Appointments:W Denis Insurance Brokers; Close Motor Finance; First Hull Trains; Avacta
W DENIS Insurance Brokers has announced a number of new recruits.
Richard Evans joins as associate director and Mirelle Cox and Mathew Barker both join as corporate brokers.
They all join from Giles and will operate from the Leeds head office.
W Denis Insurance Brokers is a boutique insurance broker, fully accredited at Lloyd’s of London. Specialisms include broking of complex insurance programmes for businesses in the UK and overseas as well as the provision of complementary risk management services. W Denis was first established in 1963 and has grown to become one of the largest independent insurance brokers based in the UK.
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MOTOR finance company, Close Motor Finance, has appointed two new members to its board of directors.
Paul Kaye, sales and marketing director and Alan Parkinson, central operations director, who have a combined finance and motor industry experience of 44 years, want Doncaster-based Close’s focus to continue to be increasing and enhancing a dealers business, providing added value for them and their customers.
Managing director, James Broadhead. said: “We’re pleased to welcome Paul and Alan onto the board of directors. They bring with them a wealth of experience in sales growth and in the motor finance industry.”
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FIRST Hull Trains has appointed a leading industry professional to spearhead its engineering team as the company looks to consolidate its position as one of the most reliable train operators in the UK.
Jon Plowright has been appointed as First Hull Trains’ head of engineering.
The appointment comes after the company has invested heavily in its current fleet of trains – increasing track reliability more than five-fold in recent years.
He joins with a prestigious career in engineering, having originally started out with British Steel before moving to the then British Rail Board as a management trainee. He joins from Network Rail where he was responsible for managing the largest passenger operator account in the country and was an important part of the London North Eastern Route Executive Team.
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AVACTA Group, the Wetherby-based healthcare business, has today announced that Michael Albin has joined the board as a non-executive director.
Following a PhD in chemistry at Pennsylvania State University and postdoctoral research in biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology, Albin worked at SYVA diagnostics followed by 15 years at Applied Biosystems rising to the role of VP of Science and Technology, and then VP of Strategic Technologies of the parent company Applera Corp, an S&P 500 company.
Alastair Smith, chief executive of Avacta, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Michael is joining the board of Avacta. With his extensive network of contacts in the life sciences industry in the US he provides a skillset which will considerably strengthen the board of Avacta and he will have important input to the strategic positioning of the Group’s businesses in the future, particularly with respect to the all-important US market.”
