Celebrating staff retention and staff achievements is something that here at MVIS we are incredibly proud to be able to do. All of our team hold an integral part in maintaining our high standards and services, and being the leading VMS provider UK wide, we believe that it is our team that make us stand out from the rest within the industry.

In 2019 we decided to take on a new member of the Operations department to help our then Assistant Operations Manager, Dom Bridge, with his increased workload as our fleet grew to over 500 units and new builds were being developed in our Matlock HQ  in order to ensure that we were able to keep our market leading title, across the whole of the UK.

Mizzy came to us in August 2019 for an interview and it was decided that she was going to be a perfect addition to the team. With experience in customer relations and fast learning attributes, she was able to build and develop relationships with new and existing customers. Her confidence and charismatic personality has seen Mizzy being complimented and praised by customers and her team alike and which has made her a valued member our incredible work force.

We would like to say a big thankyou to Mizzy for the hard work that she has put into developing herself into her role over the last two years. We couldn’t hope for a better team here at MVIS, the commitment and dedication to each department is never over looked.

Back in February this year, we celebrated the 21^st birthday of one of our team members, Tillie Woolliscroft. This month marks 5 years since Tillie has been with MVIS and we thought there was no better opportunity to review her progress since turning 21!

In February, we shone a spotlight on Tillie’s professional progress her time with us. Since then, she has gone on to achieve even more, not just for the company, but also for her own development.

Tillie began working at MVIS as an apprentice back in 2016 aged only 16, working under the supervision of Dom Bridge as a Customer Service and Operations apprentice.

During this time, Tillie also took on the role of bringing our more creative campaigns to life, particularly those around Christmas time. It was her affinity for these creative tasks that gave then General Manager, now Commercial and Operations Director at MVIS, Anne Ashman the idea to transition Tillie into a role that made more use of these skills. Whilst Tillie’s customer service skills were impeccable, it was understood that her professional development would be better channeled in a role that brought her artistic flair to the surface in a more ‘hands-on’ way.

As a result, it was decided in late 2019 that Tillie would transition into the newly formed Marketing department as Marketing Assistant, working under the guidance and training of Marketing Manager, Sean Brown.

Tillie’s professional development has taken a high priority internally in order to better utilise the obvious creative talent she has. This has involved approaching her development in several different ways, including CDP academic training, personal study and on the job experience.

Since February, Tillie has taken her development to the next level, by enrolling onto a Digital Marketing Level 3 Apprenticeship course as well as progressing along the Adobe training program she started earlier in the year.

Through her consistent commitment to her work, Tillie has developed an entirely new skills set that makes the most out of her talents in a way that her previous role only facilitated in a limited capacity.

Working in a marketing role has allowed Tillie to expand her knowledge and experience of marketing disciplines such as web design, SEO, social media and even copy writing, making her a versatile member of staff and a skilled marketer.

Sean comments, “It is so rewarding seeing Tillie develop. Even since February I have seen a huge improvement on her already fantastic grounding in her skills. The more time goes on, the more proficient Tillie becomes. I’m excited to seeing what the future holds as she develops her skills further.”

Anne Ashman adds, “In the 5 years Tillie has worked with us, I have seen her grow from a timid youngster into a strong and independent woman who has achieved so much. We are all so proud to have Tillie as part of the MVIS family.”

Everyone at MVIS congratulates Tillie on this amazing milestone as we look forward to the next one!

In the 9 years MVIS have been serving the UK’s messaging needs, we have grown as a company, expanding our team to better accommodate demand for our products and services. The MVIS management team are no exception and has seen new team members join the ranks in recent years.

Long standing management team members also continue to train and upskill, understanding that as the business and economy changes, so too should employees so everyone can continue to uphold standards of safety and quality in every area of the business.

In this post, we take a look at the MVIS management team and what they bring to the company at a time when it is at its biggest.

