People: Blacks Solicitors; Adair Paxton; The 55 Group; and more

Blacks Solicitors is marking the end of a successful year with promotions in teams across the firm.

In total, 17 people have been promoted across six teams; Corporate, Commercial, Residential Property, Commercial Property, Risk & Compliance, and Commercial Dispute Resolution (CDR).

Saby Sambhi (Corporate & Commercial) and Charlotte Hart (Residential Property) have been promoted to solicitor partners.

Sambhi said: “It means a lot to all of us that our hard work and dedication to the firm and our clients has been recognised.

“We’re really pleased to be ending the year with such positive news, and we’re looking forward to seeing what 2022 brings us.”

Blacks’ property offering has seen five people promoted to senior associate solicitor; Jonathan Kay (Commercial Property), Jennifer Gillespie (Commercial Property), Marcus Kaye (Commercial Property), Emma Garfitt (Residential Property), and Perdip Kaur Bhachu (Residential Property).

James Ricketts (Risk & Compliance) is also now a senior associate solicitor.

Shamaila Khan (Commercial Property) has been promoted to senior associate licensed conveyancer, with Sarah Kellett (Residential Property) promoted to associate licensed conveyancer.

Six team members are now associate solicitors; Ben Finley (Commercial Property), Chloe Grainger (CDR), Yat Wong (CDR), Andrew Morgan (CDR), Jenna Meehan (Corporate & Commercial), and Amer Ali (Residential Property).

The firm has also promoted Alex Hall (Corporate & Commercial) to associate legal executive.

Chris Allen, managing partner, added: “After another challenging year, it’s been brilliant to see all our team members display such commitment and ingenuity to ensure we’ve been able to continue delivering a fantastic level of service across the board.

“I’m extremely proud of everyone who’s been promoted, and am pleased to be able to reward them for their hard work.”

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Leeds-based property company, Adair Paxton, has appointed Claire Dalingwater as director of operations and finance, to support the firm’s continued growth.

She is responsible for providing company-wide operational oversight, as well as managing the operational accounting teams to ensure the protection and security of client monies, which includes tenant deposits and rent payments.

She will also be accountable for identifying efficiencies and implementing change management strategies.

Dalingwater brings a wealth of experience to Adair Paxton and has already completed several consultancy projects for the firm, which has offices in Leeds city centre and Horsforth, specialising in commercial and residential property sales and lettings, survey services and block management.

She has previously worked in financial services, healthcare IT and the travel industries, where she was responsible for large scale change projects, delivering a wide portfolio of IT and business change implementations.

Dalingwater said: “A key part of this role is laying the foundations for growth and ensuring there are robust processes and procedures in place to support all areas of the business, minimise risk and deliver outstanding customer service.

“I’m currently strengthening our existing teams to enable us to onboard new business, whilst maintaining our service levels, and there are lots more exciting opportunities ahead in 2022.”

Nicola Thompson, a director at Adair Paxton, said: “Claire’s ability to identify efficiencies, improve processes and implement procedures is already benefiting both our clients and our offices, so we’re extremely pleased to welcome a fellow female director to the team.”

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Simon Toplass

Hull-based organisation The 55 Group has made a raft of new hires and reshuffled its senior team, which sees staff from across its four brands moving into new positions.

Lord Bob Kerslake, former head of the civil service, moves from his role as non-executive chairman of national framework provider Pagabo to group strategic advisor for The 55 Group.

The group includes Pagabo, along with risk, compliance and contract management software company Sypro, social value specialists Loop, and digital-first training platform Tequ.

Simon Toplass moves into the role of chief commercial officer for The 55 Group, while Dr Stuart Kings, director at Sypro, will also step into a group role as The 55 Group’s collaboration director, which will focus on upholding shared values including togetherness, innovation, creativity and results.

Two new hires join the senior board, including group non-executive chairman Paul Hughes, who previously founded and grew software company ParentMail.

Meanwhile, group chief financial officer Mark Smith joins, bringing with him a wealth of experience from MKM Building Supplies.

Toplass said: “The changes we have recently undergone have been to facilitate growth across the group and to allow the individual businesses to thrive simultaneously.

“As an organisation, we invest in our staff and the senior changes are testament to the hard work these individuals have put in.

“Over the past year recruitment has been particularly strong with most of the hires being placed into new positions that have been created to match the growth of the individual businesses.

“We hope these forward thinkers continue to drive our work across key sectors and use their knowledge to grow our various businesses, just as our recently promoted senior team continue to do.”

Dr Stuart Kings

The 55 Group continues to grow, with 20 members of staff having been hired during the past year in addition to the senior shake-up.

These roles span the overall group, as well as dedicated roles within Pagabo, Sypro, Tequ and Loop.

Kings said: “Stepping into a new role as collaboration director is a responsibility that I am proud to have been trusted with.

“We believe our cross-industry experience and expertise will support the Government’s plan to level up the UK economy, but the need to put one’s own house in order – and maintaining it – is an important step than cannot be overlooked.

“We will be monitoring our collective strategy and this process will be improved by the new senior team set up.”

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Harrogate-based connected agency group, IDHL, has appointed Ben Turner in the newly created position of people director to support team investment plans.

Employing over 340 people across its eight agencies and with rapidly growing teams, Turner joins IDHL’s senior management team to lead the development of a comprehensive people strategy designed to meet the future needs of the group.

A Chartered Fellow of the CIPD with over 20 years of experience, he has spent time with Tesco Group, Well Pharmacy and most recently, Mckesson UK.

During his time with Well Pharmacy, he was accountable for rebuilding the Talent and L&D functions.

Turner then moved into the role of HR director to lead various employee attraction and engagement initiatives, relaunching their graduate scheme, leadership programmes and developing industry-leading professional qualification programmes.

At Mckesson UK, he led HR for Lloyds Pharmacy as well as UK digital and marketing businesses.

Dennis Engel, IDHL CEO, said: “We warmly welcome Ben to the Group. Our people are everything to us and providing them with the best support and guidance is paramount.

“Creating the role is one thing but being able to fill it with a candidate of the quality and experience of Ben, is another.

“We feel very fortunate to have him and can’t wait for him to start working with his team to deliver new programs that will make a tangible difference to the work experiences and career opportunities of our people.”

Turner said: “I am thrilled to be joining IDHL Group at such an exciting time of growth and look forward to working with my new colleagues in developing a market-leading employee experience through a forward-looking people strategy that delivers the culture, people development and leadership to enable the Group’s future ambitions.”

Working with the wider management team across WMG, Pinpoint, NetConstruct, Fostr, equation, Ingenuity Digital and Wired Plus, Turner assumes responsibility for IDHL’s HR and talent acquisition functions, as well as learning and development and early careers.