People: Bradford Chamber of Commerce; virtualDCS; and more

Bradford Chamber of Commerce Property Forum has a new chair.

Jonathan O’Connor, a director with chartered surveyor and property agent Walker Singleton, has taken over from Marianne McCallum.

He will lead the chamber’s property group for Bradford for the next two years, chairing meetings and acting as spokesperson on relevant matters.

As well as being a networking group for Bradford’s property sector, the forum also forms part of the chamber’s lobbying and representation activities.

The group gathers information and data and feeds into other bodies such as the local authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

It has also lobbied on matters such as employment land shortages, the importance of Northern Powerhouse Rail for the city, and using the site of the Richard Dunn Centre as strategically important for future use.

O’Connor said: “I’ve been involved with Bradford Chamber’s Property Forum for several years now, and I’m looking forward to getting to grips with some of the more pressing matters facing the local business community.

“I’m also hoping to engage with my fellow chairs in Leeds and York & North Yorkshire on cross-boundary issues to ensure the chamber’s property arm is representing in the best way at regional as well as local level.

“It’s obviously been a very difficult and often frustrating last 18 months, and Marianne has done a great job during that time – we are grateful to her for driving forward the work of the forum.”

Mike Cartwright, from the chamber’s Policy & Representation Team, added: “The chamber has a comprehensive structure of groups looking at various policy aspects likely to affect business in some way or other, and our property forums remain key to that set-up.

“For that reason, we’re grateful to those involved and therefore delighted that someone of the calibre of Jonathan, with his extensive and detailed knowledge of the local, regional and even national property sector, is able to take on this leadership role.”

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Leeds-based virtualDCS has appointed Jonathan Bunney as business development manager, as part of the cloud computing and disaster recovery specialist’s latest phase of recruitment.

Bunney brings a wealth of experience to the role after working in IT for over 25 years.

His focus will primarily be on continuing to grow virtualDCS’s CloudCover Disaster Recovery suite and cloud hosting offerings, including the rapidly growing Microsoft 365 backup solution, CloudCover 365.

His appointment follows Kerri Milburn joining the team as a project delivery specialist.

In addition to assisting the sales team with new business, Milburn is also responsible for running and coordinating a range of internal and external projects.

Milburn, from Coventry, is virtualDCS’s first new employee working under the company’s new hybrid-work from home initiative, following the pandemic.

As part of its ongoing expansion, virtualDCS, which employs a 16-strong team, is now planning to recruit an Azure solutions architect and a modern workplace technical specialist, alongside several other key appointments across the company.

Bunney said: “I’m thrilled to join virtualDCS at such an exciting time, when cloud and hosted services are big on everyone’s agenda.

“virtualDCS has a compelling offering with a range of innovative solutions that meet the needs of businesses of all shapes and sizes, which made this role extremely attractive.”

Richard May, managing director, said: “virtualDCS has been fortunate during the pandemic to still be in a position of growth, and we are excited to see what the next few months have in store as we actively recruit for both sales and technical roles.

“Kerri has already had a fantastic impact on the company and Jonathan’s skillset and proactive approach to sales and customer growth meant he was a perfect fit for us. I’m delighted to welcome them both to the team.”

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Sniffers Pet Care has taken on a new business support manager.

Emma Le Gros Clark joins the pet treat business’s expanding team from Lloyds Banking Group, where she worked for a time alongside Sniffers director Simon Brown.

Liverpool-born Clark left a 22-year career in the financial services industry to join Sniffers, where her primary focus will be managing goods in and liaising with international suppliers.

She is one of three appointments being made as a result of recent expansion.

The business relocated to larger, 22,500 sq ft premises in Elland earlier this month from its previous base in Brighouse – the second growth-driven move in two and a half years. The move takes the overall headcount to 12.

Clark, who spent the past nine years at Lloyds focusing on employee engagement and communications, said she was delighted to be working alongside director Simon Brown and the team at Sniffers.

She added: “Having worked with a corporate giant for so long it’s exciting to move to Sniffers, a growing business with some incredible opportunities.

“I originally moved to Yorkshire in 2004 – it was only supposed to be for three months! – then married a local chap and we have a son, who is three.

“It’s a really vibrant area that’s home to some really innovative businesses like Sniffers, that have enormous potential.”

Brown added: “I’m really pleased to welcome Emma to our team. Bringing in a business support manager of Emma’s calibre is a natural step for the business, enabling us to continue to expand and to offer an enhanced service to our customers throughout the pet trade.”

Sniffers Pet Care distributes products to more than 1,000 pet care stores across the UK, from independent traders to high street names.

The company has grown over the past year, with turnover up 50% year-on-year. It is on track to top the £2m turnover mark by the next year end in September.