People: Business Enterprise Fund; Consult Red; EV3POWER; and more

Business Enterprise Fund (BEF) has added to its core Bradford team with five new appointments.

The not-for-profit finance firm has appointed Chris Conroy, Tom Kelton and Habib Karimi as associate investment managers, while Anna Muir has joined as human resources manager, and Saharesh Naz comes on board as fund administrator.

Simon Jackson, head of investments at BEF, said: “The last few years have been busier than ever as we have helped small businesses across the north navigate tricky times or pivot in order to thrive.

“We are delighted to welcome our new colleagues to the team as we expect the next 12 months to be busier than ever.”

One of the organisations accredited with the Government’s Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS), BEF provides finance to help community development, business growth and job creation, providing funds where the banks can’t.

Last year the independent loans provider invested £70m in the region’s economy, helping 286 new businesses launch.

Jackson added: “We will be looking to make more appointments in the coming weeks. We’re continuing to support businesses across the region with Recovery Loan Scheme (RLS) facilities up to £250,000, creating jobs and financial security across all sectors to support the northern economy.”

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Shipley-based Consult Red, a tech R&D innovator, has appointed experienced technology consulting leader Raghu Venkatesam as its new chief executive officer.

He will assume day-to-day leadership of the company and join the Board of Directors.

He has a a proven track record of scaling technology-led services business in Asia, Europe and the USA, and joins Consult Red from IBM Consulting.

Venkatesam held several roles as a senior partner over 12 years, including transforming IBM Consulting’s Cloud Application Innovation business in the UK & Ireland and leading global client engagements across financial services, public sector, media & telco, energy & utilities, automotive and retail.

He said: “I am excited to join the Consult Red team as we accelerate our clients’ innovation and delivery of differentiated Media and IoT solutions in their markets.

“Our deep experience in R&D, embedded hardware design, software development and systems integration, along with our competencies in Edge Computing, AI and Security, enable our clients to scale their IoT offerings quickly and securely.

“I look forward to further capitalising on our heritage in the media industry.”

Karen Bach, chairman of the Board of Directors, said: “Consult Red has successfully built an enviable track record helping clients deliver digital transformation, manage risk and get to market faster.

“We are very excited about building on this great success, and Raghu’s impressive international tech knowledge and understanding will help us support more customers.”

Venkatesam replaces Andrew Stewart who is retiring from the company. Stewart will remain on the Board of Consult Red and continue supporting the business.

Stewart said: “I’m so proud of what has been achieved during my time at the helm. Our global growth is beyond what we hoped for, but our transition to an employee-owned organisation is the greatest achievement.

“A key to our success has been that we have engineers and innovation at the heart of our culture and service offer.”

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EV and sustainable infrastructure company, EV3POWER, has named experienced Electric Vehicle (EV) executive James Hutchinson as chief operating officer. 

He will be responsible for all operations across Wakefield-based EV3POWER’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Division and will spearhead its charging infrastructure and sustainability strategy.

A qualified electrical engineer, he has over 10 years’ experience in the Electric Vehicle industry and joins from EV infrastructure organisation, eFaraday, where he was general manager.  

Prior to eFaraday, Hutchinson was the lead project engineer at sustainability business Phoenix Works where he innovated vehicle-to-grid charging and led the transformation of sustainability at Leeds City Council.

Before that he was founder and operations director at ENCO Renewables – a UK pioneer in the PV and Solar energy space.

EV3POWER, CEO and founder, Pete Bevils, said: “James is the perfect person to drive our mission forward and add the leadership we need as we scale our EV infrastructure business.

“James’ background and track record in sustainability and EV infrastructure makes him the ideal person to lead our EV operations, so we are thrilled to have him onboard.”

Hutchinson added: “I’m excited to join EV3POWER on their incredible journey. This is a vital moment for EV infrastructure in the UK so joining EV3, who are scaling quickly, is hugely exciting.

“Our aim is to ensure the UK has the electric charging infrastructure it needs to meet the explosion in electric vehicle sales.

“The EV revolution is developing daily and I am joining a business that is perfectly positioned to become the UK leader in installation and maintenance of EV charging infrastructure.”

This latest appointment at EV3POWER comes a week after the business named former Google executive Rich Pleeth as chief of staff and member of the Board.

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Harrogate-based Tate Group – a real estate, consulting engineering and construction services company – has appointed a new group finance director.

Rhys Davies joins as group finance director from Armstrong Watson, a business advice and accountancy firm in Leeds.

He said: “I have been appointed to support the group on its existing growth plans and assist in ensuring the company maximises its potential over the next few years.

“I worked with the group and Shane Tate [Tate Group managing director] and Claire Tate [director] in my role at Armstrong Watson, so my goals are to add value by expanding on my pre-existing working knowledge whilst supporting the shareholders with their exciting short, medium and long-term objectives.”

Shane Tate said: “We are really excited for Rhys to be joining Tate Group and we welcome him to the board.

“Tate Group has a lot of expansion plans in the pipeline. Given our long-standing relationship with Rhys and his existing knowledge of our businesses, it was a natural choice to bring him on board.

“Rhys joins us at a time when our outgoing FD within our Construction division is retiring, so it was a good opportunity to re-appoint this role at Group level, to be able to join up and streamline, and enhance the digitalisation of our back-office functions across the Group.”

Davies joined Armstrong Watson’s chartered accountancy graduate training scheme in 2012. He became a qualified chartered accountant in 2015.

Three years later he became Armstrong Watson’s first-ever audit senior manager, running the company’s Yorkshire Audit Team across its Leeds, Skipton and Northallerton offices. He was promoted to audit director in January 2021 at the age of 30.