People: KPMG; Leeds Building Society; Taylor&Emmet; and more
KPMG UK has promoted 45 staff across its Leeds offices, mirroring areas of growth for the business and the continued investment the firm is making in its people.
Five new directors are among those promoted by the professional services firm, which employs more than 1,000 people across its offices in Leeds.
Jonny Grice and Caroline Allen have been promoted to director in the firm’s consultancy practice, with Chulanga Jayawardana and Ben Taylor becoming directors in KPMG’s deal advisory capability. In KPMG’s tax practice in Leeds, Stephanie Hunter is now a director.
In other promotions, 11 staff have risen to senior manager, 21 are now manager, and eight have been promoted to assistant manager.
These promotions reflect demand from the firm’s clients and have been made across all of KPMG’s capabilities – from audit and deal advisory, to tax, legal and consulting.
Euan West, Leeds office senior partner at KPMG UK, said: “Our people are at the core of what we do and central to our collective success.
“Attracting and retaining staff is a priority for every company and I am proud we are able to support internal career progression and nurture the talent we have here within the firm.
“Congratulations to all of the individuals who have been promoted through their hard work and dedication to providing the very best advice to our clients across Yorkshire and the Humber.”
KPMG UK has made a range of senior promotions nationally, with over 1,700 staff promoted on 1 October – the start of the firm’s new financial year.
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Leeds Building Society has named Anita Tadayon as its newest non executive director.
She joins the society Board alongside four executive directors and six non executive directors, including chair Iain Cornish.
Tadayon brings 15 years of experience in senior transformation and operations roles with major consumer brands, including Sky and Centrica, and is currently global portfolio & digital product roadmap director at BT Group.
Her experience includes successful transformation and change delivery projects for local and central government and Primary Care Trusts, as well as process and systems design, product development and supply chain management.
She said: “I am excited and very proud to be joining Leeds Building Society and share its focus and drive to make things better for colleagues and customers.
“The Society’s corporate culture and values as a mutual were really attractive to me as I looked for my first non executive role.”
Cornish said: “Anita shares our belief in purpose-led business, as well as our commitment to continuous improvement to deliver excellent customer service, for the benefit of our membership as a whole.
“I’m delighted to welcome Anita to the Society and believe her skills, knowledge and experience will further strengthen our Board team and contribute to the continued success of the business.”
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Sheffield’s Taylor&Emmet law firm is expanding its specialist inheritance, trust and will disputes team to meet growing demand for its services.
Solicitor, Sandra Kowalska, joins the firm to increase capacity in this complex area of probate law and assist local clients with various trust and estate issues.
Having worked previously at HSR Law in Doncaster, where she completed her training, Kowalska brings a wealth of experience in both civil and commercial litigation.
Department head, Alex Watkinson, said: “We are pleased to welcome Sandra to our team of contentious probate experts.
“Her litigation skills are first class and she is keen to put them to the test to assist the diverse range of clients we see, many of whom are extremely vulnerable.
“She has the perfect mix of knowledge, empathy and ambition to make a real impact and we look forward to supporting this next chapter in her career progression.”
Kowalska added: “When the opportunity at Taylor&Emmet arose, I jumped at the chance to join such a well-regarded team.
“There is a family feel, engendered by a great balance of flexibility and support, and I am pleased to be adding my skills to this tight-knit group, who make such a positive difference to the lives of clients.”
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Following several new significant client wins, Sheffield and Leeds-based integrated creative agency, Jaywing, has bolstered its creative team with ten new hires across the department.
Taking up roles are Matt Harrison, Ryan Gillies, Gareth Wright, Josh Eyre, Will Heldt, Harry Baker, Ellie Evans, Ariyan Savar, Josephine Steel and Catherine Spivey.
With 30 years’ experience working in a creative environment, Harrison joins as a senior creative artworker.
He previously worked within the artwork department for a major Leeds agency, moving from junior artworker right through to senior level, and recently worked across the Leeds area as a freelancer.
He said: “Jaywing has a great national reputation as an agency and its amazing client list is what attracted me to the role.
“I’m so excited about getting stuck into my role and I can’t wait to start working on a variety of exciting clients and meeting lots of lovely people within the agency.”
With three and a half years in the digital media industry new technical project manager, Gillies, joins Jaywing having recently freelanced as a project manager and developer.
He also worked as a technical PM and support team lead with another agency, helping to set up its QA department.
Gillies said: “I am most looking forward to working with and learning from a lot of in-house departments that have excellent talent with a huge variety of experience.”
Wright, a senior back-end developer, is returning to Jaywing after having previously being employed by the agency for 13 years.
He left to pursue a new role as development manager for CarbonSixDigital digital agency, which involved managing projects such as NextBase Global, Egress and Wright Hassall.
He was responsible for security, process and best practices within the development team.
Wright said: “I’m excited to start working with clients both old and new, as well as moving forward with innovative technologies such as Umbraco 9 and .NET Core.”
Other new hires amongst the creative team include:
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Junior front end developer, Josh Eyre, will be using his skills to develop the graphical user interface of websites, using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
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Junior art director, Will Heldt, will help assist, plan, and execute design projects and other creative materials across Jaywing.
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Copywriters Harry Baker, Ellie Evans and Ariyan Savar, who are responsible for producing engaging, clear text for different advertising channels across the Jaywing client base.
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Creative resource assistant, Josephine Steel, who will be part of the team responsible for planning and allocating all creative tasks across Jaywing for maximised efficiency.
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Junior designer, Catherine Spivey, will be offering input and sharing ideas to produce attractive and effective designs across all types of media for a wide variety of clients.
Karl Stones, executive creative director at Jaywing, said: “Whether it’s TV, a Tweet or anything in-between, our ideas are only as good as the intelligence we work from.
“So, our ability to take data-driven insight and turn it into high performing and award-winning creative is what makes Jaywing stand out.
“We’re really excited to see what our new hires will bring to our creative offering and see their thinking and expertise come to life around the globe.”
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