“I enjoy seeing people develop and creating opportunities for them to grow.  I get a real buzz from seeing people come into the business, with the right attitude and work ethic, taking advantage of opportunities, and working their way up.”

– Bea Shorrock

Who is Beatriz Shorrock?

Beatriz Shorrock is CEO here at Marlowe SRC.  Working closely with the MDs across our three lead brands: William Martin, Elogs and Barbour EHS to drive innovation and change across our unique compliance ecosystem. She was also one of the lead industry experts behind Prosure360, our unique SSIP platform, built from scratch by the in-house team at SRC.

Driven by a passion for health & safety and a desire for affecting change, Beatriz has become our fearless and inspirational leader. At SRC, we know and love her as Bea.

Most of us working in health & safety have a story about how we ended up in the industry, but none are quite as unique as Bea’s.

Bea’s early life: How it all began

Those who work in health & safety often get into the industry through the course of their career, but not Bea—she got involved much earlier on. Our CEO’s health & safety journey started from a very young age, sparking an enthusiasm which still shines through in Bea’s work today.

With Spanish parents who had emigrated to the UK, Bea became interested in health & safety from as young as 13 years old whilst working at her family catering business. Given that her parents didn’t speak English as a first language, Bea would often help them manage and fill out health & safety documentation and risk assessments, supporting with the regular visits from the local Environmental Health & Safety authority.

When she reached age 16, she decided to take on some work experience with the local environmental health team at Rushcliffe council. As Bea built up her experience, she went on to undertake a degree at Leeds Beckett University and managed to secure a placement at Nestlé where she gained insight into food manufacturing and internal health & safety. The more Bea got involved in this work, the more she started to enjoy it—and so her health & safety journey began.

“Growing up in a Spanish family catering business, I started working early. Self-taught, I developed a passion for health & safety, pursued a degree, and eventually gained 20 years of experience in advisory, managerial roles across diverse sectors.”

From University, to leading in the H&S consultancy market

Graduating in 2000, Bea was ready for her first official job in health & safety. So, after applying for a few different positions, Bea landed a role at a small, family-run business in Huddersfield called SM&MS (Safety Management & Monitoring Services).

“At the time, we were massively the underdogs, and it was so much fun going out and disrupting the industry; it was amazing being able to win over clients and perform better than our competitors who had been going for 20 years.”

This was the turning point that changed everything for Bea. Although it was a modest organisation at the time, with annual revenue of about £300,000, it wouldn’t be long until Bea helped it take off. Over 10 years, Bea worked her way up the ladder with the support of her mentor, Victoria Waddle, who is now Consultancy Director at William Martin.

“Vic Waddle took me under her wing, showed me the ropes and really helped me learn on the job—and it’s amazing that we’re still working together today, over 18 years later!”

After doing a bit of everything, Bea eventually became the Operations Director and shareholder at SM&MS, helping to take the company from a £300,000 revenue and five employees, to over £6m revenue with over 100 employees.

“The benefits of working in a small business is going on an incredible growth journey, allowing you to do a bit of everything; for me, that was invaluable, as I was able to do consulting, operational work, sales, customer management, accounting and more. And eventually, I worked my way up to heading the business operations.”

Becoming a catalyst for change: The journey to Marlowe

So, how did Bea end up CEO of Marlowe SRC? And how was SRC formed?

After working at SM&MS for over a decade, the company started to move into software development, creating compliance management systems and contractor accreditation platforms. It was an exciting time of innovation and evolution where anything seemed possible.

Shortly thereafter, SM&MS was acquired by Alcumus where Bea remained Operations Director for a further three years. By this point, Bea had built up a wealth of experience and knowledge around the integration of teams and systems, and she decided it was time for a change.

After a short career break, Bea took up an opportunity to work at William Martin. Originally this role was to support the company’s owner in preparing the business for sale; and sure enough, it wasn’t long before it was sold to Marlowe plc.

As soon as Bea met with Alex Dacre, the CEO of Marlowe PLC, she was thrilled at the prospect of being able to bring positive change to the industry with the support and investment of Marlowe. Bea stepped into the role of Managing Director at William Martin, a role which she thrived in for over three years.

“What attracted me to Marlowe was its unique business model and structure. We can enjoy all the benefits of having a strong investment firm behind us, which gives us the ability to innovate, develop new products, and make things happen—while, at the same time, maintaining autonomy.”

However, it wasn’t long before SRC emerged as its own division…

A new era of health, safety, risk and compliance: SRC is born

A few years after William Martin became part of Marlowe plc, Elogs and Barbour EHS were also brought into the fold.

Bea felt that William Martin should broaden their services, and Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) seemed like a perfect opportunity for integration. There were a lot of crossovers between William Martin and Elogs, which shared many of their customers; so, it made sense to bring both brands under the same division in 2020.

“You know you’ve done an integration really successfully when you can’t remember who came from what business.”

In 2021, Barbour EHS was also acquired, providing the vital information services to tie all three brands together. Having used the Barbour platform at university and then every organisation she moved into, Bea understood the importance of their services in creating a single source of truth for health & safety legal information and updates.

Each of these brands were given Managing Directors including Phil Jones for William Martin, Rob Mead for Elogs, and Teresa Higgins for Barbour EHS. Finally, Marlowe SRC was born.

“We decided that we needed a home to combine these three powerhouses, making us stronger together. We wanted to maintain the legacy and autonomy of our existing brands, but we also wanted a family to house this ecosystem and share our senior expertise. So, that’s how SRC was born.”

A people-driven culture: Understanding our core values

At SRC, people are at the heart of everything we do, and this is reflected in Bea’s approach to finding the right people.

“For me, the key to success in any business is its people – great people working together deliver great outcomes, culture and results.”

Our CEO believes in giving everyone a chance, no matter what experience they have or background they come from.

“We’ve hired many graduates and school leavers who are unsure of what to do with their life and given them a chance. I love breaking the norms because I think there are many organisations out there that wouldn’t employ someone without a degree. But, for me, it’s more about the right personality and attitude.”

Bea is driven by honesty and integrity which are both part of our core values here at Marlowe.

“I believe we’ve got to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason. I’ve walked away from significant projects and opportunities in the past because I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. It’s hugely important to practice what you preach and live by your values. That’s what we do here at SRC.”

The future of SRC: Bea’s take

Building our team and developing our talent is certainly a key aspect of our future, as well as developing our software and technological capabilities.

“On the people side, we want to continue developing our internal talent and creating real opportunities for career growth. On the technology front, we’re in the process of seeing our original vision come to life. Though most of our clients are focused on one or two systems at the moment, in the background we’ve been building our dream ecosystem of fully integrated products that can make our clients lives a whole lot easier and help them, and us succeed.”

As this all progresses, SRC will also be on the move. In February, Marlowe plc sold our brands to Inflexion, a leading private equity firm. Inflexion’s backing will help us continue to grow and develop the software platforms in our unique compliance ecosystem.

Visit our brands: William Martin, Elogs and Barbour EHS.

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