• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

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Growth on the Cards for Parkdean Resorts as Lynn Shearing Joins

CHARTERED accountant Lynn Shearing is Parkdean Resorts’ most recent appointment, who joins as Mergers & Acquisitions Director following 18 years with a Big Four firm.

Having spent her career to date with professional services giant PwC, Lynn has taken up the newly-created role based at the holiday park company’s Newcastle office.

On graduating from Leeds University with a First Class degree in Accounting and Finance BA (Hons) in 1999, Lynn sat her ICAEW exams with PwC, winning both regional and national prizes in the process. Once qualified Lynn moved straight into the deals business, based specifically within the corporate finance team in Newcastle for almost 15 years.

In 2016, Parkdean Resorts was acquired by Canadian private equity fund Onex Corporation in a £1.35bn deal, which saw Lynn relocate to the Gosforth office on secondment to manage the project internally – and her permanent move came this autumn.

Alongside Parkdean Resorts CEO John Waterworth, CFO Ian Bull and Onex, Lynn will oversee all future mergers and acquisitions.

Originally from Sunderland, Lynn said: “I’m looking forward to working closely with John, Ian and the team from Onex to put our ambitious plans into action. Growth is high on our agenda so this is an incredibly exciting time to be joining the team. We would therefore be delighted to hear from anyone who thinks they have an acquisition opportunity which might be of interest to us.”

Employing over 7,000 people, Parkdean Resorts is the largest holiday park operator in the UK with over 70 parks stretching across the country. It was ranked 36th in the Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250 this year as one of Britain’s top private mid-market growth companies.

By Emily