FEATURE
“ I ’ m proud to have that role and to be able to research where the skills gaps are . There ’ s so much potential in the Tees Valley , and it will be fantastic to see it come to fruition .”
Sharon was raised in Marske , before the family moved to the moorland village of Danby and from the age of 13 she started getting holiday jobs at the family firm .
“ I helped out in the stores or accounts , made tea in the canteen , did lots of sweeping and was even taught to drive the dumper truck !” she recalls .
Sharon would have been happy to carry on working in the business , but her dad – having missed out on an education himself – insisted she went to university . She studied maths and management science at Keele but was more focused on the part-time jobs she found and dropped out after two years .
“ It was a choice between jobs or lectures , and I chose the jobs ,” she admits . “ Dad was fuming – he didn ’ t speak to me for ages .”
Instead , Sharon plotted a different route by becoming one of only six girls among 600 boys training in the workshops at TTE and combined it with studying for a Higher National Certificate ( HNC ) in mechanical engineering at Teesside University .
She had a point to prove , both to her dad and to her peers : “ There was a real snobbery around me dropping out of university and doing a YTS instead of a degree ,” she says .
But Sharon thrived . The HNC led to studying part-time for a degree in mechanical engineering , and she passed with first-class honours .
After a four-year apprenticeship , split between the family business and Dormor Machine and Engineering , she got a job with Darchem as a design engineer , quickly embarked on an MBA , started going offshore and was promoted to senior engineer .
With a solid grounding in place , she returned to the family business as general manager in 2005 . Again , she had a point to prove – this time that she was there on merit and not just because of her family connections .
“ If anything it was harder because right from working there in summer holidays , Dad never made it easy – I had to earn my place ,” she says . “ But because I ’ d grown up with the business , I shared his values . The company ’ s here to make a profit , but we ’ re very conscious of the responsibility of being an important local employer , and part of the community .”
Sharon took over as managing director in 2018 , with Clive becoming chairman , and the business has redefined itself in recent years
30 | Tees Business