Movers & Shakers: Five new appointments at Cloud Media Insight in Ipswich

Business development manager, Omar Khattab, who has previously worked as a commercial banking analyst in the Middle East, joins the team after completing a Master’s degree in financial engineering and risk management from the University of Essex.

He will specialise in translating and analysing Arabic media coverage for clients who operate in the Middle East.

Rachel Wilby has joined the team as a media analyst, monitoring print and broadcast media for clients in a variety of sectors. She has a strong financial background, with experience in providing analysis for a number of financial services firms including Legal & General.

Natasha Davies has been recruited as an account manager, responsible for ensuring the Cloud Media Insight service, which provides analysis and commentary on clients’ traditional and social media mentions, is effectively tailored to support marketing and business strategies. She previously held an analytical role at pension specialist Suffolk Life.

Media analyst Ollie Prescott joins Cloud Media Insight from Vodafone, where he had five years’ experience in telecommunications and sales support. In his new role, he will be responsible for tracking and analysing media data.

Tom Holloway, a recent graduate in English Literature from Kings College London, has also joined Cloud Media Insight on a three month internship.

Matthew West, director at Cloud Media Insight, said: “We’re very pleased to welcome Omar, Rachel, Natasha, Ollie and Tom to Cloud Media Insight. They bring extensive knowledge and experience from a variety of industry sectors and will play a key role in our future growth.”

The new appointments have come as a result of a number of new client wins, which include leading insurance company MetLife.

: : Bury St Edmunds-based facilities management firm Servest Catering has appointed Alistair Mort as its new business development manager in the south.

He is now responsible for helping to grow the Servest Catering brand in the highly competitive London and South East regions following a number of big contract wins.

Before joining Servest, Mr Mort, who has an MBA, worked at the Compass Group in operations. He was responsible for some of London’s most iconic locations, including the BT Tower, and he led the VIP catering at Prince Harry’s Invictus Games.

He also worked as a director at Close Brothers Investments for eight years, with responsibility for a managed portfolio of food and hospitality investments. Previously he spent 12 years working at Whitbread were he led the acquisition of new businesses.

Mr Mort is married with three children and currently lives in St Albans. In his spare time he is a Rugby Union referee.

He said: “I am looking forward to the challenge of expanding the Servest Catering brand into London and the South East. In particular I am really excited to showcase the incredible food we can offer through our great teams in what we know is a highly competitive marketplace.

“This is an exciting time for the company and I am delighted to be working with such a dynamic and enthusiastic team.”

: : A site manager working for housebuilder David Wilson Homes Eastern Counties, based at Chelmsford, has scooped a prestigious award in a national competition to find the best-run building sites in Britain.

Trevor Bowden has been awarded a Pride in the Job Quality Award in recognition of his excellence in running the Butterfly Mill development in Horsford, near Norwich.

The Pride in the Job Quality Award is the only UK-wide competition dedicated to recognising site managers who achieve the highest standards in housebuilding and it has been instrumental in driving up the quality of new homes for 35 years.

The awards are the most coveted in the housebuilding industry. They are awarded after the construction standard- setting body, the National House-Building Council (NHBC), carries out a series of spot check site inspections to select the best organised and best quality housing developments.

Almost 15,000 site managers throughout the UK were judged on every aspect of their job, including technical skill, quality workmanship, customer service and site safety.

Mr Bowden was one of 80 site managers working for Barratt Group companies across the UK who scooped award, the highest number in the industry. Other group site managers who also received awards included Tom Holmes for his work at Gloucester Gate in Basildon and Andy Keys, who was recognised for his role at Maple Park in Stanford-Le-Hope, Essex. The site managers will now go forward to the final round of the competition which will select the best site manager in Britain

David Eardley, managing director at David Wilson Homes Eastern Counties, said: “It is a fantastic achievement to win these awards in recognition of the dedication and hard work our site managers have put in at their developments.

“Our site managers play a crucial role in delivering our high quality new homes and these awards should inspire confidence in our buyers as they show we are building some of the best quality homes in the country.”

: : A record 11 paralegals have joined Essex law firm Birkett Long in the past year.

Paralegals provide a vital service to the firm’s solicitors by performing key roles in the legal process, offering support to them and their clients.

Birkett Long, which can trace its roots back almost 200 years, now has 181 staff spread across its three offices in Chelmsford, Colchester and Basildon.

The firm increasingly looks to its existing paralegals to become trainee solicitors. One of them, 23 year old Lillie Ryan, who works in the Colchester office, was recently offered a contract to become a trainee solicitor in 2017 after joining the firm just a year ago.

She said: “I like being a paralegal at Birkett Long. I have been given a lot of responsibility since I started last July and am now managing my own workload.

“It is a very good opportunity, particularly for those looking to qualify as a solicitor in the future, as it gives you time to develop your skills and knowledge before starting a training contact.”

Associate and human resources manager Joann Kebbell said: “Becoming a paralegal is an excellent stepping stone to becoming a trainee solicitor. You do not need a law degree to become a paralegal but, increasingly here at Birkett Long, many of the new paralegals we recruit today have passed a law degree and their Legal Practice Course.

“However, not everyone wants to be a solicitor and we support those who want to gain extra qualifications as a paralegal. Taking on a paralegal role allows people to experience how the law really works in practice, not just in theory, before they decide to take on a solicitor’s training contract.”

: : Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has appointed Sharon Geoghegan as regional director, small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in the East of England, with responsibility for continuing the bank’s drive to grow its lending and broader support to small and medium sized businesses.

The move comes after the promotion of her predecessor, Gareth Oakley, to managing director, SME banking, where he will lead Lloyds’ SME business across the UK. She will now report to Mr Oakley.

She has been charged with continuing to drive forward the region’s performance in the SME market and will oversee around 500 colleagues supporting customers with a turnover between £1million and £25m.

She will lead across the region’s five areas from the South Coast up to the North East including East England.

Mr Oakley said: “Sharon has been with Lloyds Bank since the mid 80s and brings a wealth of experience to the role. She has a proven track record of success in commercial banking, in which she has recently lead area teams in the bank’s mid markets business.

“I look forward to working with Sharon as we continue to grow our lending in the East and expand our support to businesses. Sharon’s expertise will be crucial if we are to continue helping our business clients to fulfil their growth aspirations and to help Britain to prosper.”

: : Essex and London law firm Fisher Jones Greenwood (FJG) has expanded its commercial team with the appointment of Leah Groves, an expert in healthcare acquisitions.

Leah brings many years’ experience of buying and selling dental practices, advising on their incorporation and in dealing with NHS England. This expansion means that Fisher Jones Greenwood is recommended by specialist dental practice selling agents, healthcare lenders, specialist financial advisers and accountants within the healthcare sector.

The firm is also now on the panel of specialist dental lawyers recommended by the British Dental Association as being experts in the dental industry.

Senior partner Tony Fisher said: “We appreciate that the legalities of selling, buying and running a healthcare business are a minefield and we are making sure that we are here to assist our healthcare clients in every way that we can. We are delighted to bring someone of Leah’s experience and expertise on board and look forward to her growing her specialism via her long standing relationships with the healthcare industry specialists and by personal recommendations.”

Leah Groves said: “I am excited to join a growing and forward-thinking firm and relish the opportunity to use my extensive experience of the dental acquisition market to grow this area of specialism for FJG. Taking a commercial and pro-active approach to our work will ensure that the service that we provide to our healthcare professional clients is second to none.”