Bury St Edmunds-based social media and consumer PR agency Montage Communications has celebrated its 10th anniversary with the appointment of new team member Sarah Tuck as social media and PR apprentice.

Sarah, 23 from Barnardiston, said: “I’m thrilled to join Montage at the start of its next decade of growth. I’m particularly excited to become part of a team that is pioneering so many digital and offline solutions to regional, national and global clients.”

Montage’s co-founder and creative director Aime Southgate said: “We wanted to invest in local talent and East Anglia has a fantastic pool of digital talent and is an ideal location from which to operate our business.

“Montage relocated from Bristol last year due to its growing South East client base.” Aime continued: “With local clients like Conservation Grade and the Gough Hotels group through to global clients like luxury homewares brand Brabantia and SACO apartments, this region is the perfect base from which to operate with excellent international transport links and easy access to our European markets.”

: : Mildenhall-based English Architectural Glazing (EAG) has taken on two new recruits, project buyers Heather Webb and Wendy Aylott, to its purchasing team.

Heather is CIPS qualified and graduated from Staffordshire University in 2003 with a BA Hons in Business Studies. Her most recent employment has been with Arken as project buyer, covering a six month contract and prior to that as purchasing manager at Screens at Work Ltd.

Wendy is CIPS qualified and has a foundation degree in purchasing and supply from West Suffolk College. Her most recent employment has been with Tristel Solutions as buyer/stock controller.

Managing director Simon Gladwin said: ”A steady growth in our industry continues as we prepare to embrace further challenges and welcome our new purchasing professionals to the team.”

: : Parker Andrews, the award-winning business recovery, insolvency and corporate turnaround firm, has appointed Steve Causer as a manager to head its Ipswich office and to promote the continued growth of the firm.

Originally from an industrial background, Steve has worked with accountancy and legal firms for many years, helping to advise business and personal clients when they are experiencing financial difficulties.

Steve will be looking to carry on the success that Parker Andrews has achieved by helping the firm expand further into Suffolk and Essex and highlighting the many resources and vast experience that Parker Andrews can bring, including access to specialist lenders able to assist companies who are not able to obtain funding from main street lenders.

He said: “I am aware that Parker Andrews has gained a niche in the industry for being able to deal with clients of all sizes quickly and effectively, and although there are definitely green shoots of recovery showing, this is a critical time for businesses that are not as financially-sound as their competitors. I know there is a need for a firm like Parker Andrews to have more of a presence in Suffolk and Essex and I am looking forward to help build this.”

Jamie Playford, a director and licensed insolvency practitioner at Parker Andrews, added: “We are really pleased Steve has chosen to come on board with us. Parker Andrews is established as the fastest-growing firm in our industry in East Anglia and Steve’s appointment is the first part of the next phase of our growth into Suffolk and Essex. Just like any other professional firm, we are service-driven as well as providing the compliance side of what we do, and Steve’s understanding approach to clients is aligned with this. We look forward to providing the same level of professional, creative and empathetic service and technical expertise to new clients as we currently provide from our other offices in Norwich, Cambridge and London.”

: : David Banfield has joined Persimmon Homes Essex as strategic land director.

He says he is hugely excited by the challenge of expanding the company’s land base as it looks to build on successful sales figures.

He is one of two key appointments at the company, with fellow new recruit Damian Seddon joining as commercial director.

The pair join the company amid a revival in the housing market and the success of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme which has helped more than 15,000 people to buy a new home.

David, 49, from Kent, will lead a three-man team at the company’s head office in Witham, handling all aspects of land strategy.

“This is certainly a good time to be joining such a successful company. Our land portfolio is really promising and we have a very healthy programme of planning applications to put forward,” he said. “I will be looking to increase our strategic land portfolio as the demand for new homes in the area increases to ensure our continuing success,” said David, who joined from Barratt Homes. His department is also expanding from two to three, with the company advertising for a new graduate to join the team.

David, who is engaged to be married, is a well-known figure in the local amateur dramatic world, both as chairman of the Theatre Guild of Gravesend and amdram company Masquerade.

Damian, 43, who lives in Chiswick, said he looked forward to building on the company’s success and leading a team of nine quantity surveyors, material buyers and estimators at Witham.

“It’s a really exciting time to be joining the company and this region in particular. The region is expanding and the business as a whole is looking really good.”

Damian, who qualified as a bricklayer before training as a quantity surveyor, also joins Persimmon from Barratt, and has also worked for Bovis and Redrow during his career.

: : Andy McMahon has been appointed as the new Colchester branch manager for East Anglian building supplies company Kent Blaxill. Andy, 35, was previously a highly successful manager at the company’s Bury St Edmunds branch, having earned promotions after joining the company as a sales representative in 2006.

“Andy has a very strong customer focus and will be ensuring we improve in areas where we can,” said Ron McConnachie, commercial director. “He will also be aiming to make us even better in areas where we do well. Andy has already made a big impact in his career at Kent Blaxill.”

The Colchester branch is Kent Blaxill’s largest store, with 70 employees reporting to Andy.

Andy said: “I will be aiming to improve the Kent Blaxill experience for the customer visiting the branch and ensuring we have a feelgood factor for customers and staff alike. We want to improve communication with the customer and I will also be making sure that the branch is in good shape for what promises to be an exciting year in 2014.”

Outside of work, Andy, who lives in Ipswich, enjoys spending time with his wife and two children. He is also a season ticket holder at both Ipswich Town Football Club and Ipswich Witches speedway.

: : Ipswich-based banking consultancy Kevin Ward Ltd has announced the appointments of Vicki Swansborough as associate director and Richard Casburn as an associate partner.

Vicki has more than 25 years of banking experience, gained through working for large banks, and has a great deal of general and technical banking knowledge backed up by formal professional qualifications. The last 20 years have been spent working in the banks’ corporate sectors where she has undertaken various roles.

She hopes to be able to use her technical expertise to support and complement the services offered and to help continue to develop the business further, providing an invaluable service to clients.

Richard has specialised in international trade, including structured trade finance, for more than 30 years and offers training on various aspects of international trade to private companies as well as many of the banks in this country and around the world.

He works closely with director Kevin Ward and the rest of the team at Kevin Ward Ltd to ensure that clients have access to the most appropriately structured trade finance solutions delivered by the most suitable financier. His expertise is allied with work with banks in the UK and abroad through his own business, Casburn Training Ltd.

Kevin Ward said: “I’m over the moon to have Vicki and Richard join the team. They have both got an incredible amount of technical knowledge of banking and finance as well as a great deal of common sense and commerciality, which are vital in the current business climate.”