Last Thursday (23rd) we posted Progeny’s H1 financial results and a summary of progress across the business in the first half of the year. It was an auspicious date to choose because that same day also marked the fifth birthday of the Progeny brand. As last week’s results showed, we’ve come a long way in a relatively short space of time.
From concept to reality
Back in 2015, now-CEO of Progeny, Neil Moles, and our investors had a vision to create a unique professional services proposition which brought together financial planning, investment management and legal advice.
My part in this, along with my colleagues Frances Davies and Suzannah Farnell, was to create a regulated private client legal offering. This would be the first step on the journey that brought the Progeny concept to life.
We established Progeny Private Law – the first part of Progeny to be launched – and, in joining together with what was then Lawrence Scoffield wealth management firm, the Progeny brand was created. You could say that this is when Progeny, proper, was born.
From this point onwards, the company and the brand grew and developed until it became the business it is today. Now we are able to offer an integrated proposition for our clients, bringing together independent financial advice, investment management, private and corporate legal services, tax and HR advice. It is a proposition that is unmatched anywhere in the UK.
Growth and evolution
Focusing on the legal side of the company, our offering has also evolved as the Group has grown. At the beginning of this year we merged the legal, tax and HR offerings in Progeny creating a 32-strong team across three locations in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scotland.
There are now 10 of us in the private legal team and with the recent appointment of Scottish Solicitor Stuart Easton we are able to offer private legal advice – and extend the unique Progeny proposition – to all our clients in Scotland. For the second year running the team has been recognised as one of the leading practices in Yorkshire by the Chambers legal directory, with individual recognition for fellow Director, Frances Davies, and myself.
The corporate legal team has grown organically through strategic recruitment and is headed up by Alistair Scott-Somers. Alistair joined from Bond Dickinson in 2016 as a corporate M&A lawyer specialising in privately owned business sales and acquisitions. He was joined last year by the vastly experienced Philip Jordan from Ward Hadaway.
Zee Hussain joined as head of employment law from Simpson Millar in 2018, and most recently Julie Evans joined from Yorkshire firm, Schofield Sweeney, to head up our real estate team.
In late 2019, Tony Maleham and Adele Swaine joined from leading national accountancy practice Mazars, and now direct Progeny’s tax advisory and tax compliance team, providing all aspects of private tax advice and the ability to deal with tax returns for individuals and trustees.
We also acquired Progeny’s HR consultancy team (formerly known as Halo HR) led by Sam Moxham. Sam’s team already offer tailored HR advice and consultancy to over 200 businesses across the UK. Bringing the HR team into Progeny means we can now provide an integrated HR, legal and wealth planning advice offering to all our business clients.
The next five years
2020 has presented new and unique challenges for us all but as we gradually emerge from lockdown, it is clear that many positives have also emerged.
I am proud to have been part of what we have achieved so far, and excited by the challenges that lie ahead. We look forward to the next five years of the Progeny journey with even more optimism and anticipation than we had for the first five.
If you would like to discuss your professional services needs – independent financial advice, investment management, private and corporate legal services, tax and HR advice – please get in touch.
