People: KPMG; Yorkshire Building Society; Pressure Technologies; and more

KPMG has said Clare Partridge will lead the business advisory firm in the Sheffield City Region.

She is an audit partner who has worked at KPMG for more than 20 years. She has a wealth of experience, having audited a broad portfolio of private and public sector organisations, largely in the Yorkshire region, as well as in London and New Zealand.

Partridge, who lives in in Penistone near Barnsley with her husband and two daughters, succeeds Philippa Sanderson who is joining KPMG’s Scottish tax practice.

She said: “The Sheffield City Region is a crucial part of the Yorkshire market, home to a host of innovative privately owned businesses, on which I’ll be focusing, exploring how KPMG’s breadth of specialists can support them to meet their objectives.

“The area is poised for exciting developments after its devolution deal became law just last month.

“I’m hoping the pan market perspectives I can share will be useful to those leading businesses as the community reshapes economically and navigates new ways of working as a devolved City Region, with new funding and power but also facing challenges in the context of uncertainty and financial pressure due to Covid-19 and Brexit.”

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Ben Sampson

Yorkshire Building Society has created two new director roles to support its ongoing investment in digital.

The Society has appointed Ben Sampson as director of digital programmes and Mark Brayton as director of marketing and digital channels.

Sampson has worked in business engagement and transformation at the Society for more than five years and has previously led and delivered complex multi-million pound transformation programmes at Lloyds Banking Group.

Brayton joined the Society following 18 years in a number of marketing leadership positions at Barclays Bank, where ultimately he was marketing director for Barclays UK.

During his time at Barclays, he was instrumental in driving innovation and digital transformation to increase engagement across Barclays’ Retail, Premier, Wealth and Business Banking segments.

Stephen White, chief operations officer, said: “Our purpose as a mutual is to provide the real help our customers need in improving their financial wellbeing and securing a place to call home.

Mark Brayton

“These new roles will be crucial in supporting with our ongoing digital development, which will make all it easier for all of our customers to do business with us, whether they choose to use a branch, phone us or use our online services.”

David Morris, chief commercial officer at Yorkshire Building Society, said: “We are delighted to welcome Mark and Ben to their new roles.

“I am confident we have chosen strong candidates with excellent track records who will help us to improve services for our customers and, ultimately, deliver the help our customers need with their financial goals.”

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The Board of Sheffield-based Pressure Technologies, the listed specialist engineering group, says Joanna Allen will be stepping down from her role as chief financial officer.

She will remain a member of the Board until 31 October 2020 and will support the Group in ensuring a smooth transition.

The Board has begun a recruitment process for a new CFO and a further announcement regarding a successor will be made in due course.

Chris Walters, chief executive of Pressure Technologies, said: “On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Jo for her significant contribution and service to the Group during her five-years with the business. We wish Jo every success for the future.”

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Leeds-based digital agency Visibilis has strengthened its senior leadership team with two new hires.

In two newly created roles – Felicity Griffiths joins as marketing director and Charlotte Griffin joins as client services director.

Both previously held senior roles on the management team at Epiphany, a Jaywing agency.

Visibilis founder, Ben Wolfenden, said: “We’re in the middle of a really exciting period of growth, and bringing Felicity and Charlotte on-board has been a pivotal part of this.

“We’ve been fortunate to have grown organically over the years through client referrals alone, we have a real sweet spot of businesses we partner successfully with and as a result, enjoy many long-standing client relationships.

“Like any business, we now want to diversify how we’re finding these clients and Felicity’s work to position our agency and help us reach these businesses is instrumental to this.

“We love working with businesses where it’s an enjoyable and valuable experience for them and for our team, and bringing Charlotte on-board means that this remains a priority for our growing client base.

“Both Felicity and Charlotte bring a great deal of experience to the team but crucially, share the same focus and vision for the business that I do and have the right ambition and attitude to ensure we make it happen.”

Griffiths said: “From the first chat with Ben and managing director Daisy I knew this was the right next step for me.

“With a competitive environment, it can be difficult for an agency to stand out amongst the rest but the team at Visibilis have already done a lot of the hard work for me.

“They really do excel at driving actual revenue growth for clients and better still, the client relationships are so strong that the agency already has a lot of advocates.”

Griffin said: “With the industry awash with agencies, long-standing client relationships can be a bit of a rarity – but Visibilis is in the fantastic position of having over a third of its client base for three or more years.

“With a surge of new business wins in the last six months, I’m really looking forward to developing these same strong relationships and working with the fantastic team Ben and Daisy have built.”