• Ashe Kishmishian, 26, of Marton Moss, Blackpool, has been appointed personnel and training officer for Blackpool Tower and Circus, owned by Leisure Parcs. Her role will be identifying and implementing training opportunities for up to 300 employees at the height of the season. She has more than three years’ training and personnel experience including management roles with Next, which included overseeing the training procedures for one of their stores in Malta. Kishmishian is now attending the University of Lancashire to obtain her diploma in personnel management to become a CIPD member.
• Roger Smith has been made head of the British Red Cross Society’s new HR division. Formerly Red Cross director of support services, Smith will preside over personnel support for 50,000 volunteers and 3,000 staff in the UK and delegates working in the field abroad. The organisation, which this month celebrates its 130th birthday, is the world’s largest humanitarian movement.
• David Maitland is joining Connex as HR director, responsible for both the Connex South Central and Connex South Eastern rail franchise companies. The position also covers the Connex UK Transport bus companies. Maitland was formerly HR director at Axus International, Ford’s car leasing and outsourcing arm. A graduate of West Yorkshire University, Maitland worked for United Biscuits as a graduate trainee where he spent three years in HR roles in the Wimpy Restaurant subsidiary. In 1988 he moved to be personnel and training officer at Kone Lifts where he developed and implemented a computerised personnel system. Maitland also worked for Rank in various senior HR roles before moving to Axus. Connex’s previous HR director and acting operations director, Gary Smith, is leaving the company for another role in HR, which is yet to be announced.
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• Nigel Brain, formerly part of the employment team at Lester Aldridge solicitors in Bournemouth, has left to become the operations director of Opal, an HR outsourcing company and HR consultancy.
• Iain Horn has been appointed head of operations for Scottish Equitable employee benefits. Horn will focus on the day-to-day running of the business, based at the company’s Edinburgh offices. He was previously development manager for Aegon UK and was with the company for 17 years. Sue Sneddon, previously part of the employee benefits marketing team, has been appointed employee benefits development manager.
