New VEKA boss on why he is moving to Burnley to take charge at one of the town's biggest employers

Neil Evans will officially take up the role as managing director in December, following in the footsteps of Dave Jones who recently announced his retirement after 26 years at the business.

Despite vowing to never leave his home city of Newcastle after moving back there several years ago, Neil was so impressed by VEKA’s dedication to Burnley, he decided to make the move to be closer.

“Prior to VEKA, I’ve worked in Glasgow for what is now Aviva and in Fife for Velux. When I moved back to Newcastle, I stared at the Tyne Bridge and told myself I wouldn’t leave my home city again,” he said.

“I was headhunted for the sales director role at VEKA UK. I’d never been to Burnley before, but when I met Dave, I was hugely impressed by both him, the organisation and their passion for Burnley. Within an hour, I had a sense of how proud they are of Burnley and how important the town is to them and it has since become as important to me.

Neil brings with him a wealth of experience. He worked at Aviva for around 15 years and admits it was a shock to the system when they outsourced their contact centre, which he managed, to India, resulting in his role being made redundant.

However, he took the opportunity to change industries from insurance, and moved to Velux, where he joined as operations director. After three years, he was asked to become sales director, a role he was first unsure about.

“When you’ve done a particular role for so long, you can think you know it all. Becoming sales director made me get out of my comfort zone and ask lots of questions and I learnt a lot.”

He enjoyed his time at Velux, particularly as it is family owned with strong values. Corporate culture is important to Neil and he said one of his plans is to build on the already strong culture at VEKA.

“At VEKA our customers see us as trustworthy, reliable and a safe pair of hands. We will increase our focus on our customers – at the end of the day, they are our ultimate stakeholder. We all get benefit from true long-term partnerships."

Neil is excited to work and support a town that has a well-recognised community spirit and a growing university status.

He’s already worked with Burnley FC in the Community for some time, after deciding he wanted to give his time, and not just company sponsorship.

He also looks forward to experiencing Burnley Bondholders (of which VEKA is a long-standing member) and everything it entails.

“It’s exciting that there are plans for 4,000 university students by 2025. At VEKA, we have technical engineering capabilities, so it’s reassuring that we will have a graduate talent pool we can draw upon.”