Meet Dr Mark McKinney
Dr McKinney has been a dynamic business leader generating an economic benefit to the Northern Ireland economy over the past 29 years of circa £182.9 million and over 2,000 jobs created, including 1,340 new business starts over the past 10 years with an economic benefit of £80.4 million.
With over 25 years of experience in the remediation industry, he founded ATG Services (Ireland) Ltd, establishing the company in 2006 as a sole trader. It became a limited company in 2007 and has evolved in to the ATG Group of companies, with a projected turnover of circa £10 million in 2020. ATG are now industry leaders within the environmental and waste management sector, having built this reputation over 15 years in business throughout the UK, Baltics, Africa and Ireland. Most recently, ATG won the Queens Award for Sustainable Development in 2020, a huge accolade for any business.
Mark holds a PhD in Microbiology and is recognised as one of the leading authorities for site remediation techniques in the UK and Ireland. He has appraised and worked on projects worldwide, including Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, the UK, Channel Islands, Holland, Germany, Malta, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America.
Mark is a certified Half Time® Coach and has been the chairman of several organisations and charities, including the British Oil Spill Control Association, International Spill Accreditation Association, Enterprise Causeway, Patchwork Ireland, Ashes to Gold and Friends of Pavestone.
ATG donates 10% of company Net Profit to Ashes to Gold, which was over £100,000 last year. The charity provides counselling to over 500 people per year with mental health issues, drugs, alcohol and domestic abuse. Each month, over 400 people are helped through counselling, drop in, food donations, training, school programmes and social enterprises. Its social enterprises include a bakery that teaches the local community how they can eat healthy on a budget, a workshop that upcycles furniture, the Grow Project which employs staff to grow food and distribute to low-income families, and run horticultural therapy courses to support people suffering from PTSD.
Married to Jacqueline for more than 30 years with two amazing kids, Scott and Lauren, who both work in the business. With two dogs, a love for the environment, and a keen fisherman, they love walking the North Coast of Northern Ireland where they live.