Here is our most recent round-up of jobs news from some of the region’s biggest businesses or organisations:
Howes Percival
Howes Percival has strengthened its commercial property team in the East Midlands with the appointment of Michelle Woolston (pictured above) as a director.
An experienced property solicitor, Michelle has re-joined Howes Percival where she trained and worked for a number of years, from Kemsley & Company.
She deals with all aspects of commercial property work, including, commercial and residential development; advising landowners and developers in relation to options, conditional contracts and promotion agreements; dealing with landlord and tenant matters, including portfolio acquisitions and management; corporate support and secured lending.
Lucy Lord, commercial property partner at Howes Percival, said: "We are delighted to welcome Michelle back.
“She first joined Howes Percival as a trainee in 2000 and worked from both our Leicester and Northampton offices for a number of years after qualifying.
“Michelle is a very accomplished property solicitor with a proven track record, a wealth of experience and a loyal client following.
"The market remains resilient, and with the addition of Michelle we have strengthened our commercial property offering to support our clients."
The last 12 months have seen Howes Percival invest in a nationwide expansion programme, with close to 100 new recruits brought in.
Eden PR
Eden Public Relations has welcomed Conor Davies as its newest account manager following a number of client wins.
Conor brings a range of skills to the Nottingham-based PR and marketing agency team, including strong journalistic and web copywriting, event management and client relations as well as social media content strategy.
He will be a core part of the agency’s growing team, helping to oversee work for a variety of clients, and helping manage junior members of the team.
He said: “I am delighted to be joining the amazing team at Eden PR and am excited to start working with my clients.
“It’s a very busy and fast-paced time to be joining Eden, with lots going on and new client wins. 2023 is looking like a big year for us!
“The team at Eden have been incredibly welcoming so far, and already have helped me to feel at home.
“Everyone is incredibly supportive of each other and I’m looking forward to continuing my own self-development, as well as overseeing the growth of our client-base and fantastic junior staff at our Lace Market office.”
De Montfort University
A scientist, entrepreneur, influencer and philanthropist, who started his pharmaceuticals business from his home garage in the 1990s and turned it into a multi-million-pound global company, is being made an honorary professor at De Montfort University Leicester.
Dr Nik Kotecha OBE DL said he was ‘honoured and privileged’ to be made an honorary Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Philanthropy, some 35 years after he had first considered a career in academia.
Dr Kotecha says he will use the title “to lead by example, raise students’ aspirations and show them there is a world of opportunity out there”.
He is the founder and former chair of Loughorough-based Morningside Pharmaceuticals, a manufacturer, wholesaler and exporter of medicines and healthcare products. He sold the business in October after growing it into one of the UK’s leading pharmaceuticals providers delivering its products twice daily to UK pharmacies and hospitals.
It also supplies medical products to the world’s largest aid organisations, such as UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, and the Red Cross.
Dr Kotecha and his family also established The Randal Charitable Foundation in 2017, with a vision to help the most vulnerable, significantly improve the quality of life for those in need, and to directly save one million lives globally.
Dr Kotecha, who is also a Pro-Chancellor at DMU and presides over graduation ceremonies, said: “To now be honoured with this title is special.
“DMU teaches many students who are in the situation I was in 40 years ago. Many are the first generation of their family to go to university, from disadvantaged families and diverse ethnic cultures.
“When I meet the families and see these young people walk by me onto the stage at graduations, in my role as Pro Chancellor, I am incredibly proud that DMU has provided these excellent graduates with the opportunities they deserve.”
trentbarton
Derbyshire-based trentbarton and its parent group Wellglade are bringing in John Bickerton as their new group engineering director.
John, a chartered engineer, will take up the newly created role in January, moving from Arriva UK Bus where he was head of zero emissions.
It’s a return to the East Midlands for the former Derbyshire man who has worked for Reading Buses, East West Rail and First UK Bus.
His new job will include directing the care of the more than 400 buses and coaches in the combined fleets, which are based at six depots. Their maintenance and servicing are vital to the bus operators’ daily operations.
He will lead a team of engineering managers and around 100 engineers and apprentices.
John, 41, said: “I’m very much looking forward to joining Wellglade. The group is an admired name in the industry for its focus on customer service, high standards and quality fleet presentation.
“I travelled on the group’s buses when I went to school so it is exciting to resume the journey now in my career in public transport.
“The next decade is going to be extremely interesting for bus operators as the nation moves towards a zero carbon future. We already carry more people per tailpipe than any other sector and buses will be a big part of decarbonisation, including at Wellglade.”
The group engineering role has been created in a management reorganisation at Wellglade and trentbarton. Wellglade’s operators also include Kinchbus, Notts & Derby and TM Travel.
Ashberry Homes
A site manager who is responsible for construction work on a housing development in Ripley has been recognised with a leading industry award.
Ashley Chell, 33, who works for Ashberry Homes, has received a seal of excellence from the National House Building Council (NHBC) for his work at Amber Rise, off Whiteley Road in the town.
He was among 21 winners from across the NHBC’s East region to have won the accolade in this year’s Pride in the Job competition, having won a quality award in an earlier stage of the competition in June.
The NHBC Pride in the Job competition was created over 40 years ago to showcase best practice in the industry, and to reward those who consistently meet the highest standards of construction.
This accolade marks Ashley’s first seal of excellence win since joining Ashberry Homes from another housebuilder in February 2021, and he is delighted to have hit the ground running in his first 18 months on site.
He said: “I am extremely pleased and honoured to have been recognised in this year’s NHBC Pride in the Job competition and to have won a Seal of Excellence for the work my team has done at Amber Rise since I joined the company in February last year.
“Having received both awards this year, winning a Seal of Excellence takes that extra attention to detail and a desire to deliver the highest quality homes all across the board. It is very much a team effort on site, and it requires a tremendous amount of effort from every worker here to achieve the standards expected by the NHBC.
“Everyone on site has played their part to deliver these properties to a high specification. Being able to hand over the finished product to our customers at the end of it all is a true highlight of my role as a site manager and allows us as a team to really appreciate the fruits of our labour.”
RG+P
The planning division at Leicester-based multi-disciplinary building design practice rg+p continues to grow with two new appointments.
Senior planners Ellie Dukes and Dale Radford have joined with backgrounds in planning policy and development management respectively.
Their jobs will include helping the team collaborate more closely with designers, especially on the architecture and placemaking sides.
Director Chris Lindley, who joined the practice 18 months ago, said: “We’ve also increased the diversity of our portfolio, undertaking several projects in historic environments involving listed building and scheduled monument consent regimes.
“This includes the Butterley Engineering site in Derbyshire where our work is supporting a significant regeneration project. Further diversification has seen us appointed on renewable energy schemes including solar PV installations in sensitive environments such as the Grade II listed St Mary’s College in Oscott, West Midlands.”