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Anne Ashman – UK Group Commercial and Operations Director

Anne Ashman has been with the company since it started as Colour Mobile VMS back in 2011. Originally starting with us as Office Manager, Anne has climbed in the ranks over the years to her current position of UK Group Commercial and Operations Director, overseeing both UK companies and the teams within them as well as serving as a member of the executive management team, representing the UK companies and their staff to the owners of the group companies.

As the central nexus for the MVIS and Bartco UK machines, Anne’s quick thinking and problem-solving skills are a valuable asset for the companies as a whole and her leadership skills have always been an asset when it comes to leading her team and especially stepping up as a leader during the pandemic.

Throughout Anne’s time with MVIS and Bartco UK, she has been responsible for writing and implementing the strategies, policies and procedures, along with recruiting all the staff in the teams that have led the companies to such success over the years. Anne’s dedication to ‘best practise’ also oversees the quality the team delivers to our customers, with her ‘pet hate’ being bad service, Anne often pulls the team up if she feels we are not giving the best service we can as a company.

Anne also places a huge priority on the physical and mental safety of her teams, resulting in a very focused approach to training and qualifications. If our teams are not trained properly, it can cost lives – and not just their lives.

If the incorrect information, for example, is displayed on one of our traffic signs, or if the information is presented in a way that is not compliant with legal frameworks, it could result in a highly dangerous outcome for our team and the wider public.

Anne takes these potential consequences very seriously and understands that this responsibility can’t be matched with a ‘catch all’ or lazy approach to training.

By supporting the development of staff in the way that we do, Anne also offers them a level of job satisfaction that keeps employees with the companies long term and creates consistency for the benefit of customers, stakeholders and the staff themselves.

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Graeme Lee – Sales Director

Graeme Lee started back in 2012 after the Olympics project when the company had a minimal customer database.

Since then, Graeme has worked hard to ensure the company’s growth. Being a major player in getting MVIS and Bartco UK to where it is now, he has recently been promoted to Sales Director in recognition of his work. As Sales Director, Graeme is required to manage the new sales team, ensuring that they are working to their best and the company is utilising each person’s skillset.

During his time with the company, Graeme has attended trade shows and built strong relationships through customer visits and contact. He has single-handedly built a large customer database and made traction with all the major tier 1 contracts, which clearly shows in our Major Projects Timeline.

Graeme is not only well liked and trusted within the company, but also within the industry. He brings with him a wealth of knowledge of over 15+ years of working within the rental and sales highways and TM industry.

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Dom Bridge – Operations Manager

Dom Bridge started with MVIS in 2013 as an admin apprentice and over the years has completed several courses, including his CMI Level 5 Diploma in Management and Leadership.

Having been involved in as much delivery planning for events, major projects, high speed works and TM has equipped Dom with a solid knowledge of how the organisation works and how things are supposed to be done.

Dom’s reliability, attention to detail, organisation skills and unshakeable attitude really does make him exceptional in the role of Operations Manager.

Nothing is too much trouble for him, and he will always find a solution for our customer’s enquiries. His peers all speak highly of him and he really is Anne’s right-hand person, working with her on the ISO systems since they were achieved and making sure all staff work to the processes in place.

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Mark Ashbee – London Depot Manager

 

Mark Ashbee joined us in 2015 and has since used his hard-working attributes in helping lead our southern depot to success by enforcing his strong work ethic within his team and always offering a hand, no matter how large the task.

Mark’s main job roles include; delivering, servicing and collecting our portable VMS units along with helping on sales innovation depot visits. Over the past 6 years we have been often credited for Mark’s polite and attentive attitude towards our customers and other staff members.

Mark’s attitude and eagerness in the field is what comes to mind when thinking about MVIS growth and expansion. He embodies the MVIS ethos in his work and there is no one more fitting than Mark for the role of London Depot Manager. Ensuring the smooth running of a depot is a big task but Mark has never failed to keep MVIS rising above our competitors.

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Sean Brown – Marketing Manager

Sean Brown started with the group back in late 2019 to help build the companies’ in-house marketing department after years of agency management.

