This week's North East appointments

Welcome to your latest roundup of appointments from across the region.

Andrew Cattell, DrumRolll

A renowned consultant has been appointed to Barnett Waddingham’s creative agency, DrumRoll, to improve the ways that employers communicate and engage with their workforce.

Andrew Cattell will be responsible for leading and developing DrumRoll and the design and delivery of employee engagement strategies across Barnett Waddingham’s clients.

Andrew has 25 years of experience in marketing communications and multi-sector experience in the UK and Europe, gained from several engagement consultancies and marketing agencies including Grass Roots, Maritz, McCann and WPP.

Prior to joining Barnett Waddingham, Andrew led employee engagement and culture change programmes for Post Office, o2 and Toyota.

Andrew said: “This is a great time to be joining DrumRoll and sharing the team’s passion to involve and engage with employees in a more authentic way.

“Having worked with many consumer brands, I believe that DrumRoll has a unique point of difference by creating an emotive connection between an employee and their organisation.

“When we treat employees as consumers there are many interesting techniques we can apply to communications that excite and involve them in vital workplace health and wealth matters.”

Damian Stancombe, Ppartner at Barnett Waddingham, added: “Andrew has joined the DrumRoll team at a time of significant growth for Barnett Waddingham.

“The UK workforce is crying out for education, communication and engagement when it comes to finances and benefits, and we are looking forward to supporting companies break the mould when it comes to employee engagement.”

Zoe Christopher; Emma Phillips; Liam Holliday; Phil Cambers, SITS Group

Cramlington-based SITS Group and Pivotal Networks has expanded its team following significant growth.

Formed in 2008, SITS Group is a cloud infrastructure and support partner with a focus on best of breed technologies such as VMware, Veeam, HPE and Trend Micro.

Pivotal Networks - part of the SITS Group - formed in 2011, specialise in networking, connectivity and unified communications (telephony).

Zoe Christopher has joined as the new group marketing manager - with a background in retail and financial services Zoe graduated from Northumbria University in business and marketing management.

Emma Phillips has been at the group for two years and is the internal sales representative. She has also taken on the role of marketing assistant.

Liam Holliday, who has been with the company for eight years, has moved from sales executive to group sales manager. Liam will also have the help of new sales executive, Wayne Russell.

An experienced sales executive with over 20 years in the business, Wayne is looking forward to support SITS Group and Pivotal Networks in their growth strategy.

Phil Cambers, co-founder and commercial director, said: ’The recent new positions we have appointed shows the ambition to continually grow our businesses.

“Having a professional well performing marketing function allows us to communicate better with our existing and prospective clients as our range of services continues to grow.

‘As we enter our 10th year of trading we’ve grown the business to a joint turnover, between SITS Group and Pivotal Networks, to nearly £10m. Our ambition is to continue that fantastic growth and integral to that is having the right staff in the right positions.“

Jason Legget, Scaleup North East

Jason Legget has recently been appointed as project director of Scaleup North East, a significant programme led by the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), and delivered by RTC North which aims to deliver 100,000 more and better jobs by 2024.

NRG was appointed by RTC North to find a programme director to lead and deliver a programme which is key component of the North East Strategic Plan to create and sustain more Scaleup businesses in the North East economy.

Jason said: “I had previous experience of working with the North East LEP on a consultancy basis and got to know them as an organisation.

“When I heard they were recruiting for the Scaleup North East programme, I was particularly interested in finding out what opportunities there might be.

“My career to date has included a variety of roles within both the public and private sector. I grew up in an entrepreneurial environment and was encouraged by my father from an early age to learn about commerce, making money and being successful.”

Nicola Hawes, Matfen Hall

Award-winning Matfen Hall, Hotel Golf and Spa has appointed Northumberland-born Nicola Hawes, as its new golf manager.

Nicola, now the first female manager in the North East, has been a member of the Matfen Hall team for 17 years, firstly in front of house roles before joining the golf team in February 2003.

She will be responsible for managing Matfen Hall’s 27 hole golf course, pro shop, driving range, par three course and coffee shop.

Nicola is a keen sportswoman, who has been playing golf since 2000 and has a handicap of eight. She has also been serving as captain of the Northumberland Ladies Cricket Team since 2010 and Stocksfield Ladies 1st Team since 2003.

Nicola said: “I am proud to be associated with such a magnificent club and I am thankful to Sir Hugh and Lady Blackett who have given me this opportunity to prove myself at a place that is very special to me.

“I strongly believe in ladies’ participation in sport which is something I will be continuing to promote.

“Historically, golf hasn’t always been the most inclusive sport. Here at Matfen Hall we have always had an equality policy and that is the way I would like it to continue going forward.”

Nicola has a clear vision for the golf programme at Matfen Hall, including continuing its tradition as an inclusive club for its members, particularly juniors, ladies and beginners.

Bernard Bloodworth, Matfen Hall’s managing director, said: “I could think of no one better than Nicola to take on the role of golf manager.

“The support the Nicola has had from our members has been astounding and unsurprising, as she is a very well respected and knowledgeable member of our team.”

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