Our Associates
Will Leftwich Email Will
A professional, practically minded Health and Safety Manager and Director, with a great depth of experience working in the Plant and tool hire industry, as well as a leading Utility group and companies in the UK, Europe and the USA.
Working for market leading groups, building a consistent record of growth, widening the scope of products and services in an environment through innovation, demonstrating the need to work professionally, helping to reduce lost time and maximise efficiency.
Qualified in, and believing passionately, that good Health and Safety is good for business, they, high Quality standards, and respect for our Environment must become integral to the management thinking of any company.
To do so requires robust strategy, policies and people that drive them to be embedded in every strand of a companies fabric, enabling excellence in producing work, products and services in a safe and positive work environment.
Good safety begins with a truly positive attitude, integrity, competence and commitment, supported from the very top of an organisation.
Good Safety is based on the understanding that we simply do not have the right to earn our living by putting other people's lives at risk.
For most of his career Will Leftwich has used his knowledge and experience to help companies large and small to build a truly positive Health and safety culture.
Proactively reducing accidents and injury and helping to reduce down time, sickness absence and improving efficiency and profitability.
Robin Notley Email Robin
A Purchasing Director and supply chain management expert, in the hire industry for many years; his knowledge of plant and tools is respected worldwide. Using a Management process improvement tool to analyse and understand your fleet and create the right improvement plan, see it through implementation and monitor its success in helping you maximise ROI and capital employed, helping with supplier contract renewals and truly planning and delivering effective stock management.
Peter Thomas Email Peter
A Finance Director and manager of considerable experience, with UK and international experience - he truly understands the Hire Industry at the highest level; Peter's skills in financial management can help you with debtor management, cash flow control, preparing for sale, acquiring new business, fleet management strategy whatever the size of your plant or hire company.
Marc Bashford Email Marc
Technical author, and equipment specialist, he brings a great depth of knowledge of plant and tools, of taking product to the hire market and supporting the customer with great product information using many different media. Specialising in producing operating and safety guides, owner / operator manuals, parts catalogues, product training video, dvd, or intranet based solutions. Marc has over 20 years' hand on experience within the hire/rental industry.
Julian Ridgers Email Julian
Having developed a successful hire business, developing a team of ten staff and a substantial customer base, Julian became part of the Brandon Hire senior management team following their acquisition of his business. Skilled in the practical side of acquisitions and an operations problem solver with over 36 years experience. Julian developed strong systems to manage governance and set standards within the business building a successful rental business audit model and being respected as the kind of guy who would know most of the answers if team members needed help.
Kevin Smith Email Kevin
An experienced Plant and equipment specialist; with over 20 years in plant and tool rental, he has appeared as Expert witness, completed due diligence work as an assessor, technical manager and Director. Kevin has managed extensive workshop and repair operations and has international experience in fleet management.
Richard Mason Email Richard
Having worked for many years with SME’s Richard’ background in Banking and finance has enabled him to use this expertise to help them achieve business objectives. His depth of knowledge and understanding of the finance issues they face, particularly in the current economic climate where mainstream lenders are more focused on selling insurance than funding business development.
As an independent advisor he is able to bring different facilities from different lenders to the table and so package a parcel that is focused on the business needs rather than what a lender wants them to have.
The key to our success has been our understanding of how a business works and so the best way to structure funding for growth. In many cases the focus is on working capital and how this can be maximized to grow the business.
Nick Williams Email Nick
Nick Williams is a specialist in electrical safety and manufacturing engineering. A BSc (Hons) graduate in Physics and Electronics, his background includes work on national gas distribution, the design of lightning simulation apparatus and of photographic enlargers. Prior to starting the company, he worked for a manufacturer of domestic electrical appliances where duties included managing product design and production engineering as well as product safety approvals for markets in over twenty countries. View Nick's website.
John North Email John
Having worked for several blue chip corporations over 25 years, John has in depth HR knowledge as a generalist and specialist HR professional. John's background is in Banking and finance and has used this knowledge and expertise to assist businesses to achieve their core HR business objectives.
As an impartial and independent consultant John is able to deliver commercial, pragmatic, and importantly, compliant HR solutions covering all your basic HR needs through to more complex matters.
In business, the people issues often get overlooked; however, these can be one of your key risk areas if ignored. You have legal obligations as well as employee engagement challenges – this is where WLA can assist and provide a bespoke HR service tailored to your exact needs and requirements.
John is a member of the CIPD, and the Charted Institute of Management and holds a professional certificate in Management via the OU.