People: Victoria Gate Casino hires venue director; Law firm boosts specialist teams; and more
WRIGLEYS Solicitors has recruited Duncan Milwain, Lucy O’Reilly and Kasim Ahmed to its Leeds office.
Mr Milwain is well known in Yorkshire and nationally following roles at Allen & Overy, Addleshaw Goddard and most recently as head of the Charities and Social Enterprise team at Lupton Fawcett Denison Till.
He combines his legal career with being a founding director of the high profile social enterprise Shipley Food Project which forms part of The Real Junk Food Project network.
Ms O’Reilly has moved north to join Wrigleys Farms & Estates team from Charles Russell Speechly. She specialises in advising rural families and businesses on tax and succession planning.
Mr Ahmed has a First in Accountancy and Finance from Huddersfield University and joins Wrigleys’ Trust Management team as a trust, tax and accounting assistant.
:::
Victoria Gate Casino, the largest casino in the north of England and Scotland, has made its first major appointment.
Patrick Noakes, the former MD of Gala Casinos, has been welcomed as venue director.
Mr Noakes is among the first of more than 200 staff the venue will eventually employ when it opens in the next few months – it will become the third-largest casino in the UK.
Before joining Global Gaming Ventures, the operator of Victoria Gate Casino, Mr Noakes held a number of roles over a 13-year career at Gala Coral Group, including main board director of the combined casino, bingo, betting and leisure complex run by Gala in Gibraltar, as well as ten years in a regional capacity that included casinos in Yorkshire.
Prior to Gala, he held general manager and regional director roles at Ladbroke Casinos.
Mr Noakes takes charge of the multi-million pound entertainment and gaming destination, which is the first and only ‘super casino’ in the north, as it gears up to fill dozens of roles ahead of its grand opening.
He said: “Victoria Gate Casino will be a casino unlike any other in the north of England, it is an entertainment destination in the heart of Leeds and, with a capacity of 1,400, it will be one of the biggest venues in the city.”
The casino, which will occupy 50,000 sq ft and sits alongside John Lewis at the top of the city’s new Victoria Gate development, will provide jobs for more than 180 local people, training for staff, plus apprenticeships and a graduate scheme, as part of its commitment to the Leeds City Region.
:::
LOUISE Thrussell has been appointed general manager of the Hampton by Hilton Sheffield, overseeing both the hotel and the adjacent Marco’s New York Italian restaurant.
She brings almost two decades of experience within the hotel industry to the post, having worked her way up from her first job as a guest service assistant in 2002.
Ms Thrussell joins the Sheffield team from her previous role as general manager of the Holiday Inn Express Dunstable.
Housed within the former West Bar Green police station, the Hampton by Hilton Sheffield and adjacent Marco’s New York Italian restaurant opened to the public in spring 2014, following an extensive refurbishment of the site.
