People: G+E Wealth Management; LDC; Wake Smith; and more

G+E Wealth Management has welcomed Nick Barraclough and Mark Leeming as financial planners and Juliette Harrison as a research manager.

Since 2017, the company has grown from a single IFA advising clients on assets of £50m. Today the York and Leeds based firm now employs 22 financial planners who look after more than £750m.

Barraclough and Leeming are both experienced independent financial advisers and will work in G+E Wealth Management’s York and Leeds offices to provide high quality wealth planning advice to clients through the region and beyond.

Barraclough brings over 20 years of financial services experience and recently worked with The Private Office (TPO) and has specialist expertise in investments, pensions, and retirement planning as well as inheritance and tax planning.

Leeming has spent over 40 years in financial services and most recently worked at Hudson Foster. He has expertise across the whole range of pension, investment and tax planning solutions.

Harrison has over 25 years’ financial services experience, having started her career at Standard Life, then working in various roles including Compliance, Pension Transfer Specialist and most recently as a senior paraplanner covering all areas of financial advice.

Mark Frier, financial planning director, said: “Each of these appointments significantly strengthens our team as we look to build for the future and expand our existing client base.

“Nick prides himself on bringing and maintaining long-term trusted relationships with his clients, ensuring he explains their financial planning options in plain English which fits perfectly with our company ethos.

“Mark has an equally impressive track record and there are not many IFAs with such a wealth of knowledge.”

Harrison will manage a team of analysts and support the head of research, Natalie Oliver.

Oliver said: “Juliette’s appointment marks a significant milestone in our growth journey, not only through increased capacity to handle complex advice but also in terms of building the leadership capabilities in the Research team.”

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Mid-market private equity firm LDC has expanded its team in Leeds with the appointments of Sophie Isaacs as origination manager and Ana-Maria Garaba as investment manager.

Isaacs joins from BGF, where she spent three years as an investor supporting the firm with its origination, investment and portfolio management activities.

Prior to that, she was a corporate finance manager at Deloitte where she worked on LDC’s investment in leading technology platform NBS.

Garaba has worked for Lloyds Banking Group for five years, most recently as an associate director in the Group’s Strategic Debt Finance team.

Before joining that team, she was on Lloyds Banking Group’s Emerging Leadership Programme where she focused on mid-market commercial banking.

The appointments follow a busy 12 months for LDC’s team in Yorkshire, which completed transactions with a combined value of more than £475m in 2021.

Looking ahead, Isaacs and Garaba will help the team to increase its support for mid-market businesses across the region. The private equity firm recently committed to investing in at least 100 SMEs nationally over the next five years.

Dan Smith, partner and head of LDC in Yorkshire, said: “We are actively looking to support more business leaders across Yorkshire and are excited to welcome Sophie and Ana-Maria to our growing team.

“Between them, they bring a suite of skills and experience that will help us to deliver on our commitment to back more management teams to realise their ambitious growth plans.”

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Sheffield’s Wake Smith has boosted its busy private client team with the appointment of experienced solicitor Stephanie Chung.

Chung joins the established eight-strong team led by director and head of department Suzanne Porter and is hoping to take advantage of her language skills to further links in the city.

Alongside her day-to-day role advising on Wills, Trust and Probate matters, Wake Smith hopes that as a fluent Cantonese speaker she can offer high quality legal advice to the growing Chinese community in Sheffield.

Chung said: “As a firm rooted in Sheffield, Wake Smith has acknowledged the need to offer quality advice to the Chinese community in Sheffield.

“Elderly issues including mental capacity, Power of Attorney and Wills can be a sensitive issue within this group, so I am keen to get referrals and show how Wake Smith can help.

“I have previously worked with two team members here already, Colleen Dooney and Annie Wright, and am really looking forward to teaming up with them again, and developing my role further.”

Porter added: “Stephanie is a valuable appointment to our team and her dual language skills are an additional asset to Wake Smith.”

Chung arrives from a niche private client practice in Sheffield where she assisted clients with estate administration, Inheritance Tax Planning, Wills and Powers of Attorney matters.

She completed a law and French degree at the University of Birmingham, and passed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the College of Law in Birmingham before qualifying in 2010.

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Contact centre CC33 has made four new senior appointments to further strengthen its teams and services as the firm continues to expand.

The Sheffield-based business has appointed head of people Kris Ball, joint head of operations Gavin Roberts, business governance manager Connor Fitzpatrick-Bryne and marketing director Richard Cotton.

Ball will be focusing on employee engagement and will oversee the roll out of a new break out and training facility at the firm’s Portergate head office on Ecclesall Road.

He said: “Investing in our people is at the heart of everything we do, and it plays a huge part of a company’s success. I look forward to further developing our engagement offering for our teams.”

Roberts joins with years of operational experience in contact centre solutions. He will oversee the delivery of exceptional customer experience, great performance and client satisfaction across all teams.

He said: “The company’s dedication to employee wellbeing is important to me and I know it makes a real difference to staff morale.”

Fitzpatrick-Bryne has a wealth of experience in the financial and utilities sectors.

He said: “CC33 sets itself apart from others in the industry. The firm has made impressive inroads with its employee engagement programme and demonstrates a genuine interest in the welfare of employees.”

Cotton arrives with more than 20 years in senior roles across various sectors where outsourced services were often central to the success. He will be implementing and overseeing the sales and marketing strategy, sales pipeline and company branding.

He said: “CC33 is 10-years-old this year and has been going from strength to strength.

“Our capability to offer small or large scale multichannel services both onshore and offshore with the same attention to detail, and desire to succeed for our clients, really makes the next chapter very exciting.”

Managing director Paul Fletcher said: “2022 is an exciting year for us as it marks 10 years in business, and we have a series of exciting new developments to announce.

“As well as growing our impressive client base we are actively recruiting for a number of new roles across our campaigns.

“Thanks to company growth, last year we recruited more than 120 people and this year we’re set to welcome more than 300 new members of staff.”