This week's Yorkshire appointments

This week’s round up of Yorkshire appointments includes Spike, Dacre, Son & Hartley, Gordons LLP, Helmsley Group, and Ison Harrison. Read on to find out more.

Steve Bailey, Spike

Digital Agency Spike has promoted Steve Bailey to SEO training director from his previous role as head of technical SEO.

Steve Bailey will be assessing the strengths and weaknesses of employees in the SEO team at Spike, with an intention to upskill staff to address the chronic shortage of SEO specialists throughout the UK.

SEO is a broad industry, cross-discipline, with multiple factors and fast changing trends.

By addressing the national skills shortages in SEO, Spike is confident this approach to training and development is an effective long-term strategy for the company and Bailey, who retrained in SEO 15 years ago after working as a primary school teacher, will also be working with graduates to help them develop a career in SEO.

Steve Bailey commented: “Working with graduates from scratch is a fantastic way to invest in young talent and this for me is the most exciting part for Spike. Internships and local engagement with Universities will both be key factors to explore once we are in a position where our training processes are fully developed.”

Director of Spike Duncan Colman said: “SEO is not a primary subject studied at University and this is one of the reasons why there is a skill shortage gap.

“Steve will be entrusted to work on building up training processes and investing in effective ways to reach young people, giving them an opportunity to develop key skills in SEO. Alongside this, Steve will be upskilling current Spike employees within the SEO team and helping to cross-upskill in other channels.”

Matthew Brear, Dacre, Son & Hartley

Matthew Brear has been promoted to director of land and development at Yorkshire property firm, Dacre, Son & Hartley, one of Yorkshire’s leading new homes agencies.

Matthew joined Dacres’ Land Agency team almost 12 years ago and now specialises in residential land and development work, acting on behalf of an extensive range of landowners including NHS trusts, property companies and private individuals.

He now promotes and markets all types of land opportunities from single plot sales through to large scale sites that form strategic urban extensions.

In recent years Matthew has overseen the sale of land to facilitate the development of more than 750 new homes, as well as negotiating a number of longer-term strategic agreements on land to come forward for future development, throughout Yorkshire and beyond.

Matthew is also involved in selling, acquiring and letting all types of commercial property, on behalf of both tenants and landlords.

Matthew said: “This promotion is an exciting opportunity to continue building on Dacre, Son & Hartley’s reputation in the land and new homes development sector, at a time when there is lots of growth potential in the market.

“We’re currently seeing plenty of appetite from both national and regional housebuilders for development sites in sought-after locations and our ability to offer accurate appraisals and successful marketing and disposal services is proving key to our success in this area.”

Head of Dacre’s commercial, David Ogilvie, said: “Matthew has established a strong track record for successfully marketing development sites of all sizes throughout the region and has worked hard to foster strong relationships with numerous housebuilders.

“He thoroughly deserves this promotion and we’re looking forward to seeing him continuing to grow this side of our business.”

Dacre, Son & Hartley and Dacres Commercial operates from an office network that covers Leeds and 19 other offices.

Ben Roden, Gordons LLP

An experienced solicitor has joined law firm Gordons as its new head of banking.

Ben Roden, who has joined from DLA Piper, has more than a decade’s experience of advising lenders and corporates on a wide range of financing transactions.

Commenting on his appointment, Ben said: “Gordons is highly regarded within the regional marketplace and beyond. Joining the firm as its head of banking provides me with an excellent opportunity to grow the Gordons banking practice and to work closely with the firm’s fantastic clients.”

Gordons’ corporate clients include JCT600, Enact, BGF, Pavers, Severfield, DM Keith and JMG Group and the firm won the corporate and commercial category at the 2021 Yorkshire Legal Awards.

Ben’s appointment follows the hiring of Jonathan Jackson, who joined as head of restructuring from Addleshaw Goddard in November.

Gordons corporate partner, James Fawcett, said: “We’re delighted to have attracted someone of Ben’s calibre to be our head of banking. He is an excellent lawyer who has a wealth of experience and a personable approach.

