Articles
What does it mean to you to be the chair of the Aerospace Technology Institute at this early stage in its development?
The excitement for me is the strong commitment from industry and the government, and the equally strong commitment to fund projects with a combined £2 billion investment over a seven-year period. I think that is particularly significant because of the long lifecycle of product development. You’re taking decisions now that will influence aircraft that will be built over the next 20, 30 or even 40 years.
What are the biggest challenges facing the engineering industry?
We’ve got some great technology and clever people but the markets that they work in are international. So a challenge in aerospace is how do we develop technology that will bring value back to the UK. When people are buying aircraft they are interested in where things are made, not only in terms of cost but also in terms of economic development. One of the challenges that I’ll be wrestling with at the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) is making sure that we are developing technology that is relevant, affordable and effective in future programmes but that also develops the economic benefit to the UK.
What is a typical working day for you?
The nice part is that I don’t have a typical working day. This week I spent some time in Kent with the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority team in preparation for a board meeting before attending another NDA board meeting at one of our sites at Hunterston, west Scotland. This involved putting on protective clothing to see the progress they’re making with draining the fuel pump.
As the newly appointed chair of the ATI, I’ll also be having a meeting to talk about its development, the recruitment of the senior team and getting the board established.
How did you first become interested in engineering?
I’m an accountant by qualification and my career has followed a path from managing finance into operation and other general management roles. The key transition in my career was when I joined British Aerospace. I had previously worked in the food industry and coming into a high-technology engineering business making very sophisticated products was when my interest was particularly triggered. I think the really interesting thing that I found was seeing the balance of what you can design and what you can make, and the art of the possible that comes from both parts.
You’ve worked with a range of impressive companies. Can you give us an insight on what you’ve been involved with?
In 1992 I joined British Aerospace’s military aircraft business as a finance director and took responsibility for IT. I then moved across to the Royal Ordnance as a chief executive, which gave me experience of very different areas including chemical and mechanical engineering.
Later I was invited to work on a national partnership – a portfolio of European defence systems and joint ventures that included MBDA. My responsibility was to improve the operational performance of those businesses and to think about where they sat within BAE Systems.
In 2008 I took on the chair of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and have just renewed my position there for another three years. My time there has been about understanding a different business and what was really going on, to put plans and the right teams in place to progress what is a very important mission for the UK.
What’s the most memorable project you’ve worked on?
I’d hate to come across as taking credit for great engineering – it’s always been projects I’ve been associated with as opposed to worked on. During my time at Royal Ordnance there were examples of very clever engineering like the Broach warheads for the Storm Shadow cruise missile.
Also very memorable was the work the MBDA did on the Meteor and the Mica missile. It was technologically challenging and quite risky commercially. They worked through the issues to make a great success of that missile, which is now being integrated on a number of platforms. I’m very happy to be associated, in part, with the success of that programme.