Member Article

This month’s South East appointments

Fiona Tighe, Gardner Leader

Gardner Leader, has promoted seven solicitors across its Newbury, Thatcham and Maidenhead offices including Fiona Tighe to partner, as part of its continuous investment in its people to grow the firm.

The promotions are a result of the South East’s solicitors’ recent, rapid expansion. In the last three years the firm has increased its turnover by 50% and acquired two other law firms, Heath Buckeridge in Maidenhead and Charles Hoile in Newbury; opening opportunities for staff to expand their skills and to take on new roles and responsibilities.

Fiona Tighe, who has been with the firm’s Residential Property team since 2006, will become a partner from 1 July, bringing the total number of partners at Gardner Leader to 14.

As partner she will work closely with the rest of the senior team to drive the firm’s strategic vision and business growth plans as well as continue to head up the residential property team in the Maidenhead office.

Four Associates have been promoted in the Newbury office from immediate effect. Tara McInnes and Caroline Benham in the dispute resolution team,

Julie Taylor in employment and Emma Ladd in corporate and commercial will have increased management responsibilities as they move from Associate to Senior Associate.

Chris Dale in the Newbury property team has also been promoted from solicitor to Associate from 1 June as has Michelle Challis in the conveyancing department in Thatcham.

Derek Rodgers, Managing Partner of Gardner Leader said: “The firm has gone through an exciting journey of growth and, with this, comes opportunity for our staff to grow and develop and in turn enhance the services we deliver to our clients.

“As part of our investment in our people, it’s important that we support development and we recognise and reward individual progression through training, responsibility and promotion.

“This ensures that we continue to have in place the strong leadership that we need to take the firm “

Martin Reiter, Uniplaces

With a background in scaling some of the world’s largest tech startup success stories, including Airbnb, growth expert Martin Reiter has joined forces with Uniplaces, the London-based student accommodation startup.

Using his past experience he is helping the student accommodation site to scale across Europe, by acting as a sounding board and providing his advice on the various challenges and opportunities that a high growth company faces.

Uniplaces is in 15 European cities now and is planning to be in at least another 30 before the end of the year - expanding into key new markets in Europe, and rolling out across countries where it already has a foothold.

Martin said: “I believe in the Uniplaces product and in the team. The product is not only distinctively better than any alternative existing so far, it’s a great solution to a real problem that all students face. I also really enjoy the team, its young spirit and ‘get-things-done’ work ethic.

“I also see some parallels between Uniplaces and Airbnb. An AirBnb guest and a Uniplaces student are both travellers, in their different ways. This is a strong common denominator.

“I believe Uniplaces will be a global category leader, and I hope to help the team get there as quickly and as effectively as we can.”

Martin Reiter is currently head of International at Wayfair/Joss&Main, Driving Wayfair’s expansion abroad, with an operational focus on Joss&Main.

Ralf Priemer, Channel Pilot

Ralf Priemer has joined E-commerce provider Channel Pilot as Managing Director with responsibility for international business and the expansion of its seven subsidiaries.

Priemer - who has a degree in business administration and mechanical engineering - was previously a board member of hotel.de AG (HRS Group).

Here responsible for marketing, sales, corporate communications, business intelligence and human resources he managed all eight foreign subsidiaries in Europe, South America and Asia.

Before this he worked six years as Managing Director for arvato mobile (Bertelsmann) overseeing the global business.

In 2012 he founded Channel Pilot solutions, together with Mirko Platz and Lars Niemann who are both part of the management team.

Priemer said: “ChannelPilot has received many awards in Germany as one of the most successful start-ups. In just two years more than 400 online shops count amongst our customers. We are now the market leader in Germany and are profitable.

“I look forward to taking on this exciting challenge to make ChannelPilot the leading name amongst online shop owners worldwide.”

Mirko Platz, Channel Pilot founder said:“None other than Priemer, who can look back on 19 years of experience in e-commerce and nine years in mobile commerce could be a better match for this exciting project. We are very pleased that Ralf has joined our management team to head up our expansion with his expertise in international markets.”

Supti Tanni, Shelley Sandzer

Shelley Sandzer, London-based leisure property agency, has welcomed Supti Tanni to their professional services team.

This appointment contributes to Shelley Sandzer’s wider strategy of strengthening the professional team’s position and profile within the UK’s leisure property sector.

Supti gained a first class (Hons) in BSc Real Estate from Westminster University.

During her time studying she also worked within the property lettings industry, and after graduating went on to take a position at Cushman & Wakefield, starting her APC in City Office Agency.

She joins Shelley Sandzer’s professional services team as a graduate surveyor and will be working towards qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor.

Commenting on Supti’s appointment, Duncan Lillie, Managing Director of Shelley Sandzer Professional Services, said: “We are very pleased Supti has joined the team at this stage in her career.

“Her proven application to studying Real Estate at university was very impressive and we look forward to furthering her development at Shelley Sandzer, providing access to some of the UK’s most highly regarded leisure brands.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .