People: Wake Smith Solicitors; DLA Architecture; Ascensor; and more
Sheffield law firm Wake Smith Solicitors has promoted three of its legal staff.
Former Wake Smith trainee Tom Weightman has now reached director level in the Commercial Property team, together with colleague Laura Saul.
While Stephanie Chung has been promoted to the role of associate in the nine-strong Private Client team.
Weightman, who joined the firm as a trainee in 2012, qualified into Commercial Property in 2014 and was promoted to an associate in 2018, said: “Wake Smith has strong values and a family feel with good lawyers to learn from, and ultimately, to develop from.
“You are made to feel an important member of the team, where you can make a difference to clients, and help the firm grow and keep getting better.
“It is a privilege to be part of a working environment where what you are doing makes a genuine difference to the firm at each level.”
Commercial Property team colleague, Saul, joined Wake Smith in 2016 bringing significant experience in retail and landlord and tenant work, acquisitions, disposals and lease work to the firm’s commercial property department. She became an associate in 2019.
Chung joined the private client team headed by Suzanne Porter, in January last year.
Alongside her day-to-day role advising on Wills, Trust and Probate matters, she is responsible for pushing the firm’s drive to attract business from the expanding Cantonese-speaking Chinese community in Sheffield and South Yorkshire.
John Baddeley, chairman of Wake Smith, said: “Congratulations to Tom, Stephanie and Laura. These promotions confirm that Wake Smith’s recruitment, employee training programmes and workplace culture offer both established careers and the opportunity to progress with the firm.”
:::
Iain Jones
DLA Architecture has made two senior promotions in Leeds and London.
Iain Jones has been promoted to become associate director in the Leeds office.
Jones, who sits on the CIAT national project taskforce reviewing and commenting on proposed new legislation, has been with DLA for over 18 years.
He is an integral part of the team delivering technical excellence across high-profile projects that have included Trinity Walk in Wakefield, Headingley Stadium, Vanguarde in York, Central Square Leeds, and more recently Oak House in Leeds.
DLA has also promoted Mitesh Dabasia to become associate in the London office.
Dabasia joined DLA in 2015 and has since played a vital role in the success of the commercial office team, particularly within complex retrofit projects.
He has overseen the development of Portsoken House, Nash House, and most recently 26 St James’s Square and is also providing technical advice on refurbishments for 21-25 Burton Place for Berkley Square Holdings, St Bride’s House on Fleet Street, and the £15m Kirby Street for Morgan Capital.
The latest news follows a series of promotions made earlier this year with Laura McGregor becoming an associate in Leeds and Andrew Salt an associate in Manchester.
Adam Atraktzi, Alejandro Carrajo and Charles Jabre were also promoted to become associates in the London studio.
Chris Levett, group board director and head of the London studio at DLA Architecture, said: “All have shown incredible loyalty to the practice and dedication to delivering exceptional architectural solutions for our clients.
“As a practice we are focused on harnessing the talent and rewarding our next generation of creative people, maintaining our reputation as one of the UK’s leading architectural consultants at the forefront of new regulations following the Building Safety Act in 2022.
“These well-earned promotions are a key part of our future success, with each one bringing a strong skill set that will help shape the future of the company in years to come.”
DLA Architecture employs 91 architectural staff across its offices in Leeds, Manchester, and London.
During the last two years its leadership team has led the business through a new succession plan, including an expansion of the shareholding to key members of the team.
Over the last 12 months the practice has secured a number of strategically important projects, in particular large scale high-rise mixed use developments in city centres.
:::
Leeds-based website and digital marketing specialist, Ascensor, is consolidating its growth plan with the hiring of four new colleagues.
Andrew Firth, managing director, said: “We’re showing excellent client growth, both in terms of new and existing retainers this year, which is fuelling our recruitment drive.
“We’ve secured a number of high profile client and project wins, including YESSS Electrical, Magnet Kitchens, Sustrans and Radar Healthcare. We’ve also agreed significant development roadmaps for Crysp and Pyronix among others.
“This success means we’re continuing to expand our team, to increase our capacity, with many more projects in the pipeline.”
Joining the Ascensor team are Aswathy Prassannan who takes up a new role as QA test lead. Kieron Yorke is entering as a senior back end developer. Conor Crummey joins as a paid advertising executive and, following a successful internship, Morgan Brown begins a placement year.
Significant growth for the agency means it is also continuing to recruit more developers and have other key roles advertised on their website.
Firth added: “Good developers are critical members of the team and support our commitment to developing advanced solutions for our clients.
“As our client list grows, we’re also looking to grow our client services team to ensure we continue to deliver the best customer experience.
“I’m happy to welcome four new team members to Ascensor. They share our values and will add to our awesome company culture.”
:::
Design agency, Robot Food, has welcomed three new faces to its team.
Relocating back to Yorkshire is Sam Jepson, the Leeds-based company’s newest design team addition.
After six years in London cutting his teeth at Turner Duckworth, he brings with him experience on brands such as Jim Beam, Kleenex, Sipsmith and start-up ‘Headworks’, a Korean D2C hair care brand.
He said: “The opportunity really excited me. I’ve learned so much from the past six years and have loved my time in London, but the team here is so talented, committed and hard-working.
“It’s fantastic being able to create such amazing work, while having the freedom of not having to be in London.”
Hatty Hanna, a new marketing manager, has been brought on board to head the agency’s marketing activity and amplify its name on the global stage.
Coming from Brilliant Agency, Modo25, and as a freelance marketing consultant, she has a wealth of experience working with FMCG household names, e-comm retailers, SaaS startups and music brands.
She said: “Joining Robot Food in this exciting period of growth is an amazing opportunity, particularly at a time when the business is expanding and attracting more international clients.
“The standard of creativity here is world class, and I’m proud to show off the work of this talented team. Aside from being incredible at what they do, they’re also great fun on a night out.”
Joining the team in the new role of copy director is Clayton Davis.
After leading teams to help Epiphany/Jaywing develop their copywriting, tone of voice and content strategy offering for search and web development, he has recently been in the creative team at Sky, delivering campaigns across content, comms and learning.
Davis said: “The opportunity to join a creative team with a stellar reputation, that also has genuinely bold and ambitious plans for copy, doesn’t come along very often.
“As soon as I met the team at Robot Food I knew it was an opportunity not to be missed. I’ve worked for agencies and client-side, and I know the environment here at Robot Food is the ideal one for me.”
Simon Forster, founder and executive creative director, added: “Hiring talent like Hatty, Sam and Clayton is key to us achieving our goals.
“Their personality, fit and ambition are just as impressive as their credentials, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they bring to the team.”
