Powering the future

www.turntide.com
LinkedIn: Turntide Technologies

Words by Colin Young
Photography by Andrew Lowe

 

Steve Hornyak doesn’t have an office, a desk or a comfy chair, certainly not on his travels to Turntide Technologies’ headquarters in the North East.

Instead, when the president and chief executive flies in from California for his monthly visits to Turntide’s Gateshead base, he does everything on foot.

And when Steve and his Stateside-based executives paid a visit to the bright blue buildings of Turntide’s headquarters, on Team Valley Trading Estate, he was prepared for nearly a week on the move across the company’s three North East bases.

He says: “I’m not a sit-at-a-desk guy – I prefer to do the rounds and spend time with people.

“I’m out with them, in conference rooms and meetings, or with customers; I’m basically on foot the whole time.

“We’re consolidating production facilities at three solid places here for efficiency and effectiveness, to keep our costs down and be more competitive.

“And it’s good to get people in because a lot on my team haven’t seen or been here before, so to see them face-to-face with the team is awesome.

“It’s good for me to see it.

“That’s my management style; I’m a very open, collaborative and transparent leader.

“I’m a leader, not a manager; management sits behind desks and barks orders at people – leaders get out and get work done.

“And that’s what I’ve always done.”

Steve visits Turntide’s Team Valley base regularly, keeping a close eye on the company’s progress and innovations.

And since buying three of the region’s enterprises, geared up for the demands of vehicle electrification, there has been plenty of that.

Originating from the US, with some big-name backers, Turntide has invested more than £100 million in the region after completing deals for a trio of companies in Sunderland, Gateshead and Cramlington, which are each helping transform the transport industry with advances in decarbonisation technology.

Turntide has brought together – under one considerable North East roof – battery pack maker Hyperdrive Innovation; BorgWarner, which comes with decades of experience in designing vehicle power electronics; and Avid Technology, known for designing power electronics and motors for vehicles, robots and other machinery.

To some, the North East may seem an unusual choice to base a multi-million-pound business geared to meet the demands of the electrification and hybridisation of every strand of transport.

But it wasn’t for Turntide. Or Steve.

He says: “The acquisition took place before I joined.

“I’ve only been on board for ten months, but I know what they were looking at.

“They found this little axial flux company that had fantastic technology, with more of a robust system acquired from BorgWarner, and then they had a battery company, all within a short distance of each other.

“Bringing together a concentration of similar companies in a geographic region that could create a platform made natural sense.

“You’ve got a strong engineering base in this region, and labour costs are reasonable – I won’t use the word cheap, but they’re reasonable relative to the US, London or some other markets – and it’s a good geographic location.

“And we can ship anywhere; we’re taking this product globally.”

Steve joined Turntide as president and chief executive from electric commercial vehicle producer BrightDrop, a General Motors subsidiary, where he led a team which created the fastest-ever product to market for the business.

After founding his first start-up at 27, which he took to the stock market, he’s enjoyed a stellar career in technology as an executive in seven companies, raising more than £7 billion from public and private investors and leading two successful public market launches.

He knows innovation when he sees it, particularly in energy-efficient technologies, and established a strong network of investors and partners, including Amazon, the Bill Gates- backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Robert Downey Jr’s Footprint Coalition, which all recognised the company’s commitment to low-carbon transition and sustainability.

The jewel in Turntide’s crown is the axial flux motor, a high torque density motor the company says offers revolutionary performance and sustainability in a wide variety of e-motor applications.

“Having been a senior executive at General Motors, I know the market trends,” says New Jersey-born Steve.

He adds: “I saw it as a huge opportunity to come into Turntide and create what should – or could be – the number one, two or three player in this space globally.

“Right now, we’re considered one of the top three vendors in the axial flux motor space, which is still a small market, but we’re optimising, designing and manufacturing a product for mass production.

“And we’re doing it in the North East.”

Visits to Turntide’s technical centre give Steve and his team the opportunity to see that innovative work in action, and how the axial flux motor is being adapted and readied for mass production.

Two men sit at a large white table in a confined glass-fronted laboratory, picking at the complex wiring attached to a motor.

It is painstakingly intricate work.

It is also the reason, says Steve, why Turntide made the North East home.

He says: “Everything will be based off some derivative version or augmentation of what they’re doing today.

“With the axial flux motors, we’ll wind up building different variations of it – next generation, smaller, bigger, faster, stronger.

“But that market is huge enough, and we’re staying focused on that.

“It’ll do very good for us.

“Power electronics, low voltage, high voltage – you’ve got a tonne of different variations on those products.

“I call it the brains, the blender and the batteries; those are the three things we do.

“I saw this as a tremendous challenge to get the company super-focused, to re-package and re- position it, and get very aggressive from a sales and marketing perspective.

“And I’ve been blessed that I’ve had people follow me, work for me, from two to five different companies, who’ve joined me here because they know how to build businesses with me.”

The Turntide entourage also attended Newcastle United’s home win over Brentford earlier this year.

It was Steve’s first game at St James’ Park, but certainly not his introduction to the beautiful game.

The 50-year-old grew up playing ‘soccer’ in Princeton, New Jersey, among the strong Scottish immigrant community, eventually playing as a tough-tackling defender for Virginia Tech in the US leagues.

He was also a member of the US’ junior Olympics team, which toured Europe twice in the late 1970s – an introduction to football (as he knows it) and travel – which continues to take him across the world as president of Turntide.

He says: “I stayed in people’s homes and we played the local teams in their stadiums, showered and changed in their locker rooms, had meals with them afterwards, exchanged flags – we did all that.

“The first time, we got absolutely pummelled because we were 13, and there wasn’t as much contact allowed in the American way of playing; we were a little more, ‘foul, blow whistle, foul, blow whistle, foul, blow whistle – and no high kicks.

“We came over here and we were saying, ‘they’re fouling us’, and the ref would say, ‘no, no, not over here; that’s legal, get on with it’.

“The second time we came over, two years later, it was probably 70 or 80 per cent of the same squad.

“We knew what we were in for, and we did incredibly well.

“We lost the majority of matches the first time, but second time around we won the majority of our games.

“I love the game, I always have.

“At my high school, more people would come and watch soccer games than the football games, and I played all the time.

“I miss it.

“But when my mind knew what to do, and my body failed my mind, I told my wife, ‘it’s time to hang up my boots’.”