The McGoff Group has appointed Samantha Britcher-Brentville from Lymm as Customer Relationship Manager at Downtown, its Manhattan-inspired Build to Rent development on the Manchester and Salford border.

In her new role, Sam will be responsible for lettings and property management at the 374-bed apartment scheme; she will look after the properties at Downtown on a day-to-day basis, supporting landlords by sourcing tenants and hosting show rounds, and helping tenants with after care and general maintenance.

She aims to help promote and increase the success of the McGoff Group’s first urban Build to Rent development and further establish the Downtown Asset Management division as a leading sales and lettings agent with high levels of service and quality customer care.

Prior to joining the McGoff Group, Sam worked for lettings agent Jordan Fishwick. As central administrative manager, she established a new department to manage legal, accounting and administrative procedures for all 10 branches within the group while also assisting landlords and tenants.

She is delighted to be applying her past experience to her new role, and said: “I was attracted to join the McGoff Group due to the varied nature of the position and wider opportunities across such a fast growing, entrepreneurial group. Downtown is an amazing scheme, completely unrivalled in the city centre and it is exciting to join the team at this stage.”

McGoff Group sales director, Paul Danks, added: “Sam has integrated perfectly into the team, working hard to find suitable tenants for our investor clients and providing support to tenants, some of whom have been impacted by Covid and required individual help.

“From a standing start, we now have more than 250 properties under the expert care of our lettings and management team which is a great basis from which to grow our expanding Build to Rent portfolio. We are continually looking at new sites for similar schemes and have a few in the pipeline which we will look to bring forward next year.”

Age 42, Sam is married with two young children. A Member of the Association of Residential Lettings Agents (MARLA), she spent 13 years living in Didsbury before moving to Lymm and enjoys spending time with her family and friends, days out, weekends away and walking when not working.

Downtown is an iconic building in Manchester’s skyline featuring six interlinked statement blocks cloaked with a glistening façade of gold coloured panels. Offering high end hotel-style services including a lobby with 24 hour concierge, gymnasium, thermal suite, media room, postal room, private dining and business centre, it also boasts undercroft parking, landscaped grounds, residents’ roof garden and terraces and ultra fast full fibre broadband from the 4th and Utility.

Apartments have floor-to-ceiling windows, outstanding views and a contemporary open-plan layout, some with private terraces. With people spending more time at home, and more people working from home than ever before, Downtown is in increasing demand from discerning tenants.

Manchester accountancy firm Mitchell Charlesworth has been appointed by Michael Carrick Foundation and the British American Football Association (BAFA) to provide a range of financial and business support services.

Michael Carrick, currently assistant coach at Manchester United FC, launched his charitable foundation in 2017 as part of his testimonial, which celebrated his 11 years as a player at the club.

Funds from the Foundation are used to create empowering opportunities where disadvantaged young people from across Greater Manchester and Tyne and Wear feel safe, valued, and inspired to achieve their full potential.

Last year, the Foundation engaged with more than 3000 people and delivered more than 20,000 contact hours through programme delivery, Carrick’s Boot Room campaign, and volunteering and training opportunities. Things have been a little different for the charity recently as they’ve faced these difficult and uncertain times, but this hasn’t stopped them from reaching those who need it most.

Since March 2020, in addition to online sessions, Michael Carrick Foundation has delivered more than 900 food parcels to families in need, 250 educational packs to youngsters being home-schooled, and regularly contacted children identified as at risk, to ensure they have the support they need to navigate this unprecedented situation.

Mitchell Charlesworth will carry out an independent examination of the charity’s accounts and support the Foundation in a number of key areas, including the preparation of accounts and guidance on the trustees’ annual report.

Lisa Carrick, Michael Carrick Foundation, Vice Chair said: “Mitchell Charlesworth is a well-regarded, regional firm known for its charity sector expertise which will be of great benefit to our Foundation and strengthen our financial processes. We are looking forward to working with them.”

BAFA is the national governing body for the sport of American football in Great Britain and is responsible for all regulatory, competition, performance and development aspects of the game.

The not for profit organisation is below the audit threshold but has chosen to voluntarily have a review engagement of its accounts by Mitchell Charlesworth as well as the implementation of cloud-based accounting software Xero, which the firm will provide training, business advice and follow-up support on.

Pete Ackerley, BAFA Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted with the work Mitchell Charlesworth has done so far. The implementation of Xero will enable us to access our financial information in real time and this will be invaluable as part of our 10-year vision to professionalise British American football.”

Speaking of the appointments, Mitchell Charlesworth associate Jamielee Johnston said: “These appointments further underline both our expertise in sport and experience of advising charities and not for profit organisations.”

Jamielee continues: “A review engagement isn’t as detailed as an audit, but it offers a greater level of assurance than an accounts preparation assignment. This type of engagement provides a limited form of assurance that a company’s financial statements comply with the applicable financial reporting framework. It gives an enhanced level of credibility to the accounts and is a cost effective and value-adding alternative when an audit is not required.”

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.”