Arup appoints Chris Beck to direct Teeside growth
Chris Beck has been named as Arup’s new Teesside Growth and Industrial Decarbonisation Director. Beck will focus on supporting teams within Arup to scale their hydrogen expertise.
“I am excited by Arup’s ambitious business growth plan and look forward to continuing to work on Tees Valley and Humber clusters and seeing the firm’s thinking formulise into actual projects. My new role represents a great opportunity to progress further growth in Arup’s existing business in the Teesside region, as well as building a recognised centre of excellence for clean growth while supporting the development of our people in the North,” said Beck.
Chris joins Arup at a time the firm is rolling out significant opportunities in the energy sector, supporting the UK’s transition to a cleaner energy future and decarbonisation of the built environment. His new role comes with the principal focus of growing Arup’s presence within the region and taking the firms’ existing hydrogen service offerings into the market. The role will contribute directly to the delivery of Arup’s sustainable development aims and support the growth of its strategic businesses such as energy, cities, and property.
Hydrogen, when produced from clean electricity, is seen by many as a critical enabler of the global transition to sustainable energy and a vital component of achieving net-zero emissions economies. The global hydrogen generation market size was subsequently valued at $155.35 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 9.3% until 2030.
A critical part of the UK’s hydrogen sector will be the Tees Valley. One sign of this came in 2022, when the hydrogen hub was handed a £20 million competition fund, to encourage local businesses to push the boundaries of hydrogen, and create a cleaner and more efficient transport sector.
Beck joins Arup from Tees Valley Combined Authority, where he was Group Director for Clean Growth and Innovation. He led the Net Zero agenda covering the decarbonisation of the industrial cluster, supporting the use of hydrogen – including the new DfT hydrogen transport hub, as well as regional energy projects and the nature strategy. Beck also oversaw support for major inward investment projects, including offshore wind, chemicals, bio manufacturing and the new Treasury economic hub in Darlington.
Arup is currently working with tech companies to optimise energy networks using data led solutions to enable net zero cities as part of its role in decarbonising energy systems. This has seen Arup develop a long history of supporting projects in the development of hydrogen. Most recently, this saw the advisory firm undertake an engineering study to prepare UK East Coast Hydrogen for more than a decade of work.
