Business founders stepping down from their roles

THE founders of two well-known North East leading businesses are starting the new year by looking to new horizons after it was announced they would be stepping down from their roles.

- COREENA FORD Business writer [e-mail]

Lee Hartley, deputy chair of wealth management company Fairstone Group, and Sarat Pediredla, CEO at Newcastle tech business hedgehog lab, have both left the firms they founded, having both spent almost two decades building their respective companies.

Mr Hartley has left Fairstone after stepping down from his role of deputy chair, a role he moved to last year from the CEO position when he was succeeded by new chief executive Steven Cooper.

Chairman David Hickey said: “I have known and worked with Lee for almost a decade. He is the most impressive business founder I have ever worked with, and the scale and continuing success of Fairstone is a lasting tribute to his abilities as a businessman and leader.

“I have no doubt his new business in the venture capital sector will be equally successful in the years to come. In the meantime, and on behalf of all Fairstone stakeholders, I would like to thank him for his enormous contribution to making Fairstone one of the largest and most trusted wealth managers in the UK and Ireland, and I wish him every success in the future.”