Former May Gurney FD joins Silverdell

THE FORMER FINANCE DIRECTOR of May Gurney is to join demolition and scaffolding specialist Silverdell as it attempts to recover from a difficult summer.

Mark Hazlewood will join the board as chief financial officer, replacing Ian Hazlewood who is stepping down after a turbulent few months in Silverdell. The company was forced to suspend share trading after one of its subsidiaries briefly entered administration earlier this year.

Shares were suspended in July after Zolfo Cooper administrators were called to its building services subsidiary Kitsons Environmental Europe. The business was subsequently bought back out of administration for £8m by another Silverdell subsidiary, Euro Dismantling Services (EDS).

Following the deal, which sees Kitsons operating as a separate division of EDS, Silvedell secured an extra £5m loan from HSBC to fund the acquisition and move the business closer to lifting the suspension of trading in its shares.

Hazlewood has a strong finance and business development track record, most recently at May Gurney Integrated Services which he joined in November 2011 as group development director, latterly becoming group FD, until that company’s acquisition by Kier Group in July 2013.

Having qualified with Coopers & Lybrand as a chartered accountant in 1996, Hazlewood joined South Staffordshire Group in 1997, becoming director of finance in 2000. He then joined Homeserve following its demerger from South Staffordshire Group, firstly as director of group business development and latterly as finance director.

Stuart Doughty, chairman, said:”Mark will bring a wealth of experience to the board at a time of transition and his appointment is a further step in ensuring that we have the right leadership team in place for the future.”