This week's Yorkshire appointments

James Worrall, Growth Partner

Growth Partner, the Yorkshire-based investment firm of HomeServe founder and Global CEO Richard Harpin, has appointed James Worrall as investment director.

Managing partner Gerard Downes says: “We’ve had an extremely busy period backing some exciting high growth consumer businesses led by outstanding founder entrepreneurs.

“Businesses that are either expanding into new markets or new international territories, launching new products, or opening new stores every week and looking to scale up quickly”

“James’ experience will allow us to extend our reach, discover, invest in and partner with more exceptional entrepreneurs, enabling Growth Partner and Richard Harpin to further inspire and support the most ambitious UK talent.”

James will focus on connecting with entrepreneurs running consumer facing businesses for Growth Partner to invest in and support their growth plans. He has over 10 years’ experience working with entrepreneurs and high growth businesses, across roles in finance, sport, M&A advisory and investment.

James commented: “Growth Partner is supporting really exciting consumer businesses making a step change in their growth story. The transparent, flexible and genuine partnership focussed approach to investment is unique and has been created by one of the UKs most successful entrepreneurs, to support other entrepreneurs.

Growth Partner understands the entrepreneurial journey, and focuses on offering targeted support, to accelerate growth and build significant value.“

“I’m delighted to be joining Gerard Downes, Alex Marsh and Callum Harvey at Growth Partner and will be focusing on building relationships with the most ambitious entrepreneurs that have a proven business model and are eager to dominate their markets”

Niamh Crabtree, Secerna LLP

Intellectual property specialist Secerna LLP has welcomed a new trainee patent attorney to its team in York, bolstering the firm’s biotech expertise.

Niamh Crabtree joins the firm to support a worldwide client base of multi-national corporations, FTSE and NYSE listed companies, universities, spin-out companies, small businesses and innovators.

Having graduated from the University of Durham with a Mbiol in Biosciences, Niamh will work across a broad range of sectors including biotechnology and life sciences.

Niamh commented: “Working at Secerna is giving me the chance to be very hands-on with big cases right from day one. This has meant that I have gained a lot more practical experience than many others in my position.

This, and the fact that I get to work extremely closely with the partners and learn from them, made joining an easy decision.“

She added: “I knew that lab work wasn’t where my passion lay. However, I love to learn and stay up to date with new technologies, which a career in intellectual property allows me to do.

“In my short time with the firm, I have already worked on a wide range of cases, including those in my field of expertise as well as in areas such as engineering. I love to learn about new technologies, so this has been tremendously fun and interesting.”

Secerna Partner, Charlotte Watkins says, “We are very happy to welcome Niamh to our team. Her knowledge and hard work are already proving to be a considerable asset to Secerna and we are very excited to see how her career develops over the coming years.”

Anthony Parrish, Jones Myers

Jones Myers has promoted family lawyer Anthony Parrish to partner.

Anthony is a member of its children’s department. His specialism in family law includes representing children, teenagers, parents, and local authorities. Anthony is also experienced in international child abduction cases and adoption work.

Jones Myers partner, Kate Banerjee, who heads the children’s department, said: “Anthony’s promotion, which is aligned with our firm’s ongoing expansion, is extremely well deserved.

“A valuable and committed member of our team for the past 14 years, Anthony is commended for giving realistic advice in a sensitive and appropriate way, which is tailored to suit the individual needs of our clients. We wish him continued success.”

The latest Legal 500 guide commented: “Well organised and totally on top of the facts in a case. He deals with his lay clients and other professionals in a case with absolute courtesy.”

Anthony said: “I am absolutely delighted with the opportunity of becoming a partner at Jones Myers. It is an exceptional firm that I am very proud to be part of. I look forward to continuing to play a key role within a highly experienced team which consistently provides outstanding client service and legal advice.”

Jamie Robson, Grant Maguire, Ben Teggin, Jordan Lewis, Ashley Ballance, Lewis Sambrook, Dynamic Network Group

Dynamic Networks Group has made six new hires for its IT managed services team.

Grant Maguire joins the business as operations manager and a member of the senior leadership team. He will oversee the customer engagement team, helping its delivery of Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

He will also work closely with new professional services manager Jamie Robson to build Standard Operating Procedures across the business as new service lines are introduced.

Jamie is also responsible for the cyber security side of the business, as a Cyber Essentials Certified Assessor.

Grant said: “This role is a fantastic opportunity to join a fast-growing company that has a positive culture and plenty of opportunities to contribute ideas and help shape the future of the business. When the MD, David, shared his vision with me during the interview process I bought into it immediately.”

“It is so exciting to see how quickly the customer engagement team is growing, and it’s great to be part of that growth. I’m looking forward to working with Jamie and the team to make sure that our customers continue to benefit from the excellent service and technical support we have to offer.”

Ben Teggin also joins the Dynamic team as business development manager, along with three new experienced Support Engineers: Jordan Lewis, Ashley Ballance and Lewis Sambrook

Group managing director, David Smith, said: “Grant, Jamie and Ben all come to Dynamic with proven track records from large managed service providers. They bring with them experience and knowledge of working with customers of all sizes and ideas that will contribute to the continued growth and success of our business.

“We have seen a surge in demand from businesses looking to move their centralised IT infrastructures to the cloud or adopt a hybrid approach. Strengthening our team means we can help more businesses with this transition as well as supporting their ongoing business and IT needs.”

Rob Crolla, Preston Baker

Yorkshire estate agent Preston Baker has appointed Rob Crolla as head of planning.

Rob, who has over 20 years of planning experience, is heading up a new in-house planning service at Preston Baker.

Rob said: “It’s such an exciting time to join Preston Baker and head up the new in-house planning team with the focus on offering the very best value and service to our clients.

“I am looking to grow the planning team and the pipeline of new sites and related planning applications.

“We look to identify sites in Yorkshire that are suitable for planning, preferably for between five and 50 houses, and then look after the entire process for the landowners, covering the cost of planning and helping them to realise the full value of the land. Our expertise of the planning landscape allows us to put forward informed and impactive cases.