People: Schofield Sweeney; Parseq; Chatter Communications; and more

Michael Cantwell has joined law firm Schofield Sweeney as a partner in its corporate team.

Based in Leeds, he acts on a wide range of corporate matters. He is regularly involved in early negotiations to structure a transaction and credited with finding solutions to issues early.

He has a particular focus on the gambling and manufacturing industries. He also advises clients from initial set up (including EIS, SEIS, EMI and growth share investment), subsequent additional investment/funding rounds and eventual exit.

Cantwell said: “The Schofield Sweeney team is recognised as a market leader for deal making and forging long-lasting relationships with clients.

“I look forward to working with the team and developing our offering as we go from strength-to-strength.”

Steven Millward, partner, added: “It’s great to welcome Michael as a partner to add even further strength to what is already an incredibly strong corporate offering, featuring year after year amongst the most active advisers in the region. 

“Michael has an excellent reputation for forming great client relationships and his arrival will help our plans to expand the team in the second half of this year as part of our wider strategic growth plan.”

The firm’s corporate team has completed over 26 transactions worth about £75m since December 2022.

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Sharon Silcock

Rotherham-based business services and IT provider, Parseq, has significantly grown its sales team with three new hires as it looks to build on recent business expansion.

Stephen Rafferty and Sharon Silcock have both been appointed as business development directors and David Blakely has been appointed as bid and business development director.

Silcock joins from software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology specialist Unity5, where she was head of business development.

Prior to that she was national sales manager for specialist software firm Taranto Systems – formerly a subsidiary of multinational engineering consultancy WSP.

Rafferty joins after a period supporting global telecommunications giant Ericsson in the UK and Sweden. He has previously held roles with Sage and Microsoft.

Stephen Rafferty

They will be responsible for developing Parseq’s relationships with businesses across the wide range of sectors it serves, from financial services to telecoms, utilities and high-growth SMEs, and managing the end-to-end sales process.

Meanwhile, David Blakey joins from DSB Management Solutions and was previously a commercial director with Capita Group. He was responsible for managing a centralised business unit offering business support and bid management services.

At Parseq, he will work with Silcock and Rafferty, leading the company’s bid management processes to help continue to build its new business pipeline.

These appointments come following a significant period of expansion for Parseq.

In January, the business acquired secure print and payment solutions specialist the TALL Group and merged with IT services specialist Column Software Solutions, establishing it as one of the largest independent business services and IT providers in the UK.

David Blakey

Overall, Parseq has ambitions to grow by 20% this financial year, and to double in size in the next five years.

Craig Naylor-Smith, CEO, said: “Significant expansion earlier this year has broadened the range of services we offer, extended our international reach and deepened our team’s expertise.

“This puts us in a stronger position than ever before to help the businesses we work with transform their operations and become more efficient and resilient.

“We’re now focused on building on this momentum. To do this, we need the right talent onboard, so we’re really excited to be welcoming David, Stephen and Sharon.

“They each have the wealth of experience that will help our clients identify how they can tackle their specific challenges with our bespoke, technology-driven solutions, and that will help us progress towards our ambitious objectives.”

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Employer brand specialist, Chatter Communications, has appointed Siân Daniel as junior web developer.

She recently retrained as a web developer after eight years as a primary school teacher and school leader.

In her new role she will be supporting the digital team with a range of tasks including building career websites, creating content management system plugins, undertaking web-server administration and helping to come up with creative ideas for new digital services.

With its headquarters in Leeds and a satellite office in London, Chatter Communications helps businesses to attract, recruit and retain the best talent.

Daniel said: “The role at Chatter and the world of employer branding is a perfect fit – it’s really exciting to be able to continue my developer journey whilst also carrying on my passion for supporting other people to succeed.

“I am passionate about accessibility and bring with me lots of experience in tailoring solutions that are accessible to a range of ages, abilities and backgrounds, which will be a useful skill when coming up with creative digital content.”

Rick Harrison, head of digital and web development at Chatter, added: “Siân is a very welcome addition to the ever-expanding Chatter team.

“We love bringing people on board who have a more varied career history, and Siân brings some fantastic insight with regards to teaching, training, and accessibility, as well as her web development talents. We know she’ll be a very valuable resource for our clients.”

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Leeds-based TransUnion has appointed Kelli Fielding as its new chief product officer for the UK.

As part of her role with the global information and insights company, she will focus on product innovation, leveraging TransUnion’s global capabilities.

Fielding will drive the product strategy, maintaining quality and delivery of existing solutions, as well as propelling further development of TransUnion’s products in the UK and Europe.

She said: “I’m thrilled to take on this new role as we continue to enhance our solutions – maintaining our reputation for innovation and incorporating new data assets so we can provide valuable analytic insights to help businesses and consumers transact with confidence.

“Through our range of products spanning credit risk and affordability, fraud and identification, customer experience and more, we aim to enable safe, tailored consumer experiences, while also delivering on our goals of increasing financial inclusion and business opportunity.”

TransUnion’s UK CEO, Satrajit “Satty” Saha, said: “Kelli brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, thanks to her long tenure with the company and has an excellent track record in growing the business and delivering complex solutions.

“We’re happy to have her leading the product team and developing our partnerships to support our growth strategy.”

Having been with the business for more than two decades, Fielding most recently held the role of head of consumer interactive internationally, where she was responsible for strategy and performance of the consumer business across all TransUnion’s international markets.

Prior to that, she was the driving force behind TransUnion’s investment in personal credit platform and API, Monevo.