About Us ›› Parkol Marine Engineering

Meet the Directors

Jim Morrison

Managing Director

Jim started his working life as a coded welder in the offshore oil and gas industry, so moving into shipbuilding was a natural progression. Jim first joined Parkol as a director in 1986 and, in the early days, his skills perfectly complemented the engineering expertise of late co-founder John Oliver. He now oversees the day-to-day running of the business alongside our other directors, but you are just as likely to spot him assembling steel kits and organising the yard as he believes in taking a hands-on approach to leadership.

James Morrison

Fabrication Manager and Director

James, too, has learned his trade working alongside his father – and company MD – Jim. He joined Parkol straight from school in 1991, serving a five-year apprenticeship in welding, fabrication and metallurgy. He obtained first class honours at college while learning his skills on the job building vessels, and has since gone on take responsibility for planning and project managing jobs, and quality oversight.

Andrew Oliver

Engineering Manager & Director

Andrew is late Parkol founder John Oliver’s son and continues his engineering expertise within the business. He is responsible for overseeing all of our engineering activities, having first joined as an apprentice engineer in 1998 – completing a five-year specialist marine engineering training programme which included six months at the well-regarded South Tyneside Marine College. Andrew became a director in 2011.

Andrew is proud of Parkol’s leading industry reputation, and relishes the opportunity his role brings for him to continually trial new ideas.

Sally Atkinson

Commercial Director

Sally is a Chartered Civil Engineer and spent the first 22 years of her career working on major infrastructure projects, mainly in the water industry, and most recently as a Principal Engineer at an international consultancy firm.

In 2013, she decided to swap building roads, sea defences and oil and gas platforms in the UK and overseas – and consulting on issues from coastal erosion and flood defences to waste water management – for manufacturing boats, and joined her father Jim and brother James as a Director of Parkol.

Ian Paton

Technical Director

Ian has been producing designs for the marine industry since he graduated from Strathclyde University in 1982 with a degree in Naval Architecture. His previous career experience has included a stint designing and building nuclear submarines for the MOD, among other things, and he has built up an enviable reputation within the marine industry, having worked for a variety of its leading names.
Ian became a director of Parkol in 2010, having worked with our company since 1996, and in addition to his role as Director of SC McAllister & Company Ltd Naval Architects. Ian is in his element at Parkol, as fishing boats are his passion. “I love being able to design a whole boat from a skipper’s initial vision and my passion for this industry has remained with me since graduating from university,” he said.

Meet the Team

Gary Fields

Finance Manager

Ambitious finance professional with a proven track record of improving processes through automation, Gary joined Parkol in May 2024. He qualified as an accountant in 2012 and was awarded fellowship status by ACCA in 2017. Gary’s previous work experience includes various sectors such as building materials, motor trade and legal, more recently in oil & gas as a Financial Controller, managing teams locally and globally.

As the Finance Manager at Parkol Gary is responsible for overseeing the financial operations and strategies to support the organisation’s long-term projects.

Tricia Willis

Procurement & Project Manager

Tricia joined Parkol in October 2018 as a Buyer after working for many years at Boulby Mine. She was looking for a new challenge and found our relatively small but very busy business refreshing and well worthy of her skills and experience.

Tricia is a member of the procurement profession (CIPS) with her main objective being to ensure that our clients get the best possible value for money.

Tricia’s excellent skills helped us to win our first public tender in 2023 and allowed her to take on further responsibilities, resulting in Tricia’s new role as Procurement & Project Manager.

Ben Hogarth

Electrical Manager

Whitby born and bred Ben, who now lives in Robin Hood’s Bay, began working life as an electrical apprentice for a local contractor when he left school at 16, and soon qualified as a fully-fledged electrician. He joined Parkol in 2013 as an electrician and has worked his way up to become a Foreman and, from 2024 – Electrical Manager.

Carly Willis

PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR

Carly Willis started her career as an apprentice in Business & Administration within the Purchasing department at Boulby Mine, soon progressing to a Buyer. After 4.5 years at Boulby, Carly took a career break to start her family. For the last 2 years Carly worked in Procurement, Logistics & Stores department of an offshore renewables company where she organised many projects, of equipment and tooling, for works around the world, from The Netherlands to Taiwan.

We welcomed Carly in Parkol in May 2025, she will be working on our new projects as a Project Co-ordinator.

John Hall

Storekeeper (Whitby)

Before joining Parkol in November 2021, John worked for another family run Whitby business – Wilf Noble’s Building Supplies as a kitchen designer / counter sales operator. At Parkol John looks after our Whitby site, keeping Stores in order, dealing with deliveries and staff requests, monitoring stock levels and ordering materials.

