Stockport utilities contractor announces senior hires

Stockport based utilities contractor, OCU Group, has announced a series of recent hires to strengthen its senior leadership team.

The Group, which is behind O’Connor Utilities and Instalcom, has bolstered its top table to drive ongoing growth ambitions at the firm. The new hires follow the appointment of Michael Hughes as Group CEO after OCU Group’s acquisition by investment firm, Triton Partners, earlier this year.

The leadership appointments include:

• David Snowball joined in August as Chief Financial Officer.  In a 20-year career, David has previously held senior finance positions at EG Group and EMR along with roles at KPMG and Accenture
• Pinder Kang as Chief Strategy Officer. Pinder joins from energy giant SSE, where he was Director of Strategy and Business Development. He was also previously head of project development at Balfour Beatty
• Matthew Edwards has been appointed as Head of M&A. His role will include identifying and evaluating strategic acquisition targets to support OCU’s future growth. He was previously a Director at PwC in Manchester
• Mark Thornberry joins as Finance Director. Mark has previously held senior finance positions at high-profile businesses including EG Group, Matalan and financial services firm Together

Alongside these appointments, Clare-Louse Lipinski has joined the utilities contractor as Group Head of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality; Liam O’Sullivan has been appointed Power Operations Director at Instalcom.

Michael Hughes, Chief Executive Officer of OCU Group, said:

“It’s an exciting time to be at OCU Group and I’m really pleased with the quality of the senior appointments we’ve made. The partnership with Triton, along with the investment it provides, has given the business fresh impetus. This is reflected in our rapid growth and the complex and crucial projects we’re working on up and down the country.

“We now look ahead with great confidence. Our specialisms continue to be highly prized by our clients across multiple sectors, meaning OCU will be playing a key role on the projects that shape the UK economy for years to come.”

Stockport based OCU Group is a specialist contractor operating within regulated and non-regulated utilities and infrastructure markets, including in energy, rail, water and telecoms.