Buckinghamshire: B P Collins appoints award-winning chief executive

Ian Hopkins has been appointed as the new chief executive of leading Buckinghamshire law firm B P Collins LLP, with effect from today.

An experienced lawyer and businessman with a string of awards under his belt, he has already set the goal of increasing annual turnover to £10 million through a strong growth agenda.

Welcoming him to the team, senior partner Chris Hardy said: “Ian has an excellent track record as a leader and has clearly achieved great things in his previous roles. He is a strategic thinker with impressive management skills and we are thrilled that someone of his calibre will be working hand-in-hand with our lawyers to drive the business forward and achieve the success it deserves.”

Hopkins said: “B P Collins is a prestigious law firm with a tremendous heritage and a pedigree standard of client care, combined with a fantastic group of people and partners. My role is to lead from the front, to review and identify ways we can improve on existing services and take the practice to the next stage on its ambitious growth plan to break through the £10m barrier.”

Hopkins' appointment will see him working alongside Gina Connell, the firm’s new head of business development and marketing, a partnership that Hardy calls both “powerful and exciting”.

During his five years as chief executive of Debenhams Ottaway in St Albans, Hopkins led the practice to the 2014 title of Medium to Large Business of the Year at the Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards. That same year, he was named a finalist in the St Albans Chamber of Commerce Business Leader of the Year and, in both 2014 and 2013, the firm was a finalist in the STEP award for Regional Law Firm of the Year.

Having qualified as a solicitor in 1987, Hopkins spent his early career with a law firm in Wales, where he won the Leadership for Businesses with Fewer than 250 Employees category in the Leading Wales Business Awards.  He has a master’s degree in business administration and in 2014 gained a Level 7 qualification in law firm risk and compliance from the Institute of Leadership and Management.

A keen networker, he is also a member of the national executive committee of the Law Society law management section.