New commercial director joins Bristol-based renewable energy specialist Solarsense

Published by

Peter Davison

Steve Barrett and Ashley Wood copy

Renewable energy specialist Solarsense has appointed new commercial director Ashley Wood as it looks to double turnover and hold its own in a fast-growing market.

The appointment was made following the firm's move to employee ownership status.

Ashley Wood has moved to Solarsense from the UK office of the global engineering company Osborn.

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"We were looking for someone to join us on the path we've forged, in the EOT model we've created, and with the ambitions we share here," says MD Stephen Barrett, who founded the company nearly 30 years ago.

"Ashley recognised and embraced that. He has clearly always been hands on where he has worked and brings an enormous amount of expertise and financial insight to our table,” said Stephen.

“He knows as we do that making money matters - that it fuels positive growth - but also has bought into our plan to be a force for good while creating a sustainable, strong livelihood for our team."

Ashley added: "In the current climate it's easy to put the focus on the number at the bottom right-hand side of the spread sheet, but if that becomes the only focus businesses can end up serving investors or cutting costs and compromising what they set out to do.”

“When I first sat down with Stephen I knew this was a different model. It felt dead on target, combining corporate positivity with a clear plan for growth and a strong view on how everyone in the company can be a part of it.

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"And you can see from the get-go how everyone is engaged and rewarded for their input. And their results - best ever half year trading figures earlier this year - are stunning."

Wood says his priority is to ensure this ethically grounded EOT trust can hold its own in a fast-growing market. "All businesses have to know there are others who can do what they do, so our solution and offer has to be exemplary, and our service second to none.

"I am ambitious to double turnover, and to help Stephen nurture the depth of knowledge and skills he has on the team to make that happen."

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.