15 January 2019
Knights Group Holdings plc
("Knights", the "Company" or the "Group")
Richard King, formerly a Non-Executive Director, appointed as Chief Operating Officer
Appointment of Jane Pateman as Non-Executive Director
Knights, one of the UK's fastest growing regional legal and professional services businesses, is pleased to announce the appointments of Richard King, formerly a Non-Executive Director, as Chief Operating Officer and Jane Pateman as a Non-Executive Director of the Company, both with immediate effect.
Richard King brings a strong combination of skills and experience in leading the scaling up of business services, HR and sales as well as digitisation and acquisition integration in both large scale global corporations, including Procter & Gamble and Shell, and a start-up B2B cloud services provider, Transora. His appointment to this role will enable David Beech to focus on driving the continued growth of the Group's professional services revenue streams.
Jane Pateman brings 17 years' experience in senior HR roles at listed businesses including Centrica and British Gas, and culminating in her current role as Group HR Director at Biffa plc where she has been responsible for developing the People Strategy for approximately 8000 employees across 4 operating divisions.
She has a strong track record in driving business benefits through the development and delivery of human capital strategies. During her eight years at Biffa, she has provided significant support in delivering solutions during major growth periods, including during its IPO as well as driving people and cultural integration for the multiple acquisitions Biffa has made over the past five years.
Jane will chair Knights' Remuneration Committee and also join the Audit Committee, replacing Richard on both.
Balbinder ("Bal") Singh Johal, Chairman of Knights, commented:
"In anticipation of continued significant growth, we are delighted that Richard has accepted the role as Chief Operating Officer, enabling David to focus on driving growth. His skills and experience are ideal as we scale the Knights business model, integrate acquisitions and exploit the opportunity that technology provides to transform how Knights delivers professional services to clients.
"We are also delighted to welcome Jane to the Board. Her proven record of delivering business benefits through effective HR strategies during periods of growth will be crucial to Knights as we continue to deliver our strategy of growing both organically and through carefully selected acquisitions."
The following disclosures are required regarding Jane Pateman's appointment pursuant to Schedule 2 paragraph (g) of the AIM Rules for Companies:
Director's Full Name, Age and Previous Names |
Current Directorships |
Directorships within the last 5 years |
Jane Alison Pateman |
None |
None |
60 years old |
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|
Former surname: Middleton |
|
|
There are no further disclosures required.
Ends
Enquiries
Knights |
|
David Beech, CEO |
via MHP Communications |
Numis (Nominated Adviser and Broker) |
|
Stuart Skinner, Kevin Cruickshank, Michael Burke |
+44 20 7260 1000 |
MHP Communications (Media enquiries) |
|
Katie Hunt, Andrew Jaques, Kelsey Traynor |
+44 20 3128 8100 |
Notes to Editors
Knights is a fast-growing, legal and professional services business, ranked within the UK top 100 largest law firms by revenue. Knights was one of the first law firms in the UK to move from the traditional partnership model to a corporate structure in 2012 and has since grown rapidly. Knights has specialists in all of the key areas of corporate and commercial law so that it can offer end-to-end support to businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. The Company's main focus is on the UK's secondary regional markets, offering 'big city' quality expertise from a regional cost base. Currently, Knights operates from eight offices located in Cheltenham, Chester, Derby, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Manchester, Wilmslow, Oxford and Leicester.