SOBEN has announced the appointment of former global COO of Turner & Townsend, Tom Harrison, as its new strategic advisor.
Mr Harrison spent 43 years at Turner & Townsend after joining them when the business was made up of just 100 people. He saw the firm transform from a regional quantity surveying practice in the north east of England to a global business with 5,000 employees.
In his role as strategic advisor at Soben, Mr Harrison will work closely with the firm’s executive team to help accelerate its global expansion. Soben said that his expertise in scaling international professional services businesses will be ‘instrumental’ in driving its continued growth ambitions.
In the last year, Soben has grown to 250 people worldwide, adding capability in Singapore and Australia to existing operations in North and South America, Europe and Africa. With its ‘unique’ combination of traditional quantity surveying and hands-on commercial experience, the Scottish consultancy said it is on a course to reach 1,000 staff by 2028.
Scott Smyth, Soben founder and CEO, said, “I am a great believer in surrounding myself with people who have experience and skills that I can learn from. Tom is a titan in the industry and played a key role in the success of T&T. We are honoured to have him supporting our journey, working closely with our exec team to help accelerate our growth.”
Mr Harrison added, “I am very happy to be joining Soben as a strategic advisor. I am always interested in watching the progress of ambitious companies and am delighted to share my experience and work with Soben to support and sustain its expansion plans and maintain its own unique style of delivery.”
