Meet David Grey, our new Group Delivery Director

The Shore Group has appointed David Grey as Group Delivery Director, bringing nearly 15 years at CBRE and a career that began on the tools to a business growing fast enough to need exactly that kind of experience.

David's route into construction leadership is not the conventional one. He started out with a JIB apprenticeship, qualifying as an electrician before spending time with the British Army's Royal Engineers and working his way through site roles on projects including the Millennium Dome and the Heathrow Rail Link. From there he moved into contracting and project management, eventually joining what was then Norland Managed Services (later CBRE) as a Divisional Projects Director, a role in which he led teams delivering major projects for clients including the Houses of Parliament, Wembley Stadium, the Royal Academy of Arts, and Lufthansa's airside lounge at Heathrow.

In the years since, David rejoined CBRE Managed Services as Divisional Projects Director, growing his division from a £30m to an £80m cost centre and leading six Heads of Projects and a team of 40 project managers across six business units. Along the way, he's picked up a Level 7 postgraduate qualification in Construction Management, along with training in negotiation, mediation and conflict resolution, on top of the technical and safety credentials built up over a 30-year career in the industry.

"It's a privilege to be joining The Shore Group at this stage in its journey," says David. "I've known Lewis for close to 20 years, and what's drawn me here is the ambition of the business and the quality of the people already in it. My focus is straightforward: enhance the commercial and technical discipline that helps a growing business scale without losing what makes it good, and do that alongside a team I already have a huge amount of respect for."

David's new role gives him commercial and technical oversight across the Group's project portfolio, spanning construction, retail, property, data centres and aviation. It's a broad remit, but one he's approaching with a clear set of priorities: strengthening delivery across the existing team, and using his own network and relationships built over three decades in the sector to open doors with both existing clients and new ones.

"David brings something you don't often get the chance to hire for," says Lewis Yorke-Johnson, Co-Founder of The Shore Group. "He's sat at director level for years, but he's also stood on a roof running cable. That combination of technical grounding and commercial leadership is exactly what we need as we move into bigger, more complex projects. His arrival is a real statement of intent about where this business is heading."

James Hobden adds,

"What impressed us most was how David talks about his team before he talks about himself. That's rare, and it tells you everything about the kind of leader he is. We're building something with real depth here, and David's experience across such a wide range of sectors and project types strengthens that considerably."

One area David is particularly keen to build on is The Shore Group's social values programme, especially its work supporting apprenticeships and youth employment. Having started his own career through a JIB apprenticeship, he's seen first-hand what a structured route into a technical trade can do for someone's future.

"Apprenticeships gave me my start, and everything since has built on that foundation," David explains. "The Group has already put real work into its social values programme, and I want to help develop it further, creating more pathways into technical careers and making sure the next generation coming through has the same opportunities I had, if not better ones."

With a track record spanning some of the country's most high-profile buildings and institutions, and a personal story that runs from apprentice electrician to Group Delivery Director, David Grey brings both credibility and energy to The Shore Group's next phase of growth. We're looking forward to seeing what he and the wider team build together.