Tees Business Issue 47 | Page 24

INSPIRATEES

Bob Makin

( Behaviour Interactive) A former Tees Tech Ambassador, games guru Bob turned his hobby into a games development business that he built from scratch with friends. After several successful years, SockMonkey Studios was acquired by Canadian games giant, Behaviour Interactive – and Bob is now general manager of Behaviour Interactive’ s UK studios.

Katrina Morley OBE

( Tees Valley Education) Another top 30 debutant is Katrina Morley OBE who, as CEO of Tees Valley Education and education inequalities campaign group PLACE, has fought tirelessly to tackle poverty and disadvantages in our schools.

After being voted in the top 30 business leaders, she was keen to view it as a vote of support for the region’ s young people.

24 | Tees Business

She told Tees Business:“ It’ s really kind of my fellow Teessiders to recognise that our children and young people are the whole future of every one of our businesses. Their employees’ children and young people are a part of the ecosystem that makes Teesside so special.

“ Being forged out of steel literally means that we can pay it forward, generation by generation. We’ re looking at a legacy, building into what we’ re doing, and not just today. And they are our legacy – they are the shining future we’ re looking at, and they are the young people who will continue Teesside’ s transformation.

“ So, I think recognising the impact of the whole longitudinal journey of education, irrespective of age, is wonderful.”

Accepting her certificate, Katrina told the InspiraTees audience how tackling issues such as sleep deprivation among young people remained in everyone’ s interest – and particularly the business community.

She said:“ They are your next employees – they are the next business owners who are going to be sitting here.

“ They’ re the people who are going to transform our region with all the digital work you’ re talking about, and net zero.

“ They are the people who will take the beacon forward but unless we can help them access the pathway of opportunity, we’ re not going to continue to transform and grow.”

And when it comes to leadership, she observed:“ Part of leadership is standing up visibly for what you know you can make a difference to.

“ It’ s not necessarily what’ s always comfortable or what others want to hear, but when you know who or what you serve, serving is really easy and you become their voice, their agent, their advocacy.

“ And unless we can join together to create pathways of opportunity for more young people, we’ re never going to continue to grow.”

Charlie Nettle

( AV Dawson) After beginning his career in marketing and communications, Charlie joined Port of Middlesbrough owner and operator, AV Dawson, in 2015 to develop its marketing function before expanding into commercial leadership. Appointed group managing director in 2023, Charlie now leads the group ' s long-term strategy, succession planning and continued development as one of the North-East ' s leading logistics businesses

Karl Pemberton

( Active Chartered Financial Planners) A former chair of the North-East( south) branch of the Institute of Directors and MD of Active Chartered Financial Planners, Karl – who joined Active in 2007 – has been a leading voice of business in our region for many years. He’ s also a keen advocate for local community groups such as The Teesside Charity.

INSPIRATHREES

Kris Marsay( Sovereign Supply Chain Services)

INSPIRATHREES

Terry Blanchard( Augean)