Member Article

Yorkshire appointments this week

Mat Stonley, business development manager, Lowell Group

The Lowell group, headquartered in Leeds, is a debt purchasing and contingent collections groups, has appointed Mathew Stonley as business development manager for its debt purchase business.

Mat will support business development director Dicky Davies and director of new ventures Oliver Betts in identifying and developing new business opportunities for Lowell within the UK debt sale market.

Mat has over 10 years’ experience and a strong track record of success in business development and key account management within the credit industry with organisations including Ikano Financial Services, GE Money, RAC and Creation Financial Services.

Commenting on his appointment, business development director Dicky Davies said:“We have ambitious targets for growing our debt purchase business through portfolio acquisition and provision of value added services, aided by the acquisition of the Interlaken Group in May 2013. We are delighted Mathew is joining our team. His experience and expertise will be invaluable in helping us to achieve our targets.”

Alexander Dickinson (Bond Dickinson) named one of Eprivateclient’s 50 Most Influential 2014

The 50 Most Influential is designed to identify, recognise, promote and introduce the leading practitioners of the private client professions and shows the breadth and depth of talent at the forefront of the private client professions today.

The 50 Most Influential began with an open global call for nominations. An initial shortlist was drawn based upon the qualities of the nominees. A PAM Insight panel of experts judged the quality of the nominations based on the achievements of the individual, their impact on how wealthy individuals are served, who nominated them and how many nominations they received.

Alexander Dickinson has been a partner in Private Wealth since 1997 and is the lead partner for many of Bond Dickinson’s largest clients.

Bond Dickinson’s Head of Private Wealth David Dale comments: “I am delighted with Alexander’s nomination and wish to congratulate him. This is another well-deserved accolade for our team and an acknowledgement of our sector expertise and excellent client service.”

2013 has been a year of industry recognition for our Private Wealth team, who won the first The Legal 500 UK Awards regional category and saw two of its associates, Emily Green and Richard Pike, named two of Private Client Practitioner’s Top 35 Under 35.

Dr. Fran Barnes, curriculum development consultant, Cornerstones Education Ltd

Dr Fran Barnes has been appointed curriculum development consultant with responsibility to research and write the science content of the company’s learning materials, which are sold to more than 550 primary schools across England and Wales.

Cornerstones produce comprehensive creative curriculum packages and other materials designed to help teachers plan and prepare engaging lessons which meet every requirement of the National Curriculum.

Fran has nine years’ experience as a post-doctoral research scientist in the Department of Infection and Immunity at the University of Sheffield. While in this post, she developed a keen interest in promoting science as a subject to study and a career option for young people. She spent time visiting schools as an ambassador for the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).

Fran said: “I’m keen on the promotion of hands-on practical science and strongly believe children should be ‘doing’ science by exploring, investigating and being given the freedom to test their own ideas. I look forward to contributing to Cornerstones’ highly-regarded teaching and learning resources.”

Fran joins an expanding workforce of 26 people at Cornerstones which was established in 2011 by a team of just three former teachers and education advisors – determined to deliver learning materials to help teachers save time and plan rigorous lessons.

Another recent recruit to a newly-created post is Vanessa Wright, who has joined Cornerstones as business development assistant. Vanessa previously worked at Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. She will support the company’s marketing strategy to boost its profile and extend its customer base.

Michael Philips, who joined the company as an apprentice just a year ago, has also been recently promoted the new substantive post of finance officer.

Managing director Melanie Moore said: “We are expanding rapidly as more schools buy into the Cornerstones’ creative learning philosophy and are delighted to be able to recruit high-quality talent to our committed Cornerstones team.”

Cornerstones plans to grow the business further as it expands its 550-strong customer base of schools across England and Wales.

Cornerstones also recently doubled its office space at their Fields End Business Park headquarters in Goldthorpe by taking on a further 1,300 square feet and developing training facilities and meeting rooms available for hire.

Sarah Wasling and Nicola Clarkson, James Legal, Hull

Hull legal firm James Legal has welcomed on board two leading lights in the industry in a bid to satisfy the increasing demand for their new style approach to legal advice.

Sarah Wasling, is a specialist in family law, divorce and child matters

Nick Miller, Director and solicitor said: “We’ve seen an increasing demand for family work and in order to service our clients at the level we like, we needed to increase our family team.

“Sarah is an excellent addition to the team and has embraced the James Legal way of working which includes out of hours advice and out of hours meetings to suit clients.”

Sarah adds: “I thoroughly enjoy the flexible approach to dealing with clients because it makes it so much easier for the clients. We know things happen at inconvenient and busy times and we deal with every case in its own way.”

James Legal has had such rapid growth in the last year – from 4 to 10 working in the team – they are also pleased to welcome Nicola Clarkson in the role of Legal Cashier.

Her busy day will see her deal with management accounts, property transactions and daily account handling while working closely with the property department.

With 10 years experience in legal firms, Nicola is an ideal addition to James Legal and they think she’s a really good find. She says: “I’m thrilled to be working here. It’s like a breath of fresh air. Everyone is fun and relaxed, yet consummately professional.”

Sophie Shuttleworth, insolvency solicitor, Irwin Mitchell

The Leeds office of national law firm, Irwin Mitchell, has continued to boost its Business Legal Services team with the appointment of insolvency solicitor, Sophie Shuttleworth.

Sophie, who moves from Gordons in Leeds, specialises in both contentious and non-contentious insolvency work for both businesses and individuals.

Typical work would includes advising company directors, individuals or insolvency practitioners in relation to distressed transactions, including pre-packaged deals.

Sophie is also involved in providing advice to lenders and LPA Receivers with the aim of realising the property for the benefit of the lender. Other advice includes supporting clients on matters such as supply chain issues preceding insolvency and retention of title issues.

Commenting on her decision to join Irwin Mitchell, Sophie said: “Irwin Mitchell is an established name in the commercial arena and I’m excited to be joining a growing and innovative firm with such a strong reputation. Joining Irwin Mitchell provides me with an exciting new challenge within a large and dynamic team and offers me the opportunity to work on a varied range of work.”

Irwin Mitchell in Leeds recently announced that it had appointed IP partner, Alex Newman, from Squire Sanders.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .