Citypress adds to Edinburgh team

CITYPRESS, the Edinburgh-based PR agency, has appointed two consultants on the back of client wins and a period of sustained growth.

The agency has brought in Joe Walton as senior account manager, and Ross Stebbing as account executive.

Mr Walton joins from the Scottish Government, where he managed the culture, Europe and external affairs portfolio in the communications department.

Mr Stebbing has joined from the Holyrood Partnership, where he worked across a range of consumer, healthcare, business and property accounts.

Beth Nicol, head of Citypress Scotland, said: “These appointments come at an exciting time for our award-winning Edinburgh team. Having recently moved to new offices in the heart of Edinburgh’s west end, we have added more listed brands to our client portfolio including Coca-Cola Great Britain, British Land and Scottish Investment Trust.”

Chairman Roger Adcock said: “We are thrilled to have Janice join our board. She brings with her a strong track record as an influential leader in the continual improvement in Health & Safety standards in large businesses.

“Janice’s experience will be invaluable as Reactec continues the development of monitoring devices and management software to prevent this incurable, but preventable, HAVs condition.”

Perrie to head Glasgow for ABL

YORKSHIRE-based ABL Business, a finance and marketing company, has hired Robert Perrie to head its new Glasgow office.

Mr Perrie, an experienced commercial finance broker, will be based in West George Street, where ABL Business (Scotland) will aim to help SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) achieve growth by combining commercial funding streams with marketing and management strategies.

ABL director Alex Beardsley said: “Over the past 12 months we have dealt with over 200 SME businesses across the UK and brokered £25 million in funding. Our business offer is now perfectly placed for the growing SME market across the UK, including Scotland, where we noticed that provision in the finance market was very limited.”

Mr Perrie said: “We identified a gap in the market in Scotland to provide services for firms operating in Glasgow and the central belt.

“Accessing finance is one of the most challenging aspects of business for SMEs and our research revealed that not all firms realise brokers exist and those that are aware of them don’t quite understand how they operate.

“Our message is that we’re different – ABL focuses on building relationships with clients.”

McCann lends Reactec a hand

REACTEC, the company which specialises in monitoring and management solutions for hand and arm vibration (HAV), has appointed Janice McCann to its board as a non-executive director.

Ms McCann, a senior safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) professional, brings more than 25 years of senior management experience across various sectors to the role. This includes spells with Mansell, Balfour Kilpatrick and Devro.

Most recently Ms McCann Janice was head of health and safety at Forth Ports Group.

Edinburgh-based Reactec specialises in invention and provision of monitoring devices and a management information reporting platform for HAV risks - the cause of industrial disease White Finger Syndrome or HAVS.