People: Redmayne Bentley; Square One Law; virtualDCS; and more

Carolyn Black is returning to Redmayne Bentley’s team as an investment manager.

She joins from Charles Stanley and has over 20 years’ experience in wealth management, working with a variety of clients from individuals to corporate clients, charities, trusts and pension funds, helping to structure and manage investment portfolios.

Her experience also extends to working alongside accountants, solicitors and financial advisors to support their clients. She has a keen interest in the charity sector and is a trustee at Leeds Community Foundation.

Black, who will be based in the firm’s office at Wellington Place, Leeds, was previously with Redmayne Bentley for a decade, working as an investment manager, before working for Myddleton Croft Investment Managers, which was subsequently acquired by Charles Stanley.

She said: “I’m really pleased to be returning to Redmayne Bentley after eight years and rejoining a firm which has a strong focus on delivering excellent customer service.

“I’m looking forward to working with former colleagues again and offering support to clients both new and old.”

Lawrence Fisher, head of investment management at Redmayne Bentley, said: “Carolyn is a great addition to our team in Leeds.

“She has a depth of investment knowledge, is very well-regarded both in the industry and by her long-standing clients and her experience and insight will help support our growth within the region.”

Redmayne Bentley provides investment management services from Bespoke Discretionary Investment Management through to Managed Portfolio Services, Stockbroking and Financial Planning.

:::

Commercial law firm, Square One Law, has bolstered its commercial property team with the appointment of solicitor Elizabeth Shaduwa.

With 17 years’ experience working in numerous property and healthcare-related roles, she will bring a wealth of experience to the firm’s property team.

Prior to joining Square One, where she will take up the role of senior associate, she held the position of head of commercial property and associate solicitor at Buxton Coates Solicitors.

She has experience specialising in dental and other healthcare sectors, overseeing commercial property transactions for the firm, including landlord and tenant, property development, financing, acquisitions and disposals.

Shaduwa said: “I am thrilled to be joining Square One, a firm known for doing things in their own way and being innovative.

“The firm has a team of experienced property law experts who really go above and beyond to support their clients, and this is reflected in how much the team has grown over the past year and the clients who have come on board.”

Working out of Square One’s Leeds office, she is the latest in a string of key appointments made by the law firm over recent months.

Matthew Thompson, head of the Leeds office and a partner in the commercial property team, said: “Elizabeth is extremely well accomplished in her field and so we were thrilled when she agreed to join us.

“She has a great reputation among businesses as someone who can be trusted to deliver and create real impact for her clients.

“She also shares our commitment to treat our clients’ businesses as if they were our own so, I have no doubt she will prove a real asset not only to the firm, but also to our clients.”

:::

Jason Fenwick has joined virtualDCS as a solutions engineer.

His appointment is due to the disaster recovery specialist now hosting cloud technology firm, Vapour’s Veeam backups on behalf of its customers, after the two Yorkshire-based companies entered into a data management partnership.

As well as having a strong knowledge of the company’s client base, Fenwick knows Vapour’s platforms inside-out, meaning his appointment will ensure service continuity and an excellent end-user experience for customers.

In addition, virtualDCS has appointed Tom Best as a technical support apprentice.

Best will work alongside Fenwick and the wider virtualDCS team, handling support queries and helping to manage virtualDCS’s CloudCover backup and disaster recovery services.

Vapour has been a partner of Veeam — the global software giant and market leader in data protection solutions — since January 2021, but was keen to supercharge its data protection strategy to bring new dynamics of security, scalability, and efficiency to its customer base.

All Vapour’s Veeam services have now been migrated over to virtualDCS, and have bolstered the business’s ability to deliver greater resilience, technical support, and agile cloud growth for both new and existing customers.

Jason Newell, channel director from virtualDCS, said: “We’re very pleased to welcome Jason and Tom to the team.

“Jason’s understanding of Vapour’s system and customers made him the perfect person to manage and oversee the transition, and we’re delighted that he’ll continue to be their key point of contact moving forward.

“The whole virtualDCS CloudCover recovery suite has been certified ‘reseller ready’ having been audited and approved by Veeam for use in the channel.

“We’re looking forward to supporting Vapour in building out its disaster recovery and business continuity portfolio.

“The enhancements offered by virtualDCS mean that Veeam plus CloudCover gives partners capabilities way above those offered by other Veeam service providers.

“These include Azure AD backup, Kubernetes backup, and our latest Clean Room ransomware protection that is now inclusive in our Cloud Connect Offsite Backup solution.”

Vapour’s CEO, Tim Mercer, added: “As two businesses working in the same field, we’ve always known virtualDCS and had a high regard for their expertise.

“The IT industry is continually evolving and we’re now in a world where specialists thrive, and there is no doubt that virtualDCS is widely recognised for being backup, disaster recovery and cloud hosting experts.

“Crucially, our customers are at the heart of this new partnership. And as we continually expand our cloud portfolio, working with organisations of all sizes and across all industries, we’re always looking for ways to provide additional layers of availability and security.”

:::

Shipley-based technology consulting company, Consult Red, has appointed David Webster as chief financial officer.

He will sit on the firm’s Board and join its executive leadership team, building on the work of outgoing CFO Paul Stevenson.

Webster is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and brings experience in Finance, Operations and Strategy.

Before joining Consult Red, he served as finance director at Horizon Platforms Ltd where he played a pivotal role in supporting the business growing from £13m to £22m turnover and was heavily involved in the transition to Employee Ownership.

His expertise has evolved by working across several sectors, including Telecoms, Retail, FMCG and Construction.

Webster also holds non executive director roles at the South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and the Mast Academy Trust.

Stuart Griffin, CEO, said: “David’s understanding of the employee ownership journey and multi-sector experience make him the ideal choice to guide our financial strategy.

“Bringing the right mix of expertise and energy, I believe he will propel our financial performance as we continue to innovate and grow in this dynamic market.

“I’d also like to thank Paul Stevenson (outgoing CFO) for his contributions to the company over the past few years. We wish him all the best in his next role.”

Webster said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Consult Red. There were clear synergies from my previous experience given the business is employee owned, and the culture shone through right from my first meeting.

“The business is a true leader in the technology consultancy space, and I look forward to working with Stuart and the team while bringing my finance experience to enable the business to sustainably grow and provide its trusted services to a growing customer base.”