GOLF-LOVER MARK SHEQS IN AT FINLEY’ S!
A fully-qualified health and safety expert has already got into full swing at a Newton Aycliffe construction firm which is bucking the manufacturing trend.
Sports lover Mark Stones has been appointed Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality( SHEQ) Manager at family-run Finley Structures, which continues to win big contracts up and down the country.
The 43-year-old, a long-time member of Bishop Auckland Golf Club who also played Under-19s county level cricket for Durham in his pomp, has joined Finley’ s highly-skilled workforce at its Aycliffe Business Park premises.
Mark, married to wife Melanie since 1997, was previously SHEQ Manager with Seaham-based aluminium fabricators Fortress Facades for two years and before that he spent just over a year as Health and Safety Director for construction firm Indbuild in Richmond.
A Chartered Member of Institution of Occupational Safety and Health( IOSH), Mark is also a FULL Member of the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management( IIRSM), with association of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment( IEMA) in-line with the requirements of the environmental management.
He said:“ I am already enjoying my time with Finley Structures. I believe I can contribute much to the internal and external direction of the company with employees and clients alike.
ARE YOU AU FAIT WITH SOCIAL MEDIA?
“ I have already located all relevant risk assessments to the machinery and work procedures as well as daily inspection sheets across the spectrum of activities with taskspecific RA’ s being rolled out to all staff – from the office, to fabrication on the shop floor as well as on-site.”
Finley’ s managing director Julie Finley added:“ We’ re delighted to bring someone like Mark on board, he brings with him not just a raft of qualifications, but also a wealth of knowledge and invaluable health and safety experience.
“ Zero Harm is absolutely paramount in the construction industry and hopefully Mark will enable us to build on the good reputation we already have for creating a safe environment within the workplace.”
Bringing Aycliffe Business Park Together | 15
As well as his love for sport, Mark enjoys holidays walking pet dog‘ Oliver’, and over the years he has been involved with a number of fundraising events for charitable organisations, such as walks, fancy dress parties, sportsman evenings and golf days.
Finley Structures, which has an annual turnover of £ 15m, has recently worked on a high-profile 1,000-tonne contract for Drax Power Station near Selby in North Yorkshire and is currently working on a 500-tonne job for Shepherd Construction at Ercall Wood Technology College in Telford as well as a 70-tonne contract for Carillion Building at RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire.
One of Newton Aycliffe’ s brightest young firms hosted a well-attended seminar as part of the Aycliffe Business Park( ABP) series of events.
Rachel Townsend-Green, boss of Au Fait Marketing based at The HUB, gave an interesting pep-talk to attendees on the do’ s and dont’ s of social networking.
“ Some people are quite proficient at social networking and others are self-proclaimed luddites and won’ t go within a mile of it!” admits Rachel.
“ So it’ s difficult to gauge which level to pitch this kind of thing at, but we had a good day, and judging by the feedback we got I think we got it at pretty much the right level.”
Business Development Coordinator Kate Chapman, who attended the event, said:“ The main thing we’ ve learned is about having an actual social media strategy.
“ We work hard on developing marketing strategies, but we maybe haven’ t had a very clear policy on social media interaction, and I think one of the key messages that came across from this event was that if you are going to be active on the social media front, have a defined strategy, reasons why and how that aligns to your overall marketing strategy.”
Kate added:“ We’ ve been to and hosted some of the ABP events and I think there’ s a realisation that there’ s a real community on the park that maybe we haven’ t been involved with before.
“ We’ ve certainly made a number of new contacts that are on our doorstep for quite a while that we’ d previously never met.”
Further ABP events are planned for the rest of the year, and Rachel added:“ One of the things we’ re big on is transfer of knowledge, and I’ m personally really passionate about the business park. I grew up in Aycliffe Village, I live here, I’ m based at The HUB and we’ re employing local people, so I’ m totally passionate about what the ABP group is trying to achieve.”