We are celebrating the first anniversary of our Southampton office with the appointment of a new office lead.
Ollie Chun has been promoted to lead our 18-strong team on the south coast as we look to continue our growth and double our turnover in 2025, after achieving our targets last year.
Ollie joined Beard in 2016 as pre-construction manager, based in Beard’s Guildford office. He was instrumental in establishing the Southampton office, initially splitting his time between the two regions.
Ollie Chun, Southampton Office Lead
Ollie successfully completed Beard’s internal leadership development programme in 2024, designed to equip colleagues with the skills to be successful leaders and enabling the firm to promote from within.
Mike Hedges, Company Operations Director
Around half of the Southampton team were existing employees, redeployed to the area to share their expertise and establish the Beard culture within the new office. A further eight new colleagues were recruited last year across office and site-based roles.
“We’re got a great balance of highly experienced colleagues who are ambassadors for how we do things at Beard, and new recruits with wide-ranging construction and operational experience, as well as sound local knowledge,” Ollie added.
The Southampton office had previously been led by director Pat Hughes, who left the firm at the end of 2024 after five years with the business. He first led Beard’s Guildford office, before taking the helm in Southampton.
One of the office’s flagship projects has been the restoration of the historic Hilsea Lido for Portsmouth City Council. Due to open later this year in time for its 90th anniversary, Beard is modernising and restoring facilities at the Lido, including installing new pipework, stabilising the pool structure, and building new modular changing facilities.
The office is also hosting a placement student as part of the company’s commitment to supporting the next generation into the industry. Mitch Burton, who is studying Quantity Surveying student at Oxford Brookes University, has been offered a full-time role within the team upon completion of his studies.
The Southampton team is keen to expand its regional supply chain and we invite businesses to express their interest in working with Beard here. Beard is proud to be in the first cohort recognised with the Fair Payment Code Bronze level, honouring fair payment practices with suppliers.
