durhamlane appoints new CEO to drive growth

durhamlane announces Katy Sayburn as its new CEO, as the revenue acceleration specialists, based in Wallsend, prepare for a period of growth that should see the firm more than double in size and reach eight figure revenues over the next three years.

As one of the North East’s most recognised brands, durhamlane has built a high-profile portfolio of clients over the past 10 years, including Sage, Deloitte, PwC, Sodexo and Konica Minolta, to name but a few.

Co-Founders Lee Durham and Richard Lane move to new roles to develop key arms of the business and ensure that growth plans are realised by developing new services and maintaining durhamlane’s exceptional reputation for outsourced demand and lead generation.

Lee and Richard have no plans to step away from the business, as durhamlane reaches unprecedented levels of growth, having doubled in size over the last 12 months, Lee Durham moves to Chief Growth Officer and Richard Lane steps away from his CEO role to become Chief Commercial Officer, handing over business management to Katy and allowing themselves more time to focus on continued business growth and ensuing 100% client satisfaction.

Richard said: “Now that we have built a 100 strong team, we recognised it was time for a new phase in our growth plans. Lee and I are sales guys at heart. Nurturing customers, innovating and developing new business relationships is where we are most passionate and add the most value to the team and the business.

Lee added: “I am so proud of how far we have come and what we’ve achieved, but Katy is key to realising our growth ambitions. We need someone with deeper expertise in running a large organisation. We realise it is a bold move for two founders to appoint a new CEO without plans to step back but it is the right step for our business at this stage in our journey.”

Katy’s background in international travel and tourism companies including Thomas Cook and Monarch Travel Group demonstrate the success of her customer and people focused approach to management. At Monarch Katy was the first female on the board of directors in its 50 year history. As she herself enters a new phase of her career, Hexham-born Katy returns to the UK from Spain, where she was Managing Director of Hotel BH Mallorca.

Katy said: “What attracted me to durhamlane was its focus on people. Lee and Richard’s commitment to their team is shown in everything from the reputation of its graduate training programme to its home-grown senior management team. They have all been with the business a long time and show such enthusiasm and continued commitment and that adds so much to this already exciting role.

“I share their passion for people, it will be my key focus as CEO. My roles so far have taught me everything about people management as a driver of growth and client retention and proven that success comes only by looking after your people and providing the right platform for your team to grow and develop and put customers at the heart.

“Richard and Lee are now perfectly positioned to grow the sales side of the business and the three-year business strategy promises a great future. We work with amazing businesses and I’m looking forward to working with the team to continue to develop the business to meet the needs of our clients.”

The acceleration in demand for digital services is a key growth area for durhamlane. Lee said: “Digital marketing is at the centre of our future plans. We are prioritising our Account Based Marketing (ABM) approach and developing new methods that will allow us to continue to grow in that space.

“Over the next three years, we are looking to reach a turnover into eight figures and with Katy on board and the expertise she brings there is potential to go far beyond our biggest goals.”

Richard added: “We have always been a scale-up, meeting our 30 percent year-on-year growth targets over the last decade. We have a scalable business model and with remote working, we are able to continue to grow right across the UK, Europe and North America.

“We are changing and developing the integration of marketing and sales. The way we manage the blend of sales and marketing and how we bring those together to create qualified leads is what we have become famous for.”

Available roles in the North East will continue to expand, including data analysts, for the development of its technology enabled services, ABM specialists, and digital marketers, as well as customer delivery specialities.

With three ‘Best Companies’ accreditations in 2021, durhamlane was voted by its people as 56th Best Mid-Market Company to work within the whole of the UK and 9th in the ‘best media and marketing agencies’ to work for in the UK.

Current vacancies available can be found at https://durhamlane.com/about/careers/.