Serving the Teesside Business Community | 19
New recruit: Flanked by Applied Integration directors Lee Raywood (left)
and Garry Lofthouse, Dr Ali Almohammad is joining the firm as senior
engineer after impressing whilst working on a KTP project.
Contract wins boost
recruitment drive
A
Garry Lofthouse.
Jamie Marsay.
Lee Raywood.
pplied Integration has recruited
five new members of staff on the
back of two major contract wins
as the Stokesley firm looks to further
enhance its position as a UK leader in
automation and control systems.
Among the new recruits is new
senior engineer Dr Ali Almohammad,
who has spent the last two years as an
associate of the firm whilst working on
a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP)
with Teesside University.
Dr Almohammad worked closely
with Applied Integration staff and
academics within the university’s School
of Computing to radically redesign the
firm’s in-house project development
framework.
The project has developed software to
streamline Applied Integration’s in-house
processes, which could potentially save
his new employers and their customers
substantial time and money, giving
the systems integrator a competitive
advantage in a challenging market.
“Ali has had the best interview ever,”
said director Lee Raywood. “He has
impressed us all over the last two years.
“He has the capabilities and skill set
to push the business forward through
new software developments whilst
expanding on his KTP work.
“Over the past two years, Ali
has helped to create a product that
gives us a massive advantage over
competitors, and we’re expecting it to
make a dramatic difference as we move
forwards.
“We’ve carried out successful trials
and we’re continuing to develop the
software but it has already helped
to bring about a mind-change within
Applied Integration, refocusing some of
our business methods.
“Part of Ali’s new remit will be to
make the software he has developed
more flexible, so that we can expand
it into other areas of the business and
potentially market it externally too.”
Also joining the Applied Integration
team is former Middlesbrough College
lecturer Lindsey Williams, who
graduated from Teesside University
with first class hons in instrumentation
control.
The firm has also recruited Saeid
Gharibi as senior engineer, Richard
Willingham as a technical sales expert
and Martin Wadlow as a panel wireman.
Director Garry Lofthouse said: “We’re
recruiting after a couple of large contract
wins that have increased the stability of
the business in a market that’s become
increasingly buoyant over the past 12
months.
“Both Martin and Richard became
available following the demise of Cordell,
so we quickly took up the opportunity to
recruit two people of the quality rarely
available.”