Olga Straw

Office Administrator

Originally from Murmansk – the home of a large seaport in northwest Russia, Olga always felt at home in a busy port environment. Following a career in the legal sector, Olga moved to the UK and started again, mostly working in hospitality in Whitby and Scarborough area. Olga’s passion for administrative and HR work, and her experience as an administrator brought her to Parkol and she joined our team as an Office Administrator in June 2020. Olga helps Sally with projects paperwork and arrangements, administrates payroll and focuses her work on HR matters as well as general office duties.

Mark Gilpin

Chargehand Painter

Mark came to Parkol after 21,5 years at Winster Hose. Starting as a painter and labourer, by 2020 Mark progressed to Chargehand of Painting Team. His duties include ordering paint for both repair work and new builds and overseeing the painting of the boats. Mark also does around 80% of signwriting on new builds and vessels in for repairs / maintenance.

Stacy Fleming

Project Co-ordinator

Stacy joined Parkol after 11 years at Boulby Mine working as a Buyer, then moving into the Planning Department. Wanting a new challenge, Stacy was given the opportunity of Project Co-ordinator at Parkol. She is based in our new Middlesbrough office.

Matthew Trousdale

Fabrication Chargehand

Whitby born and bred, Matthew was self-employed for years as a local joiner, plasterer, painter & decorator. Starting with a part-time job as a painter at Parkol in 2014, Matthew quickly progressed to more complex fabrication work and is now overseeing operations on our Whitby yard. He is also a hog roast expert!

Alisha Dent

Purchasing Assistant

Alisha joined our expanding Purchasing and Stores Department in September 2023 straight after school. She completed on-the-job training at Parkol and has been working closely with our Storekeepers and suppliers, supporting the busy Department.

Geoff Dryden

Health & Safety Co-ordinator

Having retired from a 22-years long career in the army in 2009, and after working as a coach driver for a while, Geoff joined Parkol in 2018 as a Storeman. His experience of working in accounting and also in stores and equipment in the forces helped Geoff with his role, which then transformed into his current role looking after Health & Safety and equipment on our both sites.

Stefie Kosa

Accounts Assistant

Stefie moved to England in 2013, following her training in Romania and Virginia, USA in economics and business administration in the hospitality industry. She worked for several years in the hospitality sector and was helping Parkol with communication between the Company and our Romanian workers before joining Parkol in August 2021 as an Office Administrator. While helping Parkol’s Accounts department, Stefie has discovered her passion for numbers and recently started her apprenticeship as an Assistant Accountant.

Stefan Cirlig

Joinery Chargehand

Stefan joined Parkol in 2018 as an experienced marine joiner / carpenter and made many skippers very happy with the quality of joinery finish on their new vessels since. From May 2022 Stefan has been leading a team of joiners on our Whitby site.

Mihaela Cirjan

Office Administrator

Mihaela joined Parkol in January 2024 as part of the office team. Former ICT Teacher from Romania, she moved to the UK in 2015 and worked in hospitality and food manufacturing as a HR / Training Administrator.

Andrew Miller

Fabrication Chargehand

Andrew completed his apprenticeship at Cleveland Structural Engineering. He started working at Parkol as a Fabricator in early 2000s and has been helping James managing Middlesbrough site for the last few years.

Amy Cone

Purchase Ledger Clerk

Amy joined Parkol in August 2025 as a Purchase Ledger Clerk, bringing with her over a decade of reception and administration experience from the Raven Hall Hotel in Ravenscar. Amy had a short stint within the care industry providing administration and reception duties at Saint Cecilia’s Nursing Home but after 12+ years in a customer-facing role, she was ready for a fresh challenge and has found the move into our busy Accounts department both rewarding and well-suited to her skills. Highly organised with a keen eye for detail, Amy plays an important role in ensuring the smooth running of the purchase ledger function and supporting the wider finance team.

Samuel Hutchinson

Welding Chargehand

Samuel began his career at Parkol as an apprentice in 2014 and over the next few years he completed his apprenticeship and became a qualified welder. By 2019 Samuel progressed to the role of Welding Chargehand. Alongside general welding his other duties include weld inspection, maintaining and repairing welding equipment and advising the other welders which areas of the boat should be welded and the correct method of doing so.

Terry Wood

Storekeeper

Warehouse supervisor with 20+ years of experience, Terry joined Parkol in 2023. He completed Modern Apprentice in Logistics covering Warehousing, Transport & Distribution. Terry looks after Middlesbrough Stores, his duties including stock control and inspection of all parts, materials and consumables; controlling incoming and outgoing logistics and deliveries; off-loading deliveries using a forklift; quality control of all parts and consumables to ensure that the highest standard of products are maintained etc.

About

Established 50 Years Ago

Parkol Marine Engineering

"We’ve come a long way since we built our first new boat"

71