Northcoders – the coding school for the North – has added to its marketing team with two new appointments: Karen Burns is the company’s new growth and relationship manager, whilst Beatrix Matyas becomes its new community growth manager.

Karen joins Northcoders from Leeds-based technology consultancy firm BJSS where she was the company-wide events manager. Karen has 20 years’ experience across employer branding, talent attraction, marketing, events, and community building. She has also been an active member of the Leeds Digital Festival steering panel.

Her new role will see her working closely with the commercial and B2C marketing teams to raise the company’s profile in the business, tech, and consumer markets through a number of core activities including events, podcasts and digi bytes.

Beatrix’s focus will be growing and nurturing Northcoders’ community of learners, using everything from social media to email marketing, and events. She has worked in content marketing for around four years and joins Northcoders from Digital Next. Prior to that she worked at theEword.

Both will also play a key part in delivering a consistent and holistic business-wide marketing strategy.
Karen said: “I have known Northcoders for a long time and have always admired its culture and values. It is genuinely a people-first organisation with community at its heart so I’m looking forward to adding value and amplifying its voice to our business, tech, consumer and alumni audiences.”

Ruth Ng, head of sales and marketing, commented: “Both Karen and Beatrix bring with some fantastic experience and I couldn’t be more excited to have them on board. As a business, Northcoders has adapted and evolved since the COVID pandemic hit, and we are now well placed to grow once again 2021. Their arrivals will help us build a strong, connected and diverse community of technologists across the country.”

Over the past two years, Northcoders has been selected as one of the country’s brightest tech stars in Creative England’s CE50 list and was named Business of the Year at the 15th Annual Chamber Business Awards. The firm also relocated its Manchester campus to a new 10,000 sq. ft space at Manchester Technology Centre and launched a Study Now, Pay Later scheme and Gender Diversity Fund.

Beyond Corporate’s Real Estate team grows with the appointment of a partner and two new solicitors in Real Estate and Construction

Beyond Corporate has appointed three new additions to its highly successful Real Estate and Construction teams: Owen McKenna as Real Estate partner, Moe Yassin as Construction associate, and Zaeem Habib as Real Estate solicitor.

Manchester-based Beyond Corporate is part of Beyond Group, the growing legal business which also owns and operates specialist, award winning Family law firm McAlister Family Law. The appointment of three new members of the team reflects the Group’s target of continuing growth for Beyond Corporate, especially in the key areas of Real Estate and Construction which will be the subject of significant investment and which the Group hopes will drive continued growth over the next 12 months.

Owen McKenna, who has worked in the Real Estate sector for nearly 20 years, joins Beyond from Harrison Drury & Co, where he was a director, having previously held roles with DWF and Brabners.

His experience extends to freehold and leasehold sales and acquisitions, development and development funding, together with landlord and tenant and portfolio management work. He works predominantly with entrepreneurial property businesses and developers across industrial, retail, office and leisure sectors.

Moe Yassin joins Beyond from DWF: he is experienced in both contentious and non-contentious construction law, advising a wide portfolio of clients including private developers, contractors, subcontractors and local government. He also advises on a range of construction related matters within the energy sector. His core focus areas are preventive dispute resolution and adjudication.

Zaeem joins Beyond having held roles at Gorvins and Mary Monson Solicitors. His new role at Beyond involves working on a wide range of property issues, including freehold and leasehold acquisitions and disposals, landlord and tenant matters, Real Estate finance, and development and project work.

Beyond’s Real Estate clients include Rise Homes, New Care, McGoff Group, Property Alliance Group, Capital & Centric and Mulbury Homes.

James Flynn, who leads the Real Estate and Construction teams, said: “Owen, Moe and Zaeem are quality additions to the team, adding strength to the team as demand for our services continues to grow. Despite the pandemic, we have found that a lot of areas of the property market remain busy, and we are seeing a lot of activity across our sectors of expertise, in particular care, residential, energy and logistics. We also have a very healthy new business pipeline so we are delighted to have been able to increase our reach across both Real Estate and Construction.”

Matt Fleetwood, Head of Beyond Group, added: “We are beginning to see growth in Real Estate and both contentious and non-contentious construction businesses; these appointments reinforce our commitment to continued investment in the right people at the right time. We don’t recruit for the sake of adding numbers or bums on seats, but rather we target those people who can grow our business and add to the diverse and vibrant culture we created, and are dedicated to maintaining, within a highly traditional industry.”

Verastar Group, the leading provider of essential services to small businesses, has appointed former TalkTalk, Virgin Media and UKFast executive Lee Hull as Chief Executive Officer.

Verastar provides utilities, telecoms, insurance and digital payments services to more than 160,000 small businesses across the UK, trading under a number of customer-facing brands including kinex, Clear Business and The Insurance Octopus.

Hull joins the Manchester-headquartered group from TalkTalk Business, where he held the position of Managing Director.

He said: “Having watched Verastar’s rapid rise over the last decade, I am incredibly excited to lead one of Manchester’s flagship businesses through the next exciting phase of growth.

“The UK economy is going through major transformation, presenting many challenges but also significant opportunities in markets such as utilities, fibre connectivity, payments and insurance.

“No other provider offers the range of services that we do on one bill and, as UK businesses look for value and a trusted partner, Verastar is uniquely placed to simplify admin and reduce costs.

“Verastar is one of the best-kept secrets in the UK business market, with an enormous B2B customer base and 900 passionate and talented colleagues. We’re leading the way with 100% green energy and helping huge numbers of businesses connect to the full fibre broadband they need to thrive in years to come.”

