Durham and Wearside Business Executive of the Year
Sponsored by Knight Frank
David Harker – chief executive of Durham County Cricket Club
AFTER a career as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, David Harker joined Durham County Cricket Club in 1991 as financial controller, portentously the year the club gained first class status.
He was appointed chief executive in 2000 and since then overseen the club become a limited company and spearheaded its commercial development. On the pitch Durham has been county champion twice, has won four trophies since 2007, and provides stars for England.
Its picturesque ground in Chester-le-Street now hosts major international games and will be an Ashes Test venue from 2013.
Mr Harker, 47, recognises sports success costs money, but also benefits local businesses, education, health and social wellbeing.
The club is North East sport’s outstanding success story. It is first new first-class county for 70 years, providing the first new Test venue for over 100 years, and, with the most successful academy in cricket, is widely recognised as the most progressive among English counties.
Its stadium is also to see a £45m development by 2011 which will raise ground capacity to 20,000 and see the creation of a spectacular new gateway building and a 149-room Hilton hotel open on the site.
RUNNERS UP
Dr Arnab Basu, chief executive, Kromek, Sedgefield
Dr Arnab Basu has been chief executive of Kromek since 2003. The business pioneers digital colour imaging for x-rays, with advanced 3D imaging which has a wide range of uses, including looking into passengers’ luggage at airports to find out if they are carrying explosives.
The company, formerly Durham Scientific Crystals, is a Durham University spinout which, in 2005, outgrew its incubator and became the first tenant of NETpark science park in Sedgefield.
Its x-ray and gamma ray detectors are used for medical imaging, industrial inspections, space exploration, military applications and security screening.
Dr Basu has led the company to considerable growth and won a series of investments from venture capitalists. It expects to manufacture scanners locally, adding 70 more jobs to the current 30.
He graduated from Calcutta University and started his career working in his father’s metals firm in India. He gained a first class honours in engineering and a PhD in physics from Northumbria and Durham universities, as well as an overseas scholarship and other awards.
For some time he worked on the commercial development of Elmwood Sensors at North Shields. Dr Basu, 36, has written more than 25 technical papers and 10 patents. He lives in Durham with his wife and son.
Paul Rowe, managing director, Wessington Cryogenics, Houghton-le-Spring
Wessington Cryogenics, a family business started in 1984, is respected internationally for the quality and reliability of its cryogenic storage vessels.
These vessels are used in the offshore energy industry, bio-medical science and research sectors, as well as the armed forces. Major clients have included Nasa, which commissioned an LNG storage tank for engine testing a space shuttle.
Wessington products have also been to the top of Mount Everest and down to the South Pole. Mr Rowe, besides winning key orders for the firm, has steered it successfully through a difficult period at one point when a high pound hit the firm’s competitiveness.
But, he says: “We took a long hard look at what we do. We adopted lean manufacturing techniques, pushed harder and made a terrific comeback.” Among other things, it has almost doubled the workforce to 92 and doubled its monthly production of liquid nitrogen tanks.
Recently the firm invested £100,000 to gain further manufacturing space. Wessington Cryogenics prides itself in an ability to meet customers’ special needs. Mr Rowe, 43, lives in Newbottle.
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