Curriculum Vitae 

INTRODUCTION:

From a sound engineering background I have progressively developed my skills through manufacturing management, R&D, new product development, marketing, operations, project and executive management.  My industry experience includes oil/gas, nuclear,  electrical, defence, composites, plastics, process, machine design, automation, utilities (gas/water/electricity), FMCG, packaging, food/beverage. 

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS:

BSc (Eng) Hons, Electronics, University of London 1982

DMS (Diploma in Management Studies) 1990

MBA (Masters in Business Administration), University of Wales 1994 

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:

Chartered Engineer (1991)

Member of the Institution of Manufacturing Engineers (1990)

Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (1991) 

CURRENT POSITION                               

Over the past 6 years I have acted as a consultant Project Manager / Director for companies setting up in S Wales. I have constructed the business plan, arranged funding (banks and grants), constructed / set-up the factory (including services, specifying and installing machinery, H&S etc), commissioning, ironed-out production issues, co-ordinated recruitment & training, set-up the management control systems. 

DIRECTOR – [snip] (Swansea). From October 2006. After visiting the [snip] factory (see below), one of their customers asked me to set-up a new production facility for their patented decorative glass product.  This is a specialist manufacturing facility utilising bespoke machinery for a new technology  product. The factory is now functional and the company trading. Contract ends January 08. 

PREVIOUS POSITIONS

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR – [snip],  S Wales.  October 2004-October 2006.  [snip] manufacture the [snip] range of thermoformers and automated / robotic handling/ processing equipment. To reduce costs, we set up sub-contract manufacture in India and final assembly in S Wales. The price advantage created a lot of activity for new machine sales.  Company trading and successful. 

DIRECTOR – [snip]. Ammanford. November 2001- October 2004.

Construction from scratch of a large scale, high tech bottling and food processing facility (2001/02).  I was both the Site and Technical Director. This is a showpiece and efficient production plant. I sold the majority of my shareholding in 2002 but under the agreement was contracted to run the plant for 2 years.  

GENERAL MANAGER (EUROPE) – Consultancy basis / Interim Management

[snip], Ohio & Dublin, Ireland.  July 2000 – November 2001

World leaders in CD sleeving technology and machines. I took the leadership role to restructure their Irish facility and develop their European market. Personnel and stock levels were reduced, professional salesmen hired (sales improved). Post 9/11, [snip] decided to retrench.  

MANAGING DIRECTOR      1/6/95-30/6/00 [snip], Mid-Glam. (Part of [snip] GmbH, Germany)

Designer, manufacturer and distributor of FMCG for audio accessory, stationery and photo markets.  >120 employees, £5m t/o 60% exported, I joined company with £50k trading loss (1994) and improved to £150k profit (1999).  New products successfully introduced to blue-chip FMCG retailers. Sourcing of materials and components moved to Asia. Unionised workforce (no disputes despite significant changes). After a damaging flood it was decided to close the company in 2000. 

OPERATIONS MANAGER (DIRECTOR DESIGNATE)  1/1/94-31/5/95

[snip], West Yorks.

I was one of two reports to the board of non-executive directors. Responsibilities included design, production, sales, QA and commissioning for engineering products for oil/gas, process, electrical & utilities.. Raised t/o by £0.8m to £8m to provide £0.6m profit. 140 employees, 7000m2 factory housing 4 operating divisions (mechanical, electrical, plastics and construction). Headhunted for above position. 

MARKETING AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGER           1/92-12/93

NEW PRODUCTS MANAGER                                           1/90-12/91

PROJECT MANAGER                                                         1/88-12/89

PRODUCTION ENGINEER                                     1/87-12/87

[snip],  Carms.

Progressive promotion through a multi-disciplined engineering and manufacturing company providing integrated mechanical/electrical / structural solutions for blue chip engineering (oil/gas, process, electrical) and utility companies. T/o £7m, 220 employees, ISO 9001.  My remit also included the technical and contractual  management   for integrated construction projects

1)      a £10m project for the design and supply of leading edge technology products to the MoD. This included design, costing, rigorous type approval testing, manufacture and QA.

