Celebration time for top IT business
April
FAST-growing Teesside data security firm Onyx was awarded the coveted North East Company of the Year award for 2009 at the nebusiness awards.
The Middlesbrough firm won the title in front of around 800 executives at Hardwick Hall near Sedgefield, in the climax of the awards organised by the Journal and Evening Gazette in association with Business Link.
Onyx edged ahead of runners-up Wessington Cryogenics of Houghton- le-Spring – who won the Durham and Wearside Company of the Year nomination, and Tyneside and Northumberland Company of the Year Specials Laboratory of Prudhoe.
PUBLIC transport giant Arriva is taken over by the German firm which runs the Tyne and Wear Metro in a £1.59bn deal. Deutsche Bahn said it will be creating further jobs in the region as it looks to grow the business into a European transport giant.
Chief executive Dr Rüdiger Grube said he was placing his “hopes in Sunderland and its existing management team”.
THE new chief executive of Northumbrian Water vowed to deliver an improved service to customers when she set out her vision for the business.
Heidi Mottram, who took over from John Cuthbert, became the first woman to take charge of one of Britain’s major water companies.
She said: “We are all striving to take our customer service from something that is really good to something that really pleases people.”
CONCERNS were raised over the future of the Alcan plant in Lynemouth, Northumberland, after a ruling from the European Court of Justice ordered the site to cut emissions from its coal-fired power station after a six-year legal battle.
Later in the year plant owner Rio Tinto revealed it would spend millions of pounds to meet the European pollution guidelines by purchasing sulphur dioxide (SO²) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) credits. Ian Lavery, MP for Wansbeck, welcomed the move, saying: “This is good news for the workers and the community.”
IT was all change at the top of van hire business Northgate after chief executive Steve Smith retired ahead of schedule. Mr Smith’s departure comes after company founder Alan Noble and Phil Moorhouse, UK managing director, stepped down.
SAGE boss Paul Walker announced he was stepping down from his role as chief executive of the software giant.
Walker had spent 16 years in the hot-seat of Sage, having joined three years after it was founded by David Goldman and Graham Wylie to provide accountancy software for the business market. Walker is credited with driving the firm’s international growth. Long-standing Sage executive Guy Berruyer took over in October.