Since starting, Sean has taken on a wide range of responsibilities and implemented new systems, policies and upgrades relevant to our marketing and sales departments. Sean is also responsible for the development of the marketing team to ensure that we have strong marketing skills in-house.

With over 8 years marketing management experience and specialising in marketing infrastructure, he has a spectrum of skills useful to the company that previously weren’t honed in-house, allowing MVIS and Bartco UK to be more creative, responsive and dynamic than ever.

Sean has also taken a leading role in our Lead Generation operations over the past year. As demand for our products and services changed during the pandemic, Sean was on-hand to not only produce the material for new products, but also re-brand existing products with relevant selling points and benefits to better accommodate the new applications for our technology.

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Tom Hooton – Research and Development Manager

Joining Bartco UK in 2014, Tom Hooton has both grown within the company and helped the company grow, being instrumental in ground-breaking changes to our ITS solutions that have helped to drive the company forward. Whether it’s developing new products and solutions or find ways to improve our existing units with our warehouse team, we know that Tom is there to pass on his knowledge and experience to all departments, having time and patience for his co-workers.

Beginning his journey with us as Delivery and Maintenance Support, Tom has continuously developed within his role over the past 7 years, most recently taking on a Level 5 Apprenticeship in Management to accompany his role as Research and Development Manager, which he was promoted to from Technical Supervisor earlier in the year.

His initiative, determination and ability to think outside of the box has seen Tom develop his knowledge in using CAD software and with this has developed new, bespoke solutions. Tom also holds on-site cards such as his CSCS and Highways England Passport and he has a hands-on approach when it comes to understanding all of our units.

Being with us for 7 years shows Tom’s dedication to his role here with us. Monitoring the industry for the newest innovations, gaps in the market and other opportunities, he ensures that he is aware of the latest technologies so that we can stay cutting edge, competitive and of course, helpful to our customers. 

Over the past few months, our UK Group Commercial and Operations Director, Anne Ashman has been hard at work training for a 75 mile walk with the National Forest which will be completed over 3 days including camping in order to raise awareness and funds for three charities close to her heart. These charities are:

National Arboretum Memorial Company

DMRC Benevolent Fund

National Forest Company

Raising money for charity isn’t something new to Anne. In 2017 she and our newly appointed Research and Development Manager, Tom Hooton took part in running 100 miles for Sands, a charity dedicated to supporting those affected by stillbirth and neonatal death and together raised over £5000 for this incredible charity.

Since then, Anne has organised multiple ways in both giving back to the community as well as fundraising for local charities within MVIS such as a carboot that we were able to raise over £300 and are currently holding a 4 week company `bake off` all for Ashgate hospice care.

Anne has written on her fundraising page “To finish at the Arboretum will be amazing. Being brought up having had a grandad who fought in WW2 and the sacrifices that were made to give us the freedom we have, also the freedom I have discovered this last year out walking in the beautiful scenery makes me want to give something to the 3 charities”.

Understanding the importance of mental health and how fitness can have a huge impact on our mental and physical wellbeing, here at MVIS and Bartco UK we encourage a healthy lifestyle and have activities in place to try and get each of the team involved in taking advantage of the opportunities that we offer. In 2019 we entered our staff in a Corporate Sports Day local to our Matlock HQ and have since held activities such as our monthly litter pick and sponsored works for charities. As well as physical activity, we provide our team with fruit, this fruit is free to all of our staff and we encourage them to take advantage. With Anne taking part in this challenge she has inspired the team to increase their own fitness goals and work towards leading healthier lifestyles.

Anne`s dedication towards her charity work has seen her maintaining a strict schedule of continuous training, even when she went on a two-week vacation she was taking long trails each morning to maintain her fitness and motivation.

If you would like to donate towards Anne`s challenge and support these 3 charities, then please follow the link below. Good Luck Anne and bring on the next challenge!

https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AnneAshman1/2