This week’s National appointments: Featuring Bentley, Gateley Legal and more

This week’s round-up of National appointments includes Bentley, Gateley Legal, ThinCats and Thomson Environmental Consultants. Read on to find out more…

(L - R): Rick Waite, Owen Goodson Toon and Miles Burney - Bentley

East Midlands based project management consultancy, Bentley, has welcomed three new additions to its ever-growing team.

The business growth move, which has seen the arrival of Rick Waite as executive project manager, Owen Goodson Toon in an apprentice quantity surveyor role and Miles Burney as graduate project manager, indicates an exciting time at the consultancy, which has gone from strength to strength since launching a decade ago.

MD Jonathon Bentley commented: “This year marks an important milestone for us as we celebrate 10 years in business and look ahead to the future and our evolution as a firm. A key part of this is investing in our team and in bringing in Rick, Owen and Miles we take our employee number past the 40-person mark, which we’re really pleased about.

Rick has a variety of civil engineering experience, most recently across various environment agency projects, including large civil engineering earthworks, drainage and piling projects. He has a higher national diploma in civil engineering and over 15 years’ experience in the sector.

Owen has previously worked as a labourer on a building site and is now keen to progress a career in quantity surveying. He holds an extended diploma in engineering which helped him be eligible for a place on the five-year Quantity Surveying Degree Apprenticeship, where he’ll study for his degree part time with Nottingham Trent University.

Miles is a graduate from the same university with a degree in property finance and investment. He will be providing support on a mixture of projects across infrastructure and commercial, including pre and post contract so that he gets a rounded experience of the complete project lifecycle.

Andrew Keeley - Gateley Legal

Gateley Legal has appointed Andrew Keeley as a partner at its Guildford office as part of strategic plans to bolster its construction team in the South East.

Andrew spent six years working as a risk analyst for a major UK bank before requalifying as a solicitor and joining Charles Russell LLP as a trainee specialising in construction and engineering law. Following the firm’s merger and rebranding to Charles Russell Speechlys LLP, he was promoted to a partner in 2019 and spent a total of 18 years with the company.

He has a wealth of experience in dealing with both contentious and non-contentious matters and has acted for a broad range of clients. These include developers, contractors, funders and high-net-worth individuals in relation to commercial and residential construction work, as well as engineering projects.

In his role at Gateley Legal, Andrew will expand the national construction team’s offering to support housebuilder and developer clients across the South East with matters including fire safety remedial works.

On his appointment, Andrew commented: “Gateley Legal’s nationally recognised construction team is well regarded for its high-quality work and expertise and it’s great to be joining at an exciting time with the plans for further growth.”

Emlyn Hudson, partner and head of construction at Gateley Legal, added: “We’re really pleased to have Andrew joining our team in Guildford. He has extensive valuable construction experience and will play a vital role in expanding the team to support our growing contractor and developer client base across London and the South East.”

Dan Hartley - ThinCats

ThinCats, an alternative finance provider to mid-sized SMEs, has announced the appointment of Dan Hartley as Chief Financial Officer. Dan has over a decade of experience in senior financial roles and joins from the Lowell Group, one of the largest credit management companies in Europe, where he was most recently Chief Investment Officer.

Prior to joining the Lowell Group, Dan worked for FTSE-listed company Arrow Global Group Plc, a European credit management service provider where he was Group Treasurer. His experience covers financial control, budget management, treasury, tax, investor relations and reporting, and risk and investment management.

Dan will have a crossover period with current CFO, Rajeev Raichura, who has decided to leave ThinCats to spend more time with his young family and pursue his own business venture but has kindly agreed to stay on until the end of the year to support the transition.

Amany Attia, CEO, ThinCats, commented: “Dan is set to play a vital strategic and operational role as ThinCats continues to scale. His previous experience in private credit is well matched to our mission of helping many more mid-sized SMEs access the funding they need to thrive.”

“I would also like to thank our departing CFO, Rajeev Raichura, for his tremendous contribution to ThinCats and wish him all the very best for the future.”

Dan added: “I am delighted to be joining ThinCats at such an exciting time in its development. Alternative lenders continue to grow their share of the funding market and ThinCats has made great progress over the last few years with ambitious plans for future growth. I am excited to be playing a part in delivering more funding to UK entrepreneurs.”

Lucy Hunt - Thomson Environmental Consultants

Environmental consultancy Thomson Environmental Consultants has confirmed the appointment of a new CEO/Chief Operating Officer to shape the firm’s future strategy. Lucy Hunt, former Chief Operating Officer at Environment Agency, has joined the leading environmental consultancy as their new Chief Operating Officer (COO/CEO).

She will work closely with founder, Nancy Thomson, leading and managing all business areas, coordinating key business functions, and balancing the needs of the environment with the needs of customers and its employees.

Lucy commented: “Why Thomson? Who wouldn’t want to work with a company whose purpose is to deliver excellent project outcomes with positive environmental impact, enabling businesses and nature to thrive together?

“Combined with the quality and expertise of the dedicated individuals at Thomson who embody company values of respect, integrity, support, and excellence - being a part of this team is truly rewarding.”

Nancy Thomson, founder of Thomson Environmental Consultants, added: “Our trajectory is steep upwards. As demands for environmental and ecological services continue to grow, we will continue growing our senior leadership team with talented and passionate industry leaders.

“Lucy is a talented and highly capable leader with a strong track record of driving exceptional performance and business excellence. She will bring energy, innovation, and dedication to scaling up the business and delivering the expanding breadth of requirements.”

Send your submissions to: editor@bdaily.co.uk with ‘APPOINTMENT:’ In the subject.

Submissions should:

  • include the name and job title of the appointee and the business name
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Appointments are published entirely at the discretion of the Bdaily team. Submission does not guarantee publication.


By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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