Ipswich-based law firm Barker Gotelee has welcomed four new employees across its expanding business.

Joining the team as trust and estate planning practitioner Nicky Sunderland brings nine years’ experience in estate and financial planning, predominantly with professional connections, enabling their clients to access legal services effectively and efficiently. Nicky has been a fully qualified member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners since 2010 and she also holds the CII Diploma in Financial Planning.

Solicitor Linda Crawford has joined Barker Gotelee’s property team, with over 20 years’ experience in the legal profession. Linda specialises in all aspects of residential conveyancing, including buying and selling properties, site acquisitions, auction legal packs, remortgaging and transfer of ownership.

Lucy Underwood has also joined the property team as a conveyancing assistant and Lisa Hobbs joins the firm to take up a position as a junior secretary.

Senior partner James Skellorn said: “We’re delighted to welcome Nicky, Linda, Lucy and Lisa to our team.

“Building on our success across all of the services we offer here at Barker Gotelee, we’ve been able to continually invest in our people and the growth of our teams over many years. These investments are all made with one clear vision – to deliver outstanding service and support to our customers.”

: : Rural and agricultural adviser Cheffins has appointed Ed Barker as farm management consultant.

Ed, who was brought up on an arable farm at Westhorpe, near Stowmarket, has joined the firm, which has offices across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Essex, including in Haverhill, Newmarket and Saffron Walden, to work alongside senior farm management consultant Peter Walker.

He will be responsible for all strategic and practical issues for farming and land-owning clients.

He joins Cheffins from the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), where he worked for three years as national agricultural adviser.

He specialised in the Common Agricultural Policy and Basic Payment Scheme, negotiating the new rules with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Rural Payments Agency and in Brussels.

In addition, he advised CLA members in areas such as Bovine TB, pesticide use, machinery regulations and farm business structures such as share farming.

He continues to enjoy close links with the family farm at Westhorpe and still lives next door.

Prior to joining the CLA, Ed worked in the House of Commons, where he specialised in rural affairs. Ed has a BSc (Econ) and an MA in European policy.

Ed, 28, said: “I’m delighted to be working within a multi-disciplinary team that holds a reputation in excellence throughout the region. My background in farming, along with strong knowledge of practical rural policy rules, allows me to understand the key concerns affecting farm businesses.

“After providing farm business advice to CLA members and helping to shape government farming policy, I look forward to providing a tailored consultancy service to individual clients.”

: : Ian Mitchell, a former operator training specialist with Ipswich-based commercial mower maker Ransomes Jacobsen, has formed High Five Training, a new training business providing support for the groundscare industry.

Operating from Ipswich, High Five offers a nationwide training service specialising in high quality operator training for end users together with sales skills training for dealers and manufacturers.

The firm offers LANTRA and NPTC certification for mowers, tractors, brushcutters, hedgecutters, blower and vacuums as well as sit-in and sit astride ATVs, irrespective of manufacturer.

Before forming High Five Training, Mr Mitchell worked for Ransomes Jacobsen for more than 35 years. He joined Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies as an apprentice before taking on numerous roles in the company including product demonstrator, technical representative and regional sales manager. During this time he worked extensively in the Asia Pacific region and for the last eight years ran the operator training section, under Ransomes Jacobsen’s popular Cutting Edge Training brand.

“Training should be enjoyable, as well as educational”, he said. “I work hard to make the operator training fun, as well as covering all the hazards associated with machinery operation. When it comes to sales training, I have 30 years’ experience, selling and supporting turf machinery worldwide, working through dealers and distributors.

“I have worked extensively in Australia, Asia Pacific, Africa, Middle East, as well as Europe. And, of course, I am LANTRA and NPTC accredited, which is important to many organisations such as local authorities and groundscare contractors.”

: : James Morley has been made county support officer at Suffolk Football Association (FA).

The 22-year-old spent a year between August 2013 and August last year on a work placement at the county’s headquarters in Stowmarket while at Coventry University.

He has just graduated with a first-class degree in sports management.

James, who worked as county support project officer during his placement, will provide administrative support to the senior management team as part of his role.

“It gave me a platform to either come back to Suffolk FA or go to work at another county FA or sports organisation,” he said.

“Working at Suffolk FA gave me experience and knowledge that stood me in good stead to land my first full-time job.”

James, who has been helping with affiliating clubs, will also oversee the Suffolk FA Football Futures programme, sponsored by Mark Harrod Ltd, and the Suffolk FA Youth Council as part of his role.

“I would like to one day work in a football development role, and work my way up the ladder,” he said.

James and Darryn Marsh, who is football services officer (regulation and welfare), have both been taken on full-time as part of the new four-year strategy unveiled by Suffolk FA on July 1.

: : Framlingham-based Cloud telecoms provider X-on has been boosted following the addition of Liam O’Sullivan as first line support engineer.

Liam is an applied computing graduate who, after many years in retail and studying IT, brings with him customer service skills and computing knowledge. Outside of work, he enjoys gaming, technology and football, especially watching his beloved Ipswich Town play home, and away.

His crucial role within the company will be to work closely with an expanding number of clients to provide technical support and problem-solving solutions as part of the wider support department.

Sales and customer service manager Debbie Hughes said: “Liam brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge to further enhance the first line support services that we offer our new and existing customers.

“It is critical that we are able to quickly provide our clients with the vital support they need, and we look forward to Liam assisting us with this task for the foreseeable future.”