Date posted: 5th Dec 2023
By Gary Ellis, Managing Partner
2023 – What a year it’s been for our people, our clients, and our communities.
This year has been particularly special as the firm celebrates its 40th anniversary. Throughout the year we have hosted a team away day, a client celebration at Wynyard Hall and the team have been working hard completing their own personal 40 challenges; it’s fair to say we have had enough cake to see us through the winter months!
We started the year with ambitious plans for growth, technical innovation and our drive towards becoming a more sustainable business, and I am pleased to say that we have taken great strides in the right direction.
To kick off the year, we put our communities at the forefront of our minds, sponsoring a local football team, and setting up foodbank drop-off points at each of our offices. The firm has always played a key part in our regional communities, this year raising over £9000 for local charities, and it has been a pleasure to give back to the places in which we live, work and socialise. Some of our fundraising activities have included: walking the Ullswater Way, taking on the Great North Run and the Race for Life.
April brought Spring weather, and two new partners, Martin Hobson and Carl Wright. Carl, who has been with the firm for 10 years, specialises in grants advisory work and supports our clients in all aspects of the grants process. Martin has a portfolio of SME clients and heads up our compliance team, has been part of the team for 8 years. These internal promotions have been particularly rewarding for the wider team, as they showcase our desire to upskill and develop our colleagues. Martin and Carl both act as fantastic role models in our organisation.
As the year continued, we trained our teams in the use of defibrillators and first aid. We now have a life-saving defibrillator at each office and a team trained in using one. We also recognised the need for more support for our teams. The pandemic, cost of living crisis and other factors has meant that there are colleagues who are potentially struggling with their mental well-being, and in recognition of this, we develop our colleagues with mental health first aid training. We now have representatives who can support our teams at any time and with any problem – no matter how big or small, at each of our offices.
At the halfway point of the year, we launched our volunteering scheme and after gathering feedback, we have seen a great uptake in this initiative. We have helped to restore a nature reserve, pack and sort parcels at a local food bank and assisted with a mental health reindeer run at local primary schools– of all things.
Growth has always been one of our priorities at Clive Owen LLP. We are proud to work with some of the most innovative and dynamic clients in the region and we are committed to recruiting and developing a strong team, in August, we took on seven new trainee colleagues through our graduate scheme. This scheme has been running for more than 20 years and many of our senior colleagues started on this path. This year, each new starter has been paired up with a buddy, to give them both technical and pastoral support and we are proud of the achievements our new starters have already delivered.
We are proud of our progression on our sustainability journey this year, having developed our sustainability framework, and identified KPIs which have given us commitments and accountability for the future. These commitments will help us to drive sustainable financial growth and positively shape the future of our firm and the development of our people, our clients and our communities.
All in all, it has been another extremely positive year for the firm and long may it continue. We look forward to the challenges 2024 will bring.
