Beaumont Landscapes

Sophie Lineton, managing director

An ambitious business leader is smashing the glass ceiling of the grounds maintenance industry after being appointed to lead a growing firm.

Sophie Lineton has taken over the role of managing director of Newton Aycliffe-based Beaumont Landscapes.

Sophie has worked as an account manager for Beaumont over the last seven years and earlier this year was appointed operations director.

But she has taken over the top job from her brother, Alex Lineton, after the business saw a 30% sales increase in the last year.

“I’m excited to take on the responsibility and proud to continue building the family business,” said Darlington-born Sophie, who lives in Aycliffe.

“I’ve had a good solid foundation within the business over the last seven years and I feel I’m ready to take the business on to the next level.

“We’ve enjoyed growth in the last year and I’m ambitious to grow it even further over the next 12 months and coming years.”

Beaumont now has a growing list of 160 contracted sites across the whole of the North-East, Yorkshire and Cumbria regions. Beaumont also looks after about 70% of the land across the huge Aycliffe Business Park, with its client list including Gestamp Tallent, Stiller Warehousing and Distribution, Ebac, Finley Structures, the Xcel Centre, Vine Property Management, Roman, Raisco and II-VI Incorporated (formerly Compound Photonics).

Surgo Construction

Michael Parkin, senior quantity surveyor

Surgo Construction (Surgo), one of the region’s leading building contractors, has strengthened its team with the recent appointment of a senior quantity surveyor.

Michael Parkin’s experience spans sectors including education retail, healthcare, heritage, residential and hospitality sectors all of which mirror the contractors core business.

Settling into his new role, Michael is currently working on major multi-million pound education projects at Middlesbrough College; namely a design and build contract to extend the college’s STEM Centre at imminently due for completion – and the T Levels Digital Centre, a new build 1600m 2 three-storey facility, which is now under construction at the college’s Middlesbrough Campus.

Commenting on his new role, he said: “I am delighted to join the team at Surgo. They have a long-standing history in the region of delivering key projects across many sectors. I have some really interesting schemes to work on and there are some exciting projects in the pipeline, which I am looking forward to being part of.”

Speaking about this latest appointment with adds further depth and strength to its highly experienced team, Surgo’s commercial director, Dave Blyth, said:

“We are delighted to have Michael join the team at Surgo. He brings many years’ experience and new perspectives to project delivery gained while working at an international level.  I am confident that he will make a positive contribution to the business and enjoy a long career with the company.

Northern Spire Limited

Matthew Allmond, financial advisor, and Tom Harvey, marketing executive

Financial services specialist, Northern Spire Limited, has announced two new appointments, Matthew Allmond as financial advisor and Tom Harvey as marketing executive.

Matthew, 29, qualified as a financial advisor in April 2019 and brings with him a wealth of knowledge, having previously worked as an occupational pension analyst and paraplanner, gaining extensive insight into the technical side of financial planning. He will focus on servicing the company’s growing client base.

Tom, 22, who has a background in business and finance, has been brought in to develop marketing leads and co-ordinate events. With the support of Northern Spire, he is also training to become a financial advisor and is currently undertaking his diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. 

Northern Spire, which has offices at Defender Court, Sunderland, and provides a wide range of financial services for clients throughout the North East, that are looking to build, grow, protect or preserve wealth, is a senior partner practice of St James’s Place Wealth Management.