Tom Yorke brought in a major contract for his employer worth around £750,000 per year for five years.

He joined Newcastle-under-Lyme based building services company Ford Mainwaring during the pandemic after being made redundant by his previous employer.

Now he has been singled out for his “exceptional talent, dedication, and commitment to growth in the mechanical and electrical sector” and nominated in the Young Business Person of the Year category of the Staffordshire University Business Awards by his boss.

Dan Bailey, Business Leader at Ford Mainwaring, said: ‘I have known Tom for over 10 years and worked with him when he was first getting started in the industry as an apprentice. It’s a credit to his hard work and enthusiasm to learn new skills that he has reached a key management position.

“He has a great ability to work with people in such a way to encourage and get the best out of their abilities as well as develop the teams’ skills.”

He said Tom made an immediate impact at Ford Mainwaring by securing a contract covering National Highways key buildings and outstations across the UK.

This meant that Tom needed to create a new team around him to deliver the contract including a full-time position created at the business HQ along with four full-time mobile engineering positions created across the country to support the delivery of the project.

Fast forward to 2023 and Tom has strengthened his team with the appointment of a contracts manager to support the National Highways contract and assist Tom with moving away from the day-to-day operations of the contract to look at other opportunities.

Most recently Tom has been involved with bidding for an MOJ national maintenance contract which is for three years and supports full time roles for more than 15 members of staff. The contract has now been awarded to Ford Mainwaring.

Tom will have an account manager position across the MOJ and National Highways teams where he will have more than 20 staff in his team.