Northbridge Industrial Services plc (LON:NBI), the industrial services and rental company, has announced the retirement of Eric Hook, CEO and founder of Northbridge, who will step down from the Board on 31 March 2021. He will continue as a strategic advisor to the Board and his expertise will be called upon as required. He plans to remain a significant shareholder in the Company.
The Board would like to express their gratitude to Eric for his fifteen years of exemplary service and wishes him well in his retirement.
Following Eric’s retirement, Peter Harris, Chairman, will become Executive Chairman and the executive directors of both the Northbridge divisions will report directly into him, (Chris Caldwell for Crestchic, and Ian Gardner for Tasman), as will Iwan Phillips, Finance Director.
It is intended that, subject to completing the requisite regulatory checks, Chris Caldwell, Managing Director of the Crestchic division, will be promoted to the Board from the same date. A further announcement will be made in due course. Chris has managed the Crestchic business since 2013 carefully overseeing its considerable growth during that time, and he has been attending Board meetings for the last three years.
Stephen Yapp, non-executive director, who joined the board in July 2020, becomes Senior Independent Director immediately, a newly created role to provide a counterbalance to the role of Executive Chairman.
Also stepping down from the Board is Ash Mehta, non-executive director and Chair of the Audit Committee. He will leave the Board following completion of the 2020 audit once the Annual Report is approved at the Annual General Meeting in May. Ash has been a director of the Company for fourteen years, in several capacities, and the Board is immensely grateful for his contribution to the success of the Group. Judith Aldersey-Williams, who joined the Board and the Audit Committee in January 2019 and already has responsibility for Corporate Social Responsibility and Risk Governance, will take up the role of Chair of the Audit Committee.
Commenting on these changes, Eric Hook, Chief Executive of Northbridge, said:
” Since establishing Northbridge in 2005 and steering it through its IPO in March 2006, we have been through some good and turbulent times, including weathering the current pandemic well. As I come to retire, I believe we have established a solid and secure foundation for future growth, and we have a good team that can take the business forward.”
Peter Harris, Chairman of Northbridge Industrial Services, said:
“On behalf of the Board and all at Northbridge I would like to wholeheartedly thank Eric who, as the founder of the Company, is principally responsible for creating the global business that we have today. As we emerge from the pandemic, we are in good shape to exploit the opportunities arising both from growing markets, such as data centres and renewable energy and from the expected general rebound in business activity around the world.”
