This week's North East appointments

Abi Zuk and Charlotte Excell, Swinburne Maddison

Swinburne Maddison, one of Durham’s pre-eminent law firms, has announced the arrival of two new appointments as part of its continued expansion strategy.

Abi Zuk, who joins Swinburne Maddison with over four years post-qualified experience, has taken her place in the firm’s award-winning dispute resolution team.

Specialising in commercial litigation matters, Abi brings with her a wealth of experience gained from action for both commercial and individual clients.

Abi said: “It is a very exciting time to join Swinburne Maddison which is a forward-thinking law firm with an excellent, diverse client base and a growing reputation both locally and nationally.

“I hope to use my experience to help develop the commercial litigation side of the business and continue to expand the firm’s already impressive client base.”

The firm also welcomes the recently qualified solicitor Charlotte Excell, who has joined Swinburne Maddison’s reputable commercial property team.

Charlotte added: “I have always been aware of the firm and have followed its growth with interest as it developed its excellent reputation within the North East. I hope to add to the already fantastic name the commercial property team has.”

Steve Massey and Julie Ling, Helping Hands Community Care

A Northumberland-based homecare organisation recently appointed two new members of staff to strengthen its management team.

Helping Hands Community Care, which provides care and support services people across Northumberland, has appointed Steve Massey as the new head of homecare and compliance across its Hexham and Cramlington branches.

Julie Ling, who will be based in the Hexham branch, has been appointed as head of finance. The pair bring more than decades of knowledge to the team.

Steve said: “I am really enjoying my role and getting to know the team. I always strive for excellence and I’m looking forward in being a part of Helping Hands as it continues to strive toward delivering the highest quality of care.”

Julie Ling, a qualified accountant has 25 years of experience in the public sector, charity and care environments having worked for the NHS and The Percy Hedley Foundation.

Julie will oversee all financial activity and reporting across Helping Hands, whilst managing and strengthening the finance team with her broad skillset.

She added: “I’m really proud to be part of a progressive company that is doing such important work across Northumberland and increasingly further afield.”

Rhiannon Coleman; Alex Wensor; Victoria Walley and Tamsyn Stuart, Roythornes Solicitors

Roythornes Solicitors has announced the qualification of four legal professionals to solicitors having completed their training contracts with the firm.

Rhiannon Coleman, Alex Wensor, Victoria Walley and Tamsyn Stuart have each qualified as solicitors and will work across the firm’s specialist departments of private client, agriculture property and litigation.

2018 has been a successful year for the firm top 150 law firm, with more than 20 new starters across the firm’s four offices in the Midlands and East Anglia.

Vember Mortlock, managing director at Roythornes Solicitors, said: “Rhiannon, Alex, Victoria and Tamsyn’s work ethic and commitment to the firm as well as their personal development has been exemplary and I am delighted they will begin their careers as solicitors with us.

“The qualification to solicitor undoubtedly marks an important milestone in the career of a legal professional and I join the full team in wishing each of them well in the next stage in their respective careers.”

Dr Allan Brown and David Matthews, QuantuMDx

Newcastle’s QuantuMDx Group Ltd has announced two key leadership appointments.

Dr Allan Brown has been appointed chief operating officer and David Matthews has joined as chief financial officer.

CEO, Elaine Warburton OBE, said: “These appointments represent the final parts of the transformation of QuantuMDx’s Board, executive and senior management teams. We are now on a trajectory to successfully commercialise our technologies.”

Dr Allan Brown joins QuantuMDx at a crucial time as he will help lead the launch of Q- POCTM, the company’s pioneering portable diagnostics laboratory, which will compete on speed, price, simplicity of use and, importantly, mass multiplexing.

Allan joins from Genedrive Plc where, as chief operating officer and board director, his key successes included overseeing the market launch of Genedrive, a portable PCR platform used to diagnose HCV.

Elaine Warburton added: “I have long admired Allan’s innate ability to seamlessly move a company’s operations from research into commercialisation whilst retaining a company’s work ethos and personality.

“Now QuantuMDx has prototypes in field studies across various continents testing assays in HPV genotyping, warfarin sensitivity genotyping and TB, having Allan’s experience will be a major factor in helping the Board drive commercial success.”

Katie Wheeler and Matthew Lennox, Cleveland Containers

A local firm with one of the biggest shipping container ranges in the UK has expanded its team after enjoying record profits for two years running.

Marketing assistant Katie Wheeler, and sales manager Matthew Lennox have joined Cleveland Containers following record levels of both profit and turnover for the company over the last two years.

Managing director, Jonathan Bulmer, said: “This ongoing success is a tremendous credit to our team, with everyone working hard towards our goal of being the UK’s number one supplier of new and used shipping containers.

“We’re particularly pleased this continued growth has allowed us to strengthen each department, welcoming both Matthew and Katie on board during an exciting time for the business.

“Katie, who’s just completed an MA in Future Design at Teesside University, will help us increase our online presence on social media and bring some fresh ideas for our website and other marketing activities.

“Matthew is our sixth sales manager, and with a strong track record, he’s settled in quickly and already brought in business.”

Idris Davies, GreCon

Idris Davies has been appointed to the role of service engineer, with responsibility for customers who rely on GreCon’s measurement and inspection technologies.

The appointment adds a local element to an existing global service team, and underpins GreCon’s commitment to the UK and Ireland market.

GreCon’s comprehensive range of measuring and inspection systems are relied upon to equip the ‘smart factory’ with rich information to support process control and quality assurance and the transformation to Industry 4.0.

GreCon also makes people and places safer with its preventative fire protection systems which reduce the risk of fires and explosions in filters, silos and other production areas.

Jonathan Hamill, managing director of GreCon Limited, said: “This is a key appointment which reaffirms our commitment to the UK and Ireland market and in this case our measurement and inspection customers.

“Idris brings considerable engineering experience and he will greatly assist our customers, as a local extension to our existing service network.”

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