“Together with the appointment of Jonathan Jackson, Ben’s recruitment is another significant step for Gordons and demonstrates our commitment to continuously improve the quality and breadth of our offering.”

Ed Harrowsmith, Helmsley Group

Helmsley Group, the York-based property investment and development specialist, has announced director Ed Harrowsmith has become a shareholder in the business.

Having served as a board director for the last three years, Ed has now taken a stake in the business with increased responsibilities including business strategy.

He will continue to lead the expansion of the company’s £200m syndicated investment portfolio and will also take on an enhanced role growing Helmsley’s investor base of more than 800 high-net-worth individuals.

Richard Peak, managing director at Helmsley Group, said: “Since joining Helmsley, both Ed and Tom have been instrumental in our continued success. Ed has been a key factor in driving the growth of our clients’ investment portfolios and has made a major contribution to the business to date.

“He has already served the board with distinction, with his values very much matching our own. His further investment in the business is hugely merited and bodes well for our ongoing success.

“Tom, alongside our other finance team members, has played a key role, particularly over the past two years as we have navigated our way through the Covid-19 pandemic. His promotion to the board is just reward for his skill, hard work and dedication.

“As we now see confidence in the market return, I can think of no better people than Ed and Tom to help lead us into this next exciting chapter for the business.”

Commenting on his new role, Ed Harrowsmith, syndicated property director at Helmsley Group, said: “The decision to invest in the business was a simple one. Having been in operation for 42 years, Helmsley has an exceptional reputation across Yorkshire and beyond.

“With the current opportunities for growth demonstrated by our recent high street acquisition strategy, it is an opportune time and a privilege to make a further commitment to the Helmsley business.

“I’m excited to take this next step as we look to grow the syndicated property team over the coming months and to continue to grow our investor base through bringing forward opportunities for them to achieve steady return on investment with future capital appreciation.”

Erin Johnston, Geraldine Levison, Dhiran Mistry, Nigel Monaghan, Ison Harrison

Yorkshire Law firm Ison Harrison has promoted four of its lawyers to partner across its network of Yorkshire offices.

The four newly promoted partners are Erin Johnston, Geraldine Levison, Dhiran Mistry and Nigel Monaghan.

The new round of promotions follow Ison Harrison’s recent transition to becoming entirely employee owned after the three shareholder directors agreed to sell the business to an Employee Ownership Trust.

Erin Johnston has been a solicitor with Ison Harrison for three years having qualified in 2013. Based at both Otley and Chapel Allerton branches, Erin specialises in all types of Private Client work including wills, probate, court of protection and trust matters.

Experienced commercial property solicitor Geraldine Levison has been with the firm for eight years and is branch manager at the Chapel Allerton office. Geraldine, a legal practitioner with 18 years’ experience, specialises in acquisitions, disposals and leasebacks for both retail outlets and industrial offices.

She is also highly experienced in dealing with Landlord and Tenant issues, commercial re-financing and transfer of leasehold interests.

Commercial solicitor Dhiran Mistry joined Ison Harrison in 2018, having previously worked for large law firms in Leeds. He assists with all aspects of commercial and residential property, including acting for a range of developers in securing multi-site acquisitions and development refinance.

Specialising in family law and based at the firm’s Pudsey office, Nigel Monaghan is a solicitor with over 36 years legal experience. Nigel originally joined Ison Harrison’s Garforth office in November 2016 before moving to the Pudsey branch when it first opened in January 2017, to offer his Private Family law expertise to the town.

Whilst specialising now solely in family work, Nigel has years of experience in other litigation matters and prosecuted on behalf of the RSPCA (animal cruelty cases) for 15 years in Bradford and surrounding Courts.

Ison Harrison, with sixteen offices throughout the region, was founded in 1978. Forty-three years later it now employs more than 240 staff across Yorkshire and offers the broadest suite of legal services in the region.

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