Celebrating our colleagues at the 2024 Chairman’s Awards

Our wolf pack are the secret to our success – supporting, encouraging and backing each other to deliver the best for our customers. Our values of Better, Smarter, Pack guide everything we do.

Each year, we ask our team to nominate the colleagues who have gone above and beyond in their roles. This year’s ceremony, looking back on 2024 Chairman’s Awards nominations, showcased remarkable achievements across Universal Wolf and our sister company Tharsus, culminating in the prestigious overall Chairman’s Award.

What are the Chairman’s Awards about?

To celebrate excellence
We want to recognise those who go above and beyond in living our values.

To inspire others
Our ambition is to be the benchmark for quality complex sheet metal fabrication. To do that, we have to keep raising the bar. The nominations and awards are a great way to inspire other colleagues to do the same.

To strengthen our culture
We believe our culture of collaboration, trust, and ambition is the foundation of our success.

Vision

The ‘Vision’ category recognises the individuals who have contributed to setting a vision that helps to drive our business forward.

The winner of the Vision category was Jenny Humble from Tharsus, who masterminded and executed a very successful supplier day. Micky Innes of Universal Wolf was named runner-up for his innovative design solutions and customer engagement.

Mission

The ‘Mission’ category celebrates those who consistently do the right thing for colleagues, customers, or suppliers.

Steve Reay (Universal Wolf) was named as winner in this category for his crucial quality control intervention on a project, while Ryan Healy (Universal Wolf) was recognised as runner-up for his dedicated after-hours support, which helped keep a critical customer project on track.

Better

‘Better’, the first of our company values, highlights those who have stepped up and pushed for a better solution, raising the bar for us and our customers.

David Malecki (Tharsus) took home the top prize in this category for outstanding NPI management and customer onboarding. Gary Clough (Universal Wolf) was named as runner-up for his exceptional achievement in becoming a qualified Responsible Weld Coordinator in record time.

Smarter

Delivering ‘better’ means thinking smarter. This category acknowledges colleagues who have used out-of-the-box thinking to solve problems and create new solutions. In this category, Sophie Laidlaw (Tharsus) emerged victorious for crucial electrical testing work on Tharsus’ VersaTile system. Nicola Brotherick and Kelly Spilsbury (both of Tharsus) were named joint runners-up for their proactive quality management of a key customer project.

Pack

We work together as a pack, to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. The ‘Pack’ category applauds colleagues who have demonstrated exceptional teamwork, pulling teams and projects together.

This category recognised Ryan Illingworth (Universal Wolf) as the winner for his outstanding leadership on a key customer project. David Batey, Gerry Loobey, and Mark Nicolson from Tharsus were announced as joint runners-up for their collaborative problem-solving approach.

Special Recognition – Apprentices

We also welcomed four of our recent apprentices to the evening, to celebrate the completion of their apprenticeships.

Congratulations to:

Nathan Mould (Universal Wolf, Mechanical Engineering)

James Anderson (Universal Wolf, Engineering Technician)

Oscar Mann (Tharsus, Engineering Management)

and Evan Metcalf (Tharsus) who has also been shortlisted for ‘Apprentice of the Year’ at the Made in the North East Awards 2025.

Overall Chairman’s Award Winner 2024

 A Leader, Innovator, and Team Builder

The evening’s highest honour, the Chairman’s Award, was presented to Kelly Spilsbury, Tharsus Materials Manager. With over six years of service, Kelly has demonstrated exceptional capability and leadership, particularly in her strategic roles across material planning, store management, and strategic purchasing.

Thank you

A big thank you to our colleagues, Chairman’s Awards 2024 finalists and winners for your brilliant efforts!

Want to learn more about our pack? Read about who we are and what we do.