AWARDS
SPONSORED BY OUTRANK
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
Winner – Sharon Lane, right, receives her Lifetime Achievement award from Helen Staples, sales director at category sponsor Outrank
WINNER
SHARON LANE( TEES COMPONENTS)
From machining apprentice to boss of a multi-million pound company, Sharon Lane has devoted her professional life to engineering excellence.
And now her dedication to the sector and the firm she runs, Skelton-based Tees Components, has been recognised by her peers, who voted her the 2026 recipient of the Tees Business Awards Lifetime Achievement prize.
The category already boasted some fantastic previous winners: inaugural winner Ken Devereux of Devereux Transport, David James of Fleet factors and IMH founder Paul Griffiths MBE.
They’ re now joined on the roll of honour by Sharon, whose career journey began as a machining and technical drawing apprentice with TTE in the late 90s and, since 2005, has seen her run Tees Components – firstly as general manager and as MD since 2018.
In a“ first” for the Tees Business Awards, she wasn’ t at the ceremony in
Hardwick Hall to pick up her award, having booked a last-minute trip to Tenerife – unaware she’ d been chosen for the Lifetime Achievement prize.
Instead, a video was played to the 340-strong audience, where Sharon admitted she’ d been“ really emotional” since learning of the award, adding:“ I’ m raising a big glass of Aperol Spritz and thinking about everybody.”
This year, for the first time, the Lifetime Achievement recipient was chosen by a panel of business people: Stephen Robinson and Francesca Kosina of Outrank, Double Eleven’ s Kirsten Donkin, Erika Marshall from the Education Training Collective and LV Shipping’ s Matthew Ord, chair of the Tees Valley Business Board. And receiving the trophy, which was earlier presented to her by Outrank head of sales Helen Staples, allowed Sharon a chance to reflect on 20 years in charge of Tees Components – and the changing face of the business landscape.
She told Tees Business:“ What has really helped me in my career so far is the innovative, inclusive and supportive Teesside business community.
“ Doing a sometimes lonely job as MD of an SME, I’ ve been able to learn from so many role models and to gain advice and share challenges when I’ ve needed to. There isn’ t a better place to do business!”
Looking back on her career so far, she said:“ Engineering has been a challenging sector over that period, with the 2009 crash, Covid, energy crisis, general UK deskilling and deindustrialisation, so I am proud that Tees Components is not only still here, but growing, with a record order book and half of our revenue now in direct export.
“ My aim has been to do this while providing good quality jobs and setting a high bar for ourselves in work conditions and employee wellbeing, changing the perception of working in engineering.”
Sharon said that as industry had declined, there had been lower investment in skills. She added:“ I’ ve tried to work to be part of the solution. I was an apprentice at TTE and a part-time engineering student at Teesside University, so I’ ve tried to use my experience to help bridge and connect employers and education through my work on the board of Middlesbrough College.
“ It’ s also been important to me to keep raising the profile of engineering and manufacturing as a successful sector with a strong future ahead of it.
“ In Teesside, we have centuries of engineering heritage behind us, still evident in our skills today.
“ With Tees Engineering Network and Make UK, it’ s been my privilege to be able to help keep our sector at the forefront of the business conversation.”
SPONSOR’ S REFLECTIONS:
Outrank CEO Stephen Robinson:“ We’ re proud to be sponsoring the Tees Business Lifetime Achievement Award.
“ At Outrank, we work with everyone from solo founders to multi-million-pound SME, acting as an extension of their business and growing alongside them.
“ This award celebrates the resilience, commitment and long-term impact it takes to build something that lasts. Those are the same values we stand for every day.”
The voice of business in the Tees region | 129