Key Management

Dan Bate
Group Company Secretary and Head of Corporate Finance, Manchester

Dan is Group Company Secretary and the Head of Corporate Finance, Manchester. Dan qualified as a solicitor with Christopher Bate Solicitors in 1999 and has previously worked with Clifford Chance, Stringer Saul and, more recently, Halliwells. Dan has specialised in all areas of corporate finance work, including flotations, fundraisings, acquisitions and disposals, acting for both buyers and sellers.

Christy Morrison
Wealth Planning Manager

Christy graduated from The University of Aberdeen in 2004 with a MA (Hons) in Psychology. She moved to London straight after graduation to begin her career in finance, previously working in Financial Services at HSBC and Allied Irish Bank private clients, before joining W H Ireland in 2009.

Christy now manages the Wealth Planning division of WH Ireland Ltd which provides tailored financial planning advice to individuals and small to medium size businesses. Christy is also fully qualified to the Retail Distribution Review standard, she holds the Diploma in Financial Planning and is a Member of The Personal Finance Society and The Chartered Insurance Institute.

Dan Bristowe
Deputy Head of Dealing / Investment Manager

Dan has worked in the City for 12 years, 8 of which have been here at WH Ireland.  During that time he has been part of the Company's continuing growth and development. Dan started his career in the WH Ireland back office which has enabled him to gain a solid grounding in the industry and a full understanding of every facet of our business.  He then went on to work through a number of different departments including PAN European dealing, agency dealing and, ultimately, Investment Management.

James Joyce
Head of Corporate Finance London

A chartered accountant, James has advised on a wide range of public and private transactions including IPOs, secondary fundraisings, Code offers, M&A and private equity. He previously worked at Arthur Andersen and the London Stock Exchange. Prior to joining WH Ireland he spent 5 years working at a venture capital and corporate advisory firm.

John Eastgate
Regional Director

John has been a Private Client stockbroker for over 25 years, starting at Northcote and Co. in the 1980s, and then moving to Shaw and co. and then Fiske, before joining WH Ireland in 2001.

John manages investment portfolios for private individuals, Trusts and Charities.

Richard Griffiths
Senior Trader, Derivatives Desk

Richard joined us in February 2011 from the Hedge Fund GLC Capital. As part of our new derivatives team, he is establishing and developing our CFD and spread betting offering for new and existing clients alike.

After graduating from Warwick University, Richard started his career in Finance at spread betting firm Spreadex Ltd helping to set up the financial arm of the business. He remained at Spreadex until 2010, holding the position of Head of Equities for the last six years, managing the sales and trading teams.

Ruari McGirr
Equity Sales Director

After qualifying as a chartered accountant Ruari has worked in corporate finance and broking at firms including Granville Davies, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Daniel Stewart for 20 years, covering a wide range of sectors. He joined WH Ireland in September 2010 to help develop WH Ireland's institutional reach and fundraising capability.

Simon Doyle MCSI
Head of Market Making

Simon started his career as a jobber on the floor of the London Stock Exchange with Wedd Durlacher Mordaunt in the early 80's. He joined Hoare Govett in 1986 to trade the leader stocks before returning to BZW in 1991. Simon began specialising in smaller companies in 1996.

In 1998 Simon left BZW to set up Apax Securities now Altium Capital. After a two year career break Simon returned to the city as head of equities with Seymour Pierce in 2005 and was then head of equities at Westhouse Securities. Simon joined us to set up our market making desk in January 2011.

Stephen Cooper
Compliance Director

Stephen spent his early career in the Army. In 1985 he became a private client stockbroker with Merrill Lynch. In 1990 he moved to Banque Indosuez to become a private banker and he also briefly worked with Investec. Using his client facing experience he started his own consultancy firm in 2001 focussing on assisting small financial service firms on their FSA compliance with FSMA, latterly the focus moved to institutional corporate financiers and brokers. Stephen joined WH Ireland as Compliance Director in February 2011.