined a high quality, independent broker that has an excellent, longstanding reputation in the market as it prepares to embark on a period of growth.
“Businesses like TL Dallas are both nimble and entrepreneurial, as well as heavily focused on client service.
“With so much consolidation in the industry, there’s a big gap in the market for a company with TL Dallas’s credentials and I’m looking forward to building on the commercial division’s already impressive client base.”
Polly Staveley, group managing director at TL Dallas, said: “Our family business celebrated its 100th anniversary last year and our business model has stood the test of time.
“We are marking the start of our next century with ambitious growth plans. We want to build on our success in the commercial arena particularly, whilst also enhancing the other services that we provide to clients.
“Tim joined the business in early March, and was soon faced with the unprecedented situation of a UK-wide lockdown, with the whole Group working from home.
“Whilst this has presented unique challenges, in terms of getting to know his teams via video conferencing, he has successfully embraced the challenge!
“Tim has proved to be a huge asset in the last few months, supporting our commercial staff through some challenging times, as well as focusing on developing strategic plans for the next stage of business growth, whilst mitigating against the impact of Covid-19.”
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Global property consultancy Knight Frank has strengthened its Yorkshire valuations team with the strategic appointment of James Milner as a partner and head of department.
Milner joins from Cushman and Wakefield, where he was head of valuations in the north of England. He was previously with Sanderson Weatherall.
He said: “This is a major move and a massive opportunity for me.
“The valuations department is already a leading consultancy across the Yorkshire region, but my challenge is to take it to another level.
“The combined Leeds and Sheffield teams will provide an unrivalled valuations service for existing and future clients alike.
“I will be focusing the full range of property valuation including development and investment appraisals.
“I enjoyed my time at Cushman and Wakefield, but the opportunity to join Knight Frank was an offer I couldn’t refuse.
“The strength of the teams and the independent Partnership structure make it the stand out practice in the region.
“It is a superb opportunity – and challenge – at a pivotal time for the real estate market in Yorkshire.”
Henrie Westlake, head of Knight Frank, said: “James is an incredibly important appointment for us. Without question the leading valuer in the city, his arrival heralds a new era for our valuations department in Yorkshire.
“In addition to his vast expertise and experience, James’ personality leads him to build exceptional relationships with clients and colleagues alike.
“He is a perfect fit for our culture and we could not be more excited about him joining the Partnership.
“These are very exciting times for Knight Frank and James is absolutely integral to our future success in the county.”
In a significant expansion of the Team, Milner will be joined at Knight Frank by his colleague Matthew Turner, who is also moving from valuations at Cushman and Wakefield in Leeds.
Turner will join as an Associate Partner with wide experience of the Yorkshire market.
The strength of the team is highlighted by the promotion to Associate of Michael Goodare in Leeds and Matthew Collier in Sheffield.
In Knight Frank’s latest round of promotions, James Green, a senior surveyor in the building consultancy team, has also been promoted to Associate.
Westlake said: “These promotions recognise the dedication, dynamism and hard work of Michael, Matthew and James. It is great to have such talent rising through the business. They have my warmest congratulations.”
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Leeds-based digital agency Engage continues to grow with the appointment of project specialist and head of delivery, Imogen Lassen.
She brings over seven years of account and project management experience with her.
Working with the Engage team and clients, she enables the delivery of large and complex projects and the streamlining of processes.
She also works closely with the leadership team at Engage to formalise and structure how projects are run, define processes for resourcing and capacity management, devise strategies and support existing client relationships.
Lassen’s appointment supports the team of 36 on the continued service of high profile accounts including Jet2, Heineken and Cambridge University.
She said: “After seven years of working in digital agencies, I’m thrilled to secure a role at such a respected agency and contribute to the development of Engage.
“It’s been brilliant working with the leadership team as we continue to deliver outstanding results for our clients.
“I’ve already worked on a number of notable projects and I’m really looking forward to further honing my skills in account and project management.”
Engage co-founder, Alex Willcocks, said: “After a successful and busy 2019, this is a dynamic time to join Engage.
“Although times are uncertain, we’re continuing to see investment in marketing by existing, and new clients.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Imogen integrating into our thriving team, and how her knowledge and experience strengthens our project delivery and the services we offer.”
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Nick Frankland
The managing director of FinTech at Legal & General, Nick Frankland, has joined the Board of Leeds-based investment non-profit, NorthInvest.
Frankland specialises in identifying high potential initiatives and start-ups disrupting the financial services sector in the UK and US markets and sits on the board of a number of Legal and General investments and companies.
He said: “I am delighted to add my support to NorthInvest in order to help businesses to scale up.
“Legal and General is a very active investor in the region and our mission to be economically and socially useful is part of our inclusive capitalism drive.
“Over my career there has not been a time when that mission has been more important.”
The appointment comes as NorthInvest explores an early stage start-up focused support initiative in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Matt Cooling, founder of Inditra, a Leeds-based business strategy and innovation consultancy, and former UKI innovation programme lead for Cisco, also joins the NorthInvest team in an advisory role.
Both roles will involve assisting NorthInvest in developing a COVID-19 response for the organisation to benefit local early stage tech and digital start-ups.
These additions to the team and Board represent further growth for NorthInvest, following a successful first quarter for the investment facilitator with four investment rounds supported and over £2m raised for Northern start-ups.
Matt Cooling
Founding board director, Helen Oldham, said: “We’re delighted to welcome both Nick Frankland and Matt Cooling to our Board and operations team, respectively.
“Both bring valuable experience in the transformation and innovation space and will help NorthInvest further adapt to safeguard digital economic growth during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.”
Founder of NorthInvest, Professor Adam Beaumont, added: “Post-COVID we recognise the urgency to stimulate trade, growth and seed-level investment for innovative start-ups.
“We are dedicated to supporting start-ups to become scale-ups and the multinationals of the future.
“We look forward to developing – rapidly – a recovery response that enables this and acknowledges the urgency and importance of this mission.”
