This week's Yorkshire appointments

Alex Law, Ross Wallace, Jordan MacDonald and Linda Garrett, Headstar

Finance recruitment consultancy Headstar has made three appointments and a promotion.

Alex Law joins as a senior consultant in the company’s transactional finance division, Ross Wallace has been appointed as a consultant in the firm’s accountancy practice division, Jordan MacDonald joins as an associate consultant and Linda Garett has been promoted to consultant in the transactional finance division.

Alex arrives with a four-year track record of building long-term relationships.With over seven years’ experience, Ross specialises in advising and placing accountants in practice and he will play a key role in helping the company’s burgeoning accountancy practice division to grow further.

In his new role, Jordan will focus on the recruitment of permanent qualified and part qualified accountants, advising companies on how to attract the best of this highly sought-after candidate group as well as guiding individuals on their career options.

In her new role, Linda will focus on helping businesses to invest in a strong transactional team.

Headstar’s commercial director Natalie McGregor commented: “Demand for our straight-talking, evidence-based advice in both the management and recruitment of finance teams has never been higher, with our 14-strong team providing clients with reliable finance people when they’ve needed them most.

“The appointments of Alex, Ross, Jordan and Linda, who each bring the same down to earth character that we look for in our consultants, mean we’re now better placed than ever to connect businesses with good finance people to help them through the challenges ahead.”

Andy Clarke, rradar

Litigation and commercial law firm rradar has appointed Andy Clarke as chief technology officer.

Andy brings experience to rradar as a digital, technology, customer transformation and change leader, having served in senior roles within both the public and private sectors.

Andy has over 15 years of experience driving Customer Experience (CX) improvements at a strategic level to develop digital first customer centric approaches to customer engagement, as well as driving growth, performance, and innovation for his clients.

Prior to joining rradar, Andy was innovation director at Capita Plc within the UK Customer Service Centre dedicated to the Volkswagen Group UK account for their UK Customer Service Operation.

Operating as part of the senior leadership team, Andy will work alongside CEO Gary Gallen, and rradar’s board to lead rradar’s expanding development and IT teams focusing on driving and implementing rradar’s digital transformation roadmap as part of rradar’s five-year business strategy.

Andy will focus especially on setting the strategic and operational direction for rradar’s client facing and internal technology systems, innovation and infrastructure.

Gary Gallen, CEO of rradar, commented: “I am very pleased that Andy is joining rradar at this critical stage in its development.

“Andy’s breadth and depth of experience with businesses across the UK and in the industry is unmatched and his detailed understanding of business, technology and customers will play an important role in the expansion and growth of rradar as the UK’s leading legal, risk management and business services provider.

“His experience will help rradar to unlock value and opportunity for our clients.”

Andy added: “When I met with Gary to discuss joining rradar, it really caught my attention. The current and future impact it will have on businesses and how they access legal services is truly transformative and the technical skill it is using to build its technology platform is unlike anything I have seen.

“We have a real opportunity here, and I am pleased to lead the Development and IT teams for rradar. We are, in effect, using technology to change a well-established, legal services industry, and it’s very exciting to be a part of that.”

David Smith, Dynamic Networks Group

Dynamic Networks Group has appointed David Smith as group managing director.

David’s career in the IT industry spans more than 25 years. In that time, he has owned and sold businesses, helped companies grow, supported IT start-ups, and built divisional capabilities in large corporates.

In 1994, David completed the management buyout of a networks and cabling company and led its transition to a managed services company, which he subsequently sold to Azzurri Communications. More recently, he has specialised in helping businesses migrate their IT systems to cloud environments.

At Dynamic, David will oversee the day-to-day management of the IT services division and team, taking responsibility for accelerating the firm’s growth and helping businesses migrate from on-premise systems through hybrid models into full cloud environments.

David added: “James and I hit it off from the start, and the energy, openness and honesty within the company impressed me.

“This translates into the way the team works with customers, and I sensed a real ‘can do’ attitude across the business, which I have now seen is matched with a ‘will do’ approach.”

Group CEO James Baird added: “We have been looking for some time for the right person to lead the continued growth of our IT managed services division, and I am thrilled to say that we have found that person in David.

“Putting the business in his capable hands will enable it to thrive while allowing me to focus on our Global Estate Technology division, GET Dynamic, and its new ResiCentral product suite.”

David Galey, Aon

Global professional services firm Aon has appointed David Galey as technical service director.

With 28 years in the insurance industry, David has a proven track record of leadership and advising clients at a strategic level.

David joins Aon from Gallager where he was branch broking manager. At Gallagher, David’s remit included overseeing the 20-strong team, allocating work, and managing clients.

Prior to joining Gallager, David was at Henderson Insurance Broking Group, where he spent 12 years working his way through the ranks to team leader. David left Henderson in 2016 prior to it being acquired by Aon.

David said: “I am excited to join Aon as I was ready for a fresh challenge. I know how James and the team work, supporting clients with the right solutions by drawing on their vast knowledge of the local market, which really appeals to me.

“But being part of Aon, which is a global firm, was a real draw as it means clients benefit from a larger pool of resources and capabilities.”

James Fell, head of office for Aon Leeds Tingley said: “David brings a wealth of experience and expertise.

“We’ve appointed David to the leadership team as he will further boost our technical capabilities and is very well known and respected in the market. He will be a great asset in our work with insurers, as well as providing great support for our clients.

“David’s appointment is testament to Aon’s commitment to recruiting the best people with the highest calibre of expertise.”

Michael Jack, Gent Visick (GV)

Property consultancy Gent Visick (GV) has appointed Michael Jack as a director.

Michael has spent the last eight years in a director-role at Trident’s Leeds office and prior to that he was a senior building surveyor at JLL in Leeds.

In his new role he will oversee and provide cost consultancy, contract administration and project management services on a wide range of new build and refurbishment projects throughout Yorkshire and beyond, as well as carrying out dilapidations and acquisition surveys, and offering planned maintenance advice.

Michael said: “This is an opportunity to join a well respected and established building consultancy team.

“Although GV is well-known for its work in the industrial sector, there is also a good mix of office, retail and new development work underway, which makes this a wide-spanning and hands-on role, overseeing projects from start to finish, which really appealed to me.”

Gavin Ritchie, director of GV’s building consultancy division, added: “I’ve known Michael for a long time, and he has a great reputation, enviable client base and plenty of experience, so he’s a fantastic addition to the team. There’s no doubt his knowledge and enthusiasm will be popular with clients and further enhance the value of our work.

“His appointment comes on the back of an extremely busy six months for our team which has seen us winning work on a range of high-profile projects across the North of England. It also follows Matt Harriman’s promotion to associate director level earlier this year and we’re now recruiting for a graduate surveyor to join our team this summer.”

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