2)       BNFL / AEA projects at Sellafield & Capenhurst (9  total, functions as above).    

SYSTEMS ENGINEER / TEAM LEADER                           4/85-1/87

[snip], Houston, Texas.

I was head of a multi-disciplinary team developing, installing and operating leading edge technology for the oil exploration industry. World-wide assignments. At 25 I was a Party Manager in charge of a multi-national crew aboard $50m research ship. 

[snip] (Government Research Body)                                               4/83-4/85

Design and commissioning of specialist research equipment primarily for British Antartic Expeditions and British Geological Surveys. World-wide assignments. 

SCHOLARSHIP                                                                                    9/78-4/83

IEE approved industrial sandwich course (1-3-1) with GEC Marconi, Leicester.

Structured management training for 1 year pre- and post- university.  

OTHER PERTINENT INFORMATION

-          I have a wide knowledge of engineering skills, (electrical, electronic, mechanical, structural), maintenance, new installation planning, machine building, construction,  product testing and plant commissioning.

-          Computer literate, Autocad and some Artcam/Delcam experience.

-          I am an accomplished manager (finance, sales, planning) and man-manager (at all levels) with excellent communication skills.

-          I am well travelled with experience of working abroad (and off-shore) for extended periods. Some knowledge of German.

-          I am married, healthy, fit / active and have a full clean driving licence. 

 Additional Information on Technical Experience 

A) Between 1983-87 I worked in the offshore industry, exploration vessels and rigs. I had 2 basic roles: 

1) Design and installation of the generating plant, back-up generating plant and UPS system for on-board computer systems (these were monsters in those days) and instrument rooms. This included the cooling of the generating plant, the switchear, power distribution and cooling (HVAC) in the scientific/instrument areas/computer rooms.

2) Design, manufacture and commissioning of instrumentation for the measurement of critical parameters in harsh and high risk (explosive) environments. These were the early days for the instrumentation we now take for granted - high pressure measurement (deep water and steam/air), RF transponders, water/liquid/oil/gas flow measurement and control. We also designed and modified echo sounders (to 10,000m) side scan sonor, magnetometers, gravitometers, salinity meters etc. To understand more of the natural environment I was measuring I completed a post-grad diploma in Oceanography with the Open University in 1985. This contained the study of tides, winds, waves and sediments. 

B) During the period 1987-1995 I worked with 2 companies  which offered turn-key engineering solutions to blue chip customers: all the then utility companies (gas, water and electric distribution and generation), MoD, BT, M&E contractors (for HVAC), oil, chemical and process companies and their sub-contractors (BP, Texaco, ICI, Scott Bader, Dow Corning, Air Products, BOC) and rail related sub-contractors (GEC, Brush, Reyrolle, Westinghouse) plus BNFL (Sellafield, Trawsfynydd and Capenhurst). We were contracted either directly to the customer or via the approved sub-contractor (Amec, Balfour Beatty, Ralph Parsons, WS Atkins etc). The benefit of the skid mounted turnkey option was that it could be built and tested in a controlled environment (our factory) and then moved to site for final testing - keeping the expensive site costs to a minimum. The equipment could vary in size from 1 lorry load to 20. Both these companies were heavily involved in composite plastics for structural and building solutions. 

We had our fabrication departments (included stainless steel welders, coded welders), electrical / C&I, design, documentation, composite materials, site erection and test departments. Quality to ISO9001 and appropriate Defence Standards.

I was the only electrical engineer employed by either company so I also managed the electrical and control requirements for the other project engineers. 

3) [snip]- explosion relieving gas governor enclosures (the roof was designed to lift off to relieve the pressure from an explosion). There is one of these on each housing or industrial estate. Many of these were