Meet The Team

Harinder Dhaliwal

Managing Director

Harinder Dhaliwal

Managing Director

Founder of First Step Group Harinder ‘Harry’ is a property person through and through, he has over 25 years’ experience in the industry.

Under his leadership the company has built up a track record of delivering successful, high quality developments in the North West and West Midlands. He is passionate about making places and only delivering developments that he would be happy to live in himself.

Harry draws inspiration from his travels and has a keen eye for detail, which is reflected in the company’s ethos. In his free time Harry enjoys walking, playing table tennis, visiting great restaurants, and exploring the latest design trends and exhibitions. Harry is a self-confessed design junkie and can often be found getting excited over the tiniest of design details!


Garath Smith

Development Director

Garath Smith

Development Director

Gareth oversees the legal and planning matters for all our schemes and plays a key role in developing relationships with our joint venture partners in both the public and private sector. He makes sure our projects deliver the best value without compromising on quality.

A Lancashire lad, outside of the office, Gareth has a keen enthusiasm for motor sport, rugby and enjoys cooking to relax.

A great team player, with an upbeat approach to life and work, he likes to introduce new buzz words into the team most weeks – his most successful one so far is “Demonstrable.”

Ryan Booth

Financial Director

Ryan Booth

Financial Director

Ryan prides himself on being first into work every day. A qualified chartered accountant, Ryan has worked in property and construction for over 15 years with some major companies, before becoming a key part of the Step Places team.

Ryan is a keen runner and keep fit fanatic. He enjoys a round of golf with a single digit handicap and got his first hole in one at the age of 13.

Being a big family man, he has indoctrinated his son to support into his boyhood club, Oldham Athletic FC.

Matt Guirdham

Project Director

Matt Guirdham

Project Director

Matt gained over ten years experience working with tier one main contractors before jumping over to the developer side and joining us at Step Places. Matt brings with him his first class honours degree in Chartered Surveying as well as a pair of steady hands to ensure quality is delivered across all our schemes, and they are delivered on time and to budget.

Outside of work he enjoys walking Buddy (his Boston Terrier), cycling and DIY. In his spare time, he is a keen clay pigeon shooter (where the steady hand comes into practice) and enjoys travelling.

Buddy

Health and Wellbeing Officer

Buddy

Health and Wellbeing Officer

Meet Buddy! 🐾

Our part time project manager but full-time health & wellbeing officer in the office.

He is a great addition to the Step Places team as he brings incredible experience, skills and of course snacks…

In his spare time he enjoys long walks on the beach, socialising with pups and most importantly sleeping

Steve Lythgoe

Senior Project Manager

Steve Lythgoe

Senior Project Manager

A degree in Civil Engineering was the starting point for a thirty-year career in Tier 1 main contracting operating across all sectors. Supporting Matt in the delivery Team, Steve brings a wealth of technical knowledge, experience, and a passion for ensuring successful project delivery to the highest quality.

When not working on the seemingly endless DIY jobs on his Victorian family home, Steve loves to escape to walk his dog Jasper on the hills and valleys around Ramsbottom and attends live music events whenever possible.

Elliott Walker

Sales Director

Elliott Walker

Sales Director

Elliott worked as an estate agent in London 20 years ago.

He led successful sales, lettings and property management teams before moving to the North West to head up New Build Sales, for an internationally renowned real estate agency. Having overseen thousands of property sales and completions in Manchester and the surrounding areas, Elliott joined Step Places as Sales Director.

Once a keen traveller and sports enthusiast, these days his greatest pleasures are spending time with his wife and children, walking the dogs in the countryside or creating havoc in the kitchen…partial to a nice restaurant too. His biggest challenge lies ahead, keeping his young Mancunian sons as Arsenal fans.

Paul Holt

Health & Property Advisor

Paul Holt

Health & Property Advisor

Paul joins the team having spent the majority of his career in the NHS, the last 12 years as Director of Estates and Facilities in both Acute and Mental Health Hospitals. Bolton born and bred; Paul serves his penance as a Bolton Wanderers season ticket holder.  To escape the trials and tribulations of football, you will find Paul on the moors above Bolton and the Lake District with family and friends or accompanied by Messrs Jagger, Plant and Lemmy through his avid listening of rock music.

Megan Price

Marketing Lead

Megan Price

Marketing Lead

Megan joined Step Places as Business Administrator. Working alongside Harry Dhaliwal and Ryan Booth, Megan has a background of accounting and economics, and is currently working on her business qualifications. Her future aspirations are to diversify her skills around the business and work herself to a managerial level role within a fast paced environment, while participating in plenty of exciting projects to keep her enthusiasm ongoing.

Megan loves listening to music especially on nights out with the girls. She enjoys working out and spending quality time with family, when not checking social media.

Ryan Hoolihan

Finance Controller

Ryan Hoolihan

Finance Controller

Ryan has a degree in accounting and finance. He has worked in the industry for over 12 years and decided to be part of a growing business. He combines his experience and level-headedness to bring an all-round offer to the accounts team.

With a passion for travel, F1 and all things Manchester United, Ryan is also a keen gardener and enjoys running in his spare time.

Steve Burke

Construction Director

Steve Burke

Construction Director

Steve Burke has over 40 years experience in the construction industry, 30 of them as a managing director at a multinational tier-one contractor with £60m turnover.

Since joining the Step Places team, Steve has brought added dimension to the team and is adding value in many key areas. He directs our team of highly experienced construction professionals, and meets and satisfies the most stringent requirements of any project.

Steve operates across our business on carefully planned strategic objectives. He has achieved ISO9001, ISO14001, OHSAS 18001 Investors in People Accredited Status. Steve is also Construction Line and CHAS accredited for major schemes.

Darya Koyvon

Finance Administrator

Darya Koyvon

Finance Administrator

Darya works alongside Ryan Booth and Ryan Hoolihan.  She likes diversity and trying new thing, so once she graduated from Accounting and Finance, she went to do a Masters in Education Studies. She has worked in accounting industry for over 5 years and found an amazing opportunity to join a growing business. Her future goal is to grow into a managerial role in the accounting industry.

She loves travelling, mostly with her family and enjoys trying new food and new places.  Any free time she has, she listens to music (and she loves dancing along as well!). Through her interest in South Korea music, she home-studied Korean language to intermediate level, so now she speaks three languages: Khmer, English and Korean.

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