People: Made Greater; NIC Services Group; Efficient Frontiers International; and more

Leeds-based performance marketing agency, Made Greater, has appointed Peter Grimes, formerly of IMA-Home, to head its expanding paid media team as the business continues to grow its channel and service offerings.

Grimes, who has specialised in paid media for more than 10 years, is responsible for overseeing the growth and development of the existing media buying team. He will also handle the top line strategy for both existing and new clients.

He will further diversify the agency’s channel offerings while bringing with him a wealth of experience in brand and growth strategies.

He said: “After spending nine years working in paid media at an agency that grew to be one of the largest in the UK, I felt ready for a new challenge and Made Greater ticked all the right boxes for me.

“The business has the ambition and agility of a start-up, but delivers the results of a long-established agency and already attracts a high calibre of clients.

“I’m looking forward to using my experience and skill set to help agency founder, Oliver Jones, and MD, James Maisey, take the business to the next level – for us and our clients.”

Jones added: “Peter has a wealth of knowledge in many different areas of paid media.

“This is exactly what we were looking for as we expand our offering across a wide scope of channels that are beneficial to the overall performance of the brands we work with.

“He will also help the agency operationally through our rapid growth phase, and will be working with our managing director, James, to evolve the wider Made Greater business strategy.”

Grimes’s appointment comes on the back of the recent promotion of Maisey, who was appointed to the role of managing director earlier this year.

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Ken Atherton has taken on the new position as chief operating officer at Leeds-based facilities management firm, NIC Services Group Ltd.

John Spencer, group chairman, said: “Since joining the business on 13 June 2005, Ken has worked tirelessly in helping bring success to NIC which, at times, has included overcoming considerable difficulties.

“During these years Ken has always remained fully committed and professional to the business.”

Atherton said: “It’s a privilege to become the COO of NIC Services Group Ltd. I have been a part of this amazing long-standing business for over 17 years and have loved every minute of that journey.

“I’m really looking forward in my new role in supporting this dynamic business to continue to evolve over many future years and helping to continue to develop some really brilliant talent that we have in our business in all areas of the services we provide and to see our unique IT platform continue to really blossom.”

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Efficient Frontiers International (EFI), a specialist in financial crime prevention which has a base in Leeds, has strengthened its senior team with three appointments including Rob Cutler, a former partner at KPMG, as chief growth officer.

Cutler is an experienced industry anti-money laundering professional. His remit will be to expand the commercial reach of EFI.

He was most recently the customer due diligence global lead for multinational banking and financial services organisation, ING.

Melissa Sergeant joins as director of operations to enhance EFI’s operational capabilities, while also overseeing the Europe-wide expansion. She previously worked with IBM and Deutsche Bank.

And Dhrupen Malde joins as a client director from BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.

The focus of his role will be to develop EFI’s solutions to support clients in the fight against financial crime, building on his 15 years of banking sector financial crime account management and project delivery experience.

The senior appointments come as the company opens a new location in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Neil Tansley, CEO, said the additional senior talent will help the firm scale with its growing domestic and increasingly global client base.

He added: “The regulatory demands currently levied on financial institutions, combined with the sterner enforcement measures, presents a high hurdle for the compliance function.

“We believe our presence across the continent will help to provide a first-rate independent solution to enable our financial sector clients to tackle all manner of financial regulatory challenges.”

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Accountancy and business advisory firm, BDO, is welcoming 19 new trainees to its Leeds office, with 600 joining nationwide.

The trainees will be a combination of school leaver apprentices and university graduates, with nearly half joining the firm’s audit practice.

The majority of new trainees will have the opportunity to undertake a level-7 apprenticeship programme, resulting in a qualification equivalent to a master’s degree.

This year, the firm has also hired over 50 industrial placement students to join BDO for 12 months between their second and third year of university, as well as 70 summer interns.

Applications for the firm’s 2023 graduate and school leaver apprentice programmes will open later this month, with more than 700 positions available nationwide and 20 based in Yorkshire.

Paul Davies, partner at BDO in Yorkshire & Humber, said: “As a firm, we believe in the importance of providing career opportunities and pathways that enable young people from all walks of life to access a vibrant and exciting profession, such as accountancy.

“The success of our graduate and school leaver apprentice programmes is testament to that continued investment and the commitment of everyone involved.

“The education of young people has undoubtedly been severely disrupted in the last few years, with both school leavers and graduates having to navigate learning and examinations in very challenging circumstances.

“Each and every one of them should be extremely proud of their achievements and we look forward to supporting them on what will hopefully be a long and successful career journey at BDO.”