Founded in 1998, Verastar Group achieved a turnover of £183m in the financial year ending April 2020.
Hull added: “The greatest organisations I’ve been part of over the last 20 years genuinely put the customer and the colleague at the heart of everything they do, and that’s my primary focus as CEO of Verastar.

“I want customers to love the simplicity and the value we bring, and I want them to enjoy every interaction with us. As our team continues to grow, I want our colleagues to feel good about working for Verastar, build brilliant careers with us and have pride in the level of service we deliver for customers.”

Hull replaces former CEO, Chris Earle, who informed the board earlier this year that he would like to step down after more than two decades with the company.

Verastar’s Chairman, Geoff Unwin, said: “We thank Chris for the remarkable job he has done in leading and transforming Verastar into the incredibly strong company it is today. Who, 22 years ago, could have believed the change that has so successfully taken place? We wish him every good fortune for the future.

“Lee brings a wealth of experience in B2B, having operated at exec level within some of the UK’s best-known brands. The small business market is one of the most vibrant sectors of the economy, and continues to be so, as evidenced by the rate of new company formation. Lee has all the attributes necessary to reach and service it.”

Adrian Bradley (digital) and Gohar Khan (tax) promoted to partner in KPMG’s Manchester office, along with two new associate partners
KPMG also announces promotions of seven new directors

Business advisory firm KPMG has strengthened its offering to Manchester’s business community with the appointment of two new partners and two associate partners.

Based in its St Peter’s Square office in Manchester, which is home to approximately 1,200 staff, Adrian Bradley and Gohar Khan will respectively become partners within KPMG’s digital and tax practices.

Adrian Bradley leads digital services, including pioneering work with artificial intelligence, for some of the firm’s largest international clients. In 2020, he spearheaded KPMG’s technology support for clients’ safe return to the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has been with KPMG since 2017 and his focus in 2021 will be supporting corporate clients as they adopt the latest digital capabilities.

Gohar Khan has been with KPMG for 17 years and leads its EU Funds Tax Group, advising institutional investors on filing and pursuing EU withholding tax reclaims. He also advises UK pension schemes across all areas of tax, both in the UK and overseas. His priorities over the coming months will be assisting institutional investor clients on various tax issues and the potential challenges that Brexit may bring.

They are joined by Charles Batchelor and Paul Birrell, who have been appointed associate partners in Manchester within the deals advisory and restructuring practices respectively, alongside seven new directors.

Charles Batchelor has been with KPMG for 14 years, supporting clients with the implementation of new accounting standards and reporting transactions. Charles will be focussed on building its expertise and services to help clients navigate the increasingly complex financial reporting environment they now face.

Paul Birrell advises trustees and employers on best practice for managing pension schemes and company covenants. With scheme funding under pressure from both the Pensions Regulator and a precarious market, he’ll be using his 12 years’ experience to help clients manage their pensions.

KPMG has taken an active approach to strengthening its North West service offering in recent months. Adrian and Gohar are also joined by a new partner and director in its Liverpool audit team as the firm looks to support its clients more in 2021 and beyond.

Warren Middleton, office senior partner at KPMG in Manchester, said: “Now more than ever our clients need our expertise and services to help them through the uncertain economic climate and embrace the opportunities on the other end of it. For our part, retaining and attracting the very best talent is vital to achieving that.

“Our new partners and associate partners have played a huge part in the success of our North West practice in recent years and they’ll continue to drive that from the positions they’re now taking up. While the business community continues to negotiate the challenges of the coming months, we stand ready to support them every step of the way.”

Manchester-based The Insights People, the global leader in kids, tweens and teens market intelligence, is delighted to announce the appointment of two former Reach Plc executive colleagues Richard Roycroft as Commercial Director to lead the business development team and Sarah Mitchell as Group Account Director to lead the company’s account management team as the company bolsters its commercial team.
The company has enjoyed rapid growth in 2020, launching operations in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico and Russia in the last 12 months, and now surveying more than 5,000 children every week across 13 countries.
Richard Roycroft joins as Commercial Director after nine years at Reach plc, and has previously held the coveted Chair role at the MPA (Manchester Publicity Association), while Sarah Mitchell, who also spent two years at the publishing giant, joins The Insights People as Group Account Director.

Nick Richardson, Founder & CEO of The Insights People comments:

“Whilst 2020 has been unprecedented year, commercially the business has surpassed our pre-Covid expectations. In 2021 we will continue to build on that growth with further global expansion and the appointment of Richard and Sarah to our expanding commercial team, will play a significant role in achieving our goals.”

Richard Roycroft comments:

“Businesses are looking at how they can react to and take advantage of rapid and significant changes in audience behaviour and attitude. These changes, in relatively short periods of time, demonstrate that brands’ approaches to audiences need to be constantly questioned. Gaining meaningful and real time insights is incredibly valuable and why I’m delighted to join TIP at such an exciting period of growth.”

Sarah Mitchell adds:

“Really pleased to be joining the company at such an exciting time and working with some amazing clients. This year has been an unexpected one, but I am looking forward to using our real-time data portal analysis to deliver the best solutions for our clients, and help them shape 2021 into a brighter year.”
In the last quarter the business has welcomed more than 20 new clients including BIC, Danone, McDonald’s, Nintendo and T-Mobile, and has expanded relationships with key global clients such as Mattel, Pokemon and Warner Bros.

The company has also just released its annual Kids Insights Future Forecast report, which makes 10 predictions based on its extensive experience of the kids’ ecosystem, and is available to download at www.kidsinsights.com/futureforecast