People: Callcredit makes changes to senior team;

Two staff have been hired at growing commercial law firm Harper James Solicitors.

Jamie Waugh has joined the team in Sheffield from Brewster Pratap. Finance manager Emma Mitchell has also joined the team in South Yorkshire.

Chief executive and corporate solicitor, Toby Harper, has ambitions plans for 2017 after hiring more than 20 staff members in 2016.

He said: “It’s a very exciting time not only for us at Harper James, but for our clients too.

“Our monthly service plan attracts many startups and smaller businesses to our firm, as they know they’re going to receive quality legal support from experienced, partner level lawyers at a fraction of the cost they’d expect to pay at larger, more traditional law firms.

“This has led to a real boom of hires for the firm, as lawyers up and down the UK are now looking to work us as we’re a firm that offers flexible, remote working – without the bureaucracy found at other firms.”

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Listed polymer technologies business Xeros Technology Group has appointed Karen Mignone as group director in the sustainability and environmental affairs division.

Mignone will work with Xeros’ partners, customers and regulatory bodies.

She has has more than 25 years’ experience in environmental affairs, safety, and compliance and was most recently a partner at Verrill Dana, prior to which she was at Pepe & Hazard.

She graduated from Pace University School of Law in 1989, after completing her Bachelor degree at Brown University. She is an executive committee member of the American Bar Association’s Section on the Environment, Energy and Resources.

Prior to beginning her legal career, Mignone worked on the front line of ‘blue light’ emergency services in the North East of the US. She was the first female firefighter in Rhode Island and one of the first in the country.

Mark Nichols, chief executive of Xeros, said: “I am delighted to welcome Karen to our executive management team. Xeros’ technology enhances sustainability and performance whilst reducing cost, and this is highly attractive to our customers and partners.
“Karen will further the understanding of the substantial benefits which Xeros delivers, thus accelerating adoption of our technology.”

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Credit reference and data management company Callcredit has made changes to its senior team as it targets further UK and international growth.

Eamonn Tierney, the group’s current managing director, Credit Solutions, will move to head up a consolidated UK business development team.

A new head of North America, Jim Hannon, has been appointed. Hannon brings with him significant industry experience and is a former vice president of business operations for FICO, as well as a former vice president for Avaya, a global provider of next-generation business collaboration and communications solutions.

Rick Biggs, Callcredit’s current managing director, software, analytics and fraud, will become the head for the group’s international markets.

Chris Green, chief commercial officer, Callcredit, said: “These appointments mean we have an outstanding and very experienced senior team in place that will be able to lead us through our next phase of growth.

“Successfully delivering on our strategy, we have gone from a relatively narrow-focused UK-only business to one that now operates in an increasingly diverse set of sectors and geographies. Although data will always remain at the heart of our business, it is the analysis and interpretation of this data that is increasingly important to our clients. As a group, we have made a number of important acquisitions, and aligning our operational structure and associated client proposition to reflect this is key to our continued growth.”