Chartered Financial Planning firm Unividual has appointed its first development director to drive the learning and development of its people.

Greg Harris took on the new role at the Bath and London-based firm in January.

He has been with the firm for over seven years, five of those as a financial adviser.

In his new role he will also take responsibility for the operational function of the firm’s in-house training program Unicademy.

He began the process of restructuring the training programme following staff feedback over the past few years, including introducing well-being and mental health training.

He started working at Unividual straight out of university with a law degree. He became a Chartered Financial Planner and a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society soon after joining the firm.

Mr Harris said: “It is an honour to be awarded with this huge responsibility to help Cherie-Anne and Lewis take Unividual to the next level. Clients keep asking me whether I am too expensive for them now! This doesn’t change anything about my role as a financial adviser and I look forward to continuing working with all my clients.

“Learning and development is at the core of everything we do at Unividual, and I am excited to see where the business can progress to as we continue to grow and invest in our local community.”

Unividual’s co-founder John Baxter said: “An emphasis on learning and development is what drives the culture of our business. During the pandemic we never veered away from our purpose of growing and nurturing staff, but this put huge pressure on my co-directors, Cherie-Anne and Lewis, who have an enormous remit of responsibility within their roles.

“With such a growing business we felt it was time to appoint someone to focus on learning and development and the operational function of Unicademy, our in-house Financial Planning training program.”

Unividual is a Chartered Financial Planning firm founded in 2000 with a mix of private and corporate clients.

In 2021 Cherie-Anne Baxter, strategy and marketing director, and Lewis Baxter, Financial Planning director, became equal shareholders with founding director and their father John Baxter.

The directors plan to grow their London adviser number and also launch an offshoot of the firm in Edinburgh.

The firm currently has four trainee financial advisers in its training programme.