IPSWICH Building Society has strengthened its marketing team with the appointment of a new general manager.

Michelle Monck joins the executive team to steer the society’s brand development, including its extensive programme of corporate responsibility and community involvement. She will also implement a new digital marketing strategy.

Prior to joining the society she was head of marketing at Access Prepaid Worldwide Ltd where she was responsible for the global marketing strategy of prepaid travel cards. Michelle is a marketer with strong financial services experience having also held senior marketing positions at Aviva and another regional building society.

Michelle said: “I am delighted to be working at Ipswich Building Society. It is a great brand backed with a long history of supporting local communities. I’m looking forward to developing the brand in the digital space and positioning the society as the leading financial organisation across the East of England.”

Chief executive Paul Winter said: “We are pleased to be welcoming Michelle to the team. We are continuously working hard to raise our profile both regionally and nationally, and Michelle’s expertise will play a big part in helping us to market our services effectively to all our valued members.”

: : ELLISONS Solicitors in Colchester has announced that Katie Ramm has completed her training contract and is now a qualified solicitor with the firm.

Having attended the University of Essex to study Law, Katie completed the Legal Practice Course at Anglia Ruskin. She then joined Ellisons in September 2010 as a paralegal, before starting her training contract in March 2011. During this period, Katie spent time with different departments before finishing her training contract in Dispute Resolution.

Katie will join the dispute resolution team as an assistant solicitor, dealing with general and commercial litigation, employment law and professional negligence cases.

Managing partner and head of dispute resolution Graeme Wallington, said: “I am delighted to welcome Katie Ramm to the department. Katie is an asset to our firm and has already made a significant contribution as a trainee. I am confident that she will excel in her new role as assistant solicitor within the team.”

Katie said: ‘‘I am very pleased to be an assistant at Ellisons Solicitors. The firm is an excellent place to work, with a great ethos and a broad range of clients that I look forward to working with.”

: : ANNA Ramsay has been appointed as manager of a £3million spa which is being built next to the four star Bedford Lodge Hotel in Newmarket, ready to open this summer.

Anna, from Norwich, has worked in a variety of roles from spa manager to UK and international trainer for British natural skincare brand ESPA where she trained therapists in all levels of practical treatments, product knowledge and the highest standard of customer care.

Chief executive Noel Byrne said: “We have big plans for our new spa and I am extremely pleased to have Anna on board with her in depth knowledge of the spa industry.”

Anna said: “I am thrilled to be a part of it.”

: : DALJIT Chauhan and Julie Littlemore have joined Bury St Edmunds-based Morrish Consulting Engineers.

Daljit’s experience includes local authority road and infrastructure projects in London as well as major brownfield site development and conversion projects in London and throughout East Anglia.

Daljit will be based in the Bury St Edmunds office and will head all civil engineering projects for the company.

Julie brings experience of structural design and detailing of a range of projects using various construction materials, including on-site monitoring, structural survey as well as time spent working as a structural engineer in the telecommunications industry.

Julie will be regional director at the firm’s Welwyn Garden City office with overall responsibility for structural engineering projects at this office.

Managing director Jonathan Parker said: “I am delighted to welcome two such experienced and forward thinking colleagues to the board.

“They bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise which will prove invaluable and key to the future development of Morrish Consulting Engineers.”

: : A YOUNG electrician from Colchester was a finalist in a competition to name Britain’s best building services apprentice.

Andrew McCarron, 24, was one of 10 finalists in the JTL National Apprenticeship Awards 2012, held at the historic Tower of London.

The awards, run by training charity JTL, recognise excellence in apprentices and promote high standards of training in the building services sector.

Andrew, who works for Lark Technology Group in Woolpit, near Bury St Edmunds, was chosen as a finalist after winning the JTL East of England Apprentice of the Year Award in November 2012.

Andrew said: “I’m delighted to have reached the final and got this far in the awards. I spent a demanding four years training as an electrician but I enjoyed every minute of it and can’t imagine doing anything else. I would like to thank my boss, tutors and my JTL training officer, Paul Sharpe, for all their support – I couldn’t have done it without them. ”

Denis Hird, chief executive of JTL, said: “We work with more than 6,500 very talented young people nationwide, so to have reached the finals of Apprentice of the Year is a real achievement. These awards recognise the work employers and young people are putting in to ensure the industry has the skills it will need when the economy improves. Andrew is a great example of the talent being developed in Essex and I wish him the best of luck for the rest of his career.”

: : LISA Clampin has been promoted to the role of partner in the Ipswich office of accountants BDO (formerly part of PKF until the firms’ recent merger).

Lisa, who has worked in the firm’s local public services department for nearly 10 years, specialises in audit and assurance and advisory services to public sector bodies such as NHS organisations and associated charitable trust funds, local government organisations and community interest companies, main in East Anglia. Part of her remit is to expand this work across the East of England.

The firm has also hired Tim Taylor as a senior manager at the Ipswich office. Tim has joined the audit and assurance and advisory department, working with a wide variety of local and national businesses.

Prior to returning to his roots in East Anglia, Tim worked as an audit manager with Ernst & Young in Edinburgh. Tim also sits on the committee of the Ipswich & Suffolk Small Business Association as treasurer.

Meanwhile, the firm’s Vicky Shipley has been named on the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales 2012 Professional Stage Annual International Order of Merit as the highest non-graduate student for the 2012 professional stage of ICAEW exams, and has been awarded the Simon Morris Memorial Prize. This was as a result of the average percentage achieved across six exams.

Vicky has three more advanced stage exams to go before full accountancy qualification hopefully in August 2014, including three years of work experience. She works in general practice, specialising in the medical sector, working with GP surgeries.

Graham Randall, partner in charge of BDO’s Ipswich office, said: “We have had a few eventful months in the Ipswich office. It is essential for professional advisers to have talented staff at all levels of the business, and we certainly have that here in our East Anglia operations.”