Appointments: Lloyds Bank, ITM Power, Grant Thornton

SENIOR manager Joanne Clough has been appointed in the healthcare and education SMEs division of Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.

She will be working across Yorkshire and the North East, and managing a team of seven relationship managers, providing support and funding to healthcare businesses including GPs pharmacists and dentists.

North East area director, Leigh Taylor, who commented: “Over the course of her career, Joanne has developed a strong industry knowledge, grounded in years of working directly with businesses in the area.

“Her addition to the healthcare and education team reinforces our commitment to both sectors in the region, and I look forward to seeing how she leads the relationship team going forward, utilising our unrivalled knowledge of the sector to safeguard the interests of our customers throughout Yorkshire and the North East.”

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ENERGY storage firm ITM Power has appointed Dr Rachel Louise Smith as a director of the company.

Dr Smith has worked for ITM Power since it was set up in 2002, working in roles such as head of science, operations manager and partnership funding manager to develop projects and write bid applications.

he is also responsible for grant project management, providing an effective interface between ITM Power and funding bodies and ensuring that staff are supported in delivering high quality outputs.

Prof. Roger Putnam, chairman of ITM Power, commented, “The Board is delighted that Rachel has agreed to join us as an Executive Director. She has held several important roles for the company since its foundation and her appointment reflects the input she has made to the recent successes we have achieved in securing new business.”

Dr Rachel Smith added: “I am very pleased to be joining the Board and look forward to continuing to work towards developing ITM Power’s products and commercial market applications.”

Dr Smith is interested in 80,886 Ordinary Shares in the Company representing approximately 0.05% of the Company’s issued share capital and holds options over 100,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company.

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BUSINESS advisory firm Grant Thornton has expanded its special projects team with the appointments of Robin Furze and Gavin Ackroyd.

Based at the firm’s Leeds offices, Mr Furze joins from Lewis Golden in London where he worked in the audit and accounts division. He has also achieved a BSc/MPhys Theoretical Physics, 1st Class from the University of Leeds in 2011.

Mr Ackroyd was previously an accounting and business advisory supervisor at Baker Tilly in Leeds.

Andy Wood, practice leader at Grant Thornton in Leeds, commented: “Our Yorkshire Special Projects team, led by Emma Davies in our Sheffield office, has been going from strength to strength with a number of our Leeds clients benefitting from its ability to provide bespoke, on-demand accounting support.

“The appointment of two executives based here in Leeds will further strengthen our existing client service offering and help us to cope with growing demand. With many businesses finding it difficult to recruit the calibre of young finance professionals they need, our Special Projects team offers a flexible solution, providing interim secondments to resource restricted finance teams.”