This week's North East appointments

Your latest roundup of North East appointments is here.

Richard Morgan, YoungsRPS

YoungsRPS has strengthened its team with a new senior appointment.

Chartered town planner, Richard Morgan, joins YounsgRPS from one of the UK’s largest land promoters where he spent a number of years in a strategic planning manager role.

Richard brings great planning expertise and knowledge with a strength in promoting strategic land for residential and mixed-use developments.

He said: “It’s an exciting time to be joining YoungsRPS following its recent expansion, and I’m looking forward to introducing planning consultancy to the business to complement the existing range of professional services on offer.

“There is a very experienced and knowledgeable team here at YoungsRPS, and the company has an impressive client portfolio.

“I’ll be dealing with development at all scales - from those with rural property considering conversions, to those with land adjacent to settlements with residential development potential. I’m delighted to have joined YoungsRPS, it’s an exciting new challenge.”

YoungsRPS is an independent firm of chartered surveyors and property consultants with five regional offices in Hexham, Alnwick, Sedgefield, Newcastle and Northallerton. The firm has a new Scottish office which recently launched in Dumfriesshire.

Sean Ball, durhamlane

Sean Ball has been appointed as head of marketing by sales performance and transformation consultancy, durhamlane.

In this newly-created position, Sean will be responsible for devising durhamlane’s marketing strategy to drive awareness and support the rapid growth of durhamlane’s services.

Sean’s background is in corporate communications and digital marketing, having worked with global entertainment brands - including The Walt Disney Company and Merlin Entertainment - popular music producers and DJs, as well as tech SMEs and startups.

durhamlane continues to go from from strength to strength, achieving significant double-digit growth year-on-year since 2012.

Sean Ball commented: “I’m absolutely delighted to have joined such a dynamic, ambitious and innovative company.

“durhamlane’s mission is to modernise and destigmatise the sales profession, and promote it as an aspirational career choice. Sales should not be seen as a ‘dirty word’, after all, whatever vocation you’re in, everybody is selling something!”

Sean Donkin, The Inn Collection Group

Sean Donkin has been named as the new managing director of The Inn Collection Group as the North East hospitality and leisure specialist prepares for further expansion.

With an 18-year career in the hospitality sector, Sean has been promoted to managing director from his previous position as operation director for a company which has a growing portfolio of eight pubs with rooms in prime locations across the North.

Sean joined the business as general manager of the group’s top-performance unit, The Bamburgh Castle Inn, in Seahouses in 2008.

Business founder, Keith Liddell, said: “Sean has an outstanding track record in the market and I am delighted to see his career develop in tandem with the growth of the group.

“The Inn Collection Group has a policy of promoting talent from within, which has led to exceptionally strong staff retention rates.

“In Sean’s case, this policy has resulted in an individual who has unparalleled knowledge of the industry as well as the group and its ethos through his hands-on involvement with our growth at every stage.”

As well as maintaining the service and facilities for customers that mark out the group’s estate of pubs, Sean’s focus is leading the growth and expansion of The Inn Collection Group.

A major refurbishment of The Seaton Lane Inn near Sunderland is underway while 2018 will also see the opening of the new £4.2m Northumberland unit, The Amble Inn in October.

Sean added: “The Inn Collection Group has carved out an excellent reputation becoming a trusted brand in the sector. I am delighted to be stepping up to the position of managing director as a year of exciting development lies ahead of us.”

Sean sees the group’s 250-strong workforce as a key component of the company’s vision for growth and is rolling out a new training academy for staff which will introduce a company intranet for online training and development.

Jonathan Hamill, GreCon Limited

Jonathan Hamill has been appointed as managing director at GreCon Limited, at the company’s Blaydon office.

The appointment underpins GreCon’s 25-year commitment to the UK and Ireland market and its global position for measuring technology and fire protection systems.

Various measuring systems and scanners are relied upon globally to equip the ‘smart factory’ with rich information to support process control and quality assurance and the transformation to Industry 4.0.

