Newcastle luxury clothing company END . has appointed Lea Cranfield as chief buying and merchandising officer.
Ms Cranfield will be responsible for driving END.’s product strategy and leading the buying and merchandising functions and will report directly to CEO Parker Gundersen. She joins END. from Yoox Net-A-Porter Group where she was chief buying and merchandising officer for Net-a-Porter, Mr Porter and The Outnet, responsible for the planning and buying of brands for the three websites, managing a team of over 270 people. She has also had key leadership roles at other luxury online and physical retailers, including MatchesFashion, Liberty and Dover Street Market.
She said: “END. is such a unique retail brand with a great history and a strong reputation for being on the sharp point of fashion.Despite END.’s rapid growth and success, there is still a lot of untapped potential for the brand and I’m excited to work with our key partners and internal teams to make the most of the opportunity we have. The best is definitely yet to come.”
Mr Gundersen said: “I am so pleased to have Lea joining the END. team. Her expertise and relationships will play a key role in evolving our contemporary and luxury fashion offering as well as developing our growing womenswear portfolio. Most importantly, she’s a great leader committed to the development of her people.”
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Law firm Weightmans has promoted Tom Thurlow to partner in Newcastle as part of its commitment to developing its people.
Mr Thurlow, litigation speciality in Newcastle, has been promoted amongst 11 partner promotions across Weightmans’ national office network, with five promotions to legal director. Managing partner John Schorah said: “We are incredibly proud of our newly-promoted colleagues, all of whom have consistently delivered exceptional service to our clients.
“These richly deserved promotions are testament to their hard work and success of our firm. We look forward to supporting them throughout the next steps of their careers.”
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Wealth management company Northern Spire has recruited three more members of staff to its growing team. Simon Oxley has joined as a client servicing specialist; Lewis Spencer has been recruited as client servicing administrator, and Chris Brunton has joined as a financial adviser.
David Cook, managing Partner at Northern Spire, a senior partner practice of St James’s Place Wealth Management, said: “We’ve come a long way in 21 years but we’re still growing at a good rate and these new appointments will help us scale-up further. Our success is our excellent customer service, our experience and knowledge and how we can help clients through out networks – and I’ve no doubt that Simon, Lewis and Chris will help us deliver the right service to our valued clients."
As well as the three new recruits, Northern Spire is currently taking on a new paraplanner, which will take the team up to 17 strong.
Former journalism student Lucy Amers has switched to the housebuilding sector after joining the recent graduate cohort at Bellway.
The 21-year-old has joined Bellway’s PR and communications team at the company’s head office in Newcastle. She said: “I had never previously considered that the housebuilding industry offered more employment opportunities than just on-site construction. However, Bellway has several supporting business functions that operate from offices, just like any other company. It is definitely not just builders in hard hats.”
Ms Amers is one of 30 successful candidates from 1,500 applicants who applied and started working on the Bellway Graduate Programme in 2022.
Regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers has strengthened its investment team with two new appointments.
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Susan Snowdon has been recruited as an investment executive, while Sarah Carr has joined the team in an investment administrator role. Ms Snowdon brings more than three decades’ experience of working in the corporate, commercial and finance sectors to her new position, having fulfilled a range of North East roles with organisations including Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest, and she is also diploma qualified in regulated financial planning. Ms Carr holds a degree in Business Studies from Northumbria University and works with businesses looking to access growth capital from NEL.
Jonathan Luke, chief executive at NEL Fund Managers, adds: “Our investment team works to understand how potential investee firms operate, how they might use the capital we have available and what impact it will have in terms of their capacity to grow and create new North East jobs. Both Susan and Sarah have made strong starts to their careers with NEL and we’re very pleased to have added them to our team.”
Ryecroft Glenton (RG) has promoted seven members of its team.
Three of the promotions have been made within RG’s audit service line. Tony Gilham, who has particular expertise in the infrastructure and renewables sector, has been promoted from audit senior manager to director. Emily Callaghan joined the firm in 2012 and has been promoted from audit manager to audit senior manager, and Daniel Wilkinson moves from audit senior to audit manager.
Stephanie Swan joined the RG personal tax service line six years ago and has been promoted from senior manager to director. Kieran Taylor has been promoted from senior to manager.
Rachel Johnsone joined RG in 2011 whilst on her university placement year and returned to the firm after graduating. She has since qualified as chartered accountant and is a now a core member of the Outsourced | FD team and has been promoted from manager to senior manager. Finally, Adam Tindale has been promoted to corporate finance manager.
Peter Glenton, partner, said: “This recent round of promotions recognises the talent within our firm and our commitment to career progression, in-house development and recognition of achievement. We are determined to support our staff in their long-term development by providing career paths that benefit them professionally and personally. "
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