Environmental fund manager, Earthworm, has made five new appointments as part of its initiative to bring on new skill sets in line with the company’s expansion.

Joining the team is Will Brocklebank as head of projects and partnerships, Julian Day as head of finance, Sujan Roy as project finance manager, Laurence Blair as investment manager – innovation & new technology, and Kate Bannister as communications manager.

Brocklebank joins Earthworm with 20 years of experience in raising and investing capital. Previously, he was an investment manager for specialist US equities firm, Findlay Park, as well as raising capital from leading Venture Capitalists and angel investors. Most recently, Brocklebank has founded Shepherd, a system that utilises data to provide risk analytics in order to improve the efficiency and performance of built environment assets.

Day joins Earthworm from EdenTree, the London based investment manager with £2.7bn assets under management in retail funds and institutional mandates. Day is a chartered accountant by training before moving to Ecclesiastical Insurance Office plc, as international financial reporting manager, progressing to a statutory and executive reporting role.

Roy spent the early part of his career in corporate and international taxation and became fully tax trained and qualified, before moving onto film finance at Invicta Capital. For the last four years, Roy has been the partnership development director at a specialist investment company looking to structure lending and equity investment deals for a number of high-net-worth corporate clients in the healthcare, property and renewable energy sectors.

Blair takes up the position of investment manager – innovation & new technology. He has a masters degree in Sustainable Energy Systems from the University of Edinburgh. Over the past 10 years he has been responsible for designing, constructing and managing renewable energy projects in Africa, Latin America, Europe and the Middle East.

The final new appointment is Bannister, joining the team as Earthworm’s communications manager. She has over 25 years of experience across marketing services, publishing and communications. She ran her own agency for over 10 years, with a variety of clients ranging in the arts, IT and engineering industries. Most recently, Bannister moved to an agency in which, most notably, she headed up the National Grid account.