Member News

Business Development Director Announced and Portfolio Group Revealed

Global manpower provider, Samuel Knight International has announced the appointment of Phillip Fleetham as business development director.

Phillip, joins with over 20 years’ experience in the energy sector and will head up the newly created Global Projects division, which will support the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of onshore and offshore windfarms.

Established eight years ago, Samuel Knight International has grown to a multi-million-pound business and this year saw the creation of Samuel Knight International Group, consisting of Samuel Knight Rail, Samuel Knight Energy and two new service solutions to support the renewable energy sector – Samuel Knight GreenTech and Samuel Knight Projects.

Headquartered in Newcastle, the Group has grown to include offices throughout the UK in London, Wales and Bristol. Samuel Knight also has teams based across the US in Chicago and Dallas, with a satellite office in Boston. Clients include Enel Green Power, American multinational conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway and American natural gas and electric power holding company, Duke Energy.

The two service solutions – GreenTech and Projects - will support the renewable energy sector and share its collective vision to help build a greener and more environmentally friendly world by working with its global community to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Steven Rawlingson, CEO and founder, said: “It has taken eight years to perfect the formula to create Samuel Knight International Group and build on our momentum. During this time, we have helped clients to secure the best possible talent for their renewable energy and rail projects, providing both contract and permanent staffing solutions into the renewable energy and sustainable transportation sectors throughout the UK, USA, Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions.

“We can now announce that Samuel Knight Projects, will offer a full project management solution working with the global community to help build, construct, install and maintain supporting developers, utilities and OEMs. This will be led by Phillip Fleetham, whose arrival is a real coup for the business as he is armed with tremendous experience to take this service offering forward.

“Samuel Knight GreenTech will work with clean tech companies to assist them to have a positive impact on sustainability and climate change through innovative technology. We will help them to recruit the best talent to drive the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

“What we now offer our global community is an integrated solution one that can meet their broad range of needs. It comes at a time when the renewable energy sector is booming and if we look close to home, we can see at first hand the growth attributed to this as we provide project management solutions for Dogger Bank Wind Farm.

“Samuel Knight Projects and Samuel Knight GreenTech are an exciting offering to the market and from a project perspective our unique selling point is that we are ‘powered by people’.

“We are very proud of our North East heritage, and whilst having grown to be a global player, the North East will always remain our headquarters. As we move through the year, we will be making new hires into the Newcastle team and, with our new solutions, we predict 100% growth.”

Phillip Fleetham, business development director at Samuel Knight Projects, said: “I have watched the growth of Samuel Knight in recent years and have been impressed with its strong reputation. I have known Steve for a number of years and was initially approached to work within the company some time ago, but like everything in life, timing is key. Now, felt the right time to step in and help drive forward Samuel Knight Projects.

“We have seen a real interest in our project solutions business model and believe the timing is right to develop and strengthen this offering. I want to leave a legacy and really help develop and grow the business. We want to see organic, steady growth with the ambition to be known as one of the leading service providers to the renewables market.”

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