Robert Kuhfuss, outgoing managing director, commented: “Jonathan’s blend of technical and commercial expertise means that I leave GreCon Limited in very capable hands.

“We have achieved great success in the UK and Ireland market, and I am confident that under Jonathan’s leadership, GreCon will achieve continued growth and an expanded footprint.”

Hamill himself said: “I am delighted to join GreCon Limited as its new managing director. The company has a tremendous reputation as an innovative market leader.

“I am looking forward to the challenges presented by my new role and to ensuring GreCon continues to help its customers address their challenges through a comprehensive product portfolio and outstanding customer service.”

Richard Sanderson; Koren Lamberti; Andrew Waine; Hayley Ovington, Echo-U

Contact centre Echo-U has appointed four new employees as it strengthens its Newcastle-based head office.

Amongst the new recruits are Richard Sanderson, appointed as contact centre manager; Koren Lamberti and Andrew Waine, who both join as operations managers; and Hayley Ovington has taken on the role of marketing and business development executive.

The string of new recruits follows a successful 12 months for the owner-managed contact centre. This included significant expansion with the launch of Echo-U South in Bournemouth.

New recruit, Richard, 49, from Coxhoe, brings over two decades of experience in management positions within the contact centre industry having worked at the likes of Capita and EE.

He said: “Having previously worked in large corporate organisations which often involved little recognition of individual team members, I was attracted to Echo-U as a company that invests heavily in its people and encourages everyone to reach their full potential.

“Echo-U has ambitious plans for the coming year and I am looking forward to supporting the team as we continue to grow.”

Diana Bourke, managing director at Echo-U, added: “As we gear up for another successful year and look to further business growth across our Newcastle and Bournemouth contact centres, it is important for us to have the right people in place to achieve our strategic development.

“The appointment of Richard, Koren, Andrew and Hayley will aid in strengthening the team, increasing productivity across all levels of the business whilst ensuring that we steer the company in the right direction.”

Carl Swatton, Surgo Construction

Surgo Construction has announced a new appointment to its planning team.

Experienced planner Carl Swatton, has gained 17 years of experience of the construction industry from his time spent working with several national contractors.

Joining Surgo’s well-established team, Swatton is said to be looking forward to using his experience of working within larger organisations and combining it with the policies and processes of a smaller contractor to support Surgo’s already robust working methods.

He said: “Joining such a well-respected contractor as Surgo provides me with a great opportunity to absorb the successful working practices of a smaller business which will further broaden my knowledge and experience.”

Darin Stephens, Surgo’s head of the planning tea, added: “I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome Carl. I believe his experience to date is a perfect fit with our existing in-house resource and I look forward to the positive contribution he will make to the team.”

Surgo Construction is currently on site delivering a new office block at Durham’s expanding NETPark and a number of residential, educational and other schemes across the North East area.

Steven Terry; Kerry Scott; Lee Rushworth, Advantex

Gateshead’s Advantex has made several new appointments to meet continued demand for its range of IT, IP phone and network services.

Steven Terry, who has over 15 years of experience in IT support roles, has been appointed as a second line technical engineer and will strengthen the firm’s onsite support and expertise.

Also joining is customer services manager, Kerry Scott, in a move that will improve managed IT support and secure the highest levels of client service.

Lee Rushworth has also been appointed marketing manager, bringing 15 years of experience to the position, with particular expertise in the core technology and education sectors.

Established in 2002, Advantex employs around 60 people, based its Follingsby Park site providing enterprise level solutions, combining flexibility and added value technologies to deliver high performance benefits to clients.

The company is targeting a £5m turnover in 2018 - a 25 per cent increase in sales over the next 12 months - as it continues to invest in its workforce, utilising the extra capacity and resources to secure additional major regional and national work.

Dave O’Connell, operations director, said: “We continue to be busy, securing work with existing clients as well as new national operators.

“We have an extremely robust expansion plan, strong customer base and ambitions to invest further in our workforce this year to sustain growth.”