Stephen Dunne was born in Dublin, Ireland and is the middle child with an older brother and younger sister. Despite his initial desire to become a carpenter, he found it difficult to secure an apprenticeship due to the recession in Ireland after finishing school. As a result, he pursued a college course in sports and fitness while playing professional football and working part time in construction. Upon completing his course, he decided to emigrate to Australia, where he secured a job with a waterproofing contractor named SPC Superseal Protective Coatings in Sydney.
SPC is a specialist waterproofing contractor that works on roofs and other areas such as car parks, tunnels, and bathrooms. He worked with them for four years before moving to another waterproofing contractor called Spanos Waterproofing for an additional four years. During this time, he worked on several large commercial roofing projects, including the Amazon Data centre, Victoria Cross metro station, Central Station, Randwick Childrens Hospital and Sydney University and many other major Projects all over Australia. He also completed a college course in Construction Management and Project Management. This qualification led to him managing projects and a team of 20 roofers for Spanos towards the end of his time in Sydney.
After a year of working in Australia, Stephen met his partner, Sarah. When their son Riley was born, they decided to start making plans to return to the UK. They now reside in South Yorkshire, closer to their families.
He applied for a job with Flex-R, and now he provides support to our contractor customers in the North of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Stephen’s role includes running regular contractor training courses on both the ClassicBond and RubberBond products out of the company’s Huddersfield facility. He also conducts on-site surveys for upcoming projects, after-sales visits, and technical support for the sales team helping with enquiries and at many of their trade events, where he demonstrates product installations.
He may only be five months into the role, but he feels settled in and said of his role:
“Flex-R is a very personable business. It’s a team where everyone is eager to help and understands the importance of building long-term customer relationships. I’m impressed by the products as well. Roofing contractors are transitioning to cold-applied solutions, possibly to reduce their risk and due to the increasing cost of insurance for businesses using hot roof applications. Flex-R provides training in-house and on-site, and contractors don’t need any specialist tools.”
