His appointment follows the departure of former product and services director Geoff King who has retired following the sale of the business to the Nycomm Group. Geoff joined Pennine in 1984 as a technician and following successive promotions joined the board in 2004.
Stephen worked closely with Geoff prior to the sale and will report to Andrew Roberts who, having led Pennine as managing director, now sits on the Nycomm board.
He joins the Bury-based business from the HE sector and brings a considerable level of technical management and leadership experience from the University of Manchester where he took management responsibility for the School of Electrical Engineering and Electronics’ £200m estate, including the development of its world class specialist teaching and research facilities.
More recently Stephen undertook the role of head of technical services at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he spent nearly six years and was responsible for 200 staff across 35 different technical teams. Stephen influenced the strategic development of technical services as well as expanding the skill bases of employees under his management.
A Fellow of the Institute of Science and Technology, Stephen brings over 26 years’ experience in technology, IT and technical services to Pennine. This has seen him develop substantial expertise in the development of technical service and engineering staff supporting technical and communication resources as they meet the fast changing need of customers.
Commenting on his appointment Stephen said: “I am very much looking forward to working with managers and engineers to further develop Pennine’s technical support capability. Through the knowledge and experience I bring, I aim to make a significant contribution to the continued success of a fast growing business.”