People: Charnock Bates; Skipton Group; Clancy Consulting; and more

West Yorkshire-based estate agency Charnock Bates has hired a land and new homes manager.

Gary Roberts joins from housebuilder Duchy Homes, bringing more than 27 years of experience in new homes sales roles within the housebuilding sector.

At Charnock Bates, he is leading the agency’s new homes sales activity. This involves collaborating with developers to appoint Charnock Bates to market their new-build homes, as well as liaising with prospective buyers on the purchasing of the new homes.

Roberts is also tasked with identifying potential land for development across the region and negotiating the sale to developers on behalf of landowners.

Charnock Bates is a specialist in selling fine, country and period homes across West Yorkshire, with a focus on selling homes over £500,000 in value.

Roberts said: “Charnock Bates has built a fantastic reputation for providing expert service and advice to both buyers and sellers across West Yorkshire.

“I look forward to working with the team to further build our reputation through growing our new homes and land business to be market-leader in the region.”

Charnock Bates is part of Yorkshire property consultancy Walker Singleton. Charnock Bates director, Ben Waites, said: “Gary’s extensive experience in the housebuilding sector and his proactive approach to property sales make him a valuable addition to our team.

“We are confident his expertise will play a significant role in the continued growth and success of Charnock Bates within the land and new homes market.”

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Skipton Group has appointed Jasvinder Gakhal as its new CEO of Money – subject to regulatory approval.

She is Andrew Bottomley’s successor to the role, following his retirement announcement in autumn last year.

Gakhal will join Skipton Group on 3 March and will work with Bottomley for a seamless transition, before he retires after his final Annual General Meeting in April.

Gakhal, who is based in Leeds, joins Skipton Group from the Direct Line Group, where she worked for 19 years.

She has a wealth of extensive experience, leading multi-disciplinary teams across multiple sites.

Most recently she spent three years as managing director of Direct Line’s flagship Motor & Rescue business.

She is a champion of gender diversity and women in senior business roles.

Skipton Group chief executive, Stuart Haire, said: “Jazz is creative, energetic and passionate, and leads people and businesses with authenticity.

“With her experience of delivering both commercial and customer outcomes, and her natural curiosity, she’s perfect for what we want to achieve in our Money business – making our members’ money work even harder.

“I also want to take this opportunity to say a big ‘thank you’ and share how much I will miss Andrew Bottomley.

“His passion, experience and fun nature will be missed round the Executive table but will be a huge add round any Board table as he starts his portfolio career.”

Gakhal added: “I am genuinely excited to be joining an organisation that puts their customers at the heart of everything they do and by their mission to support their members with long term financial well-being.”

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Chartered engineer Russel Greenwood has joined Clancy Consulting as divisional director.

Based in Clancy’s Leeds and Manchester offices, he will be providing experienced building services engineering to the multi-disciplinary consultancy.

He brings significant commercial understanding including financial and project risk management, and a proven track record in building highly successful and technically strong teams from previous roles. 

Greenwood has held senior positions at WSP and Watermans, more recently as partner/director in Leeds at Hoare Lea, growing the MEP and Sustainability team from 28 to 52 during his five-years in post.

With an electrical bias and a particular specialism in electro-mechanical resilience, he has expertise across sectors covering data centres, defence, healthcare, offices, retail, residential, education, and science & research.

Director, Scott Lydon, who oversees building services engineering practice-wide at Clancy, said: “Russel will be instrumental in expanding our MEP offering across the Yorkshire region and the wider M62 corridor, working closely with our established multidiscipline teams in Leeds and Manchester.

“Demonstrating proven skills in leadership, project and technical knowledge, and client relationship management, we warmly welcome him to the team and the Board and I look forward to supporting his career development here at Clancy.” 

Greenwood’s new appointment further strengthens the senior management team in the North and follows Nick Barringer taking the post of technical director in the Manchester office in autumn last year.

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Tadcaster-based Mpac Group, which offers high-speed packaging and automation solutions, has appointed Steve Blair as chief operating officer, Mike Brown as chief commercial officer and David Taylor as group services director, all with immediate effect.

Blair joins from Malvern Panalytical, a manufacturer and supplier of laboratory analytical instruments and a part of Spectris plc, where he held the position of vice president of operations.

In this role he was accountable for global operations covering supply centres in Europe, America and Asia.

Previously, he was chief operating officer (UK & Nordics Region) for GKN Aerospace, where he oversaw the operational performance of over 5,200 employees and a £1.3bn revenue region.

He holds a MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London.

Brown is appointed chief commercial officer after six years with the company as managing director for the Americas.

He has more than 30 years of sales expertise within the industry and this new position will be instrumental in driving forward new revenue opportunities across our key markets.

Taylor is appointed group services director from the position of managing director for the company’s Lambert business, which he has held for the past two years.

In his new role he will be responsible for driving forward Mpac Group’s strategy to deliver outstanding service to its customers. He will be tasked with bringing together the global customer service team.

Adam Holland, chief executive officer, said: “We are pleased to announce the appointments of Steve, Mike and David.

“We now have a leadership team in place which is perfectly aligned to our key strategic pillars as well as supporting the integration of the new businesses we have acquired, and providing  a structure that matches our future ambitions.

“I look forward to working closely with Steve, Mike and David in these new roles and am excited for the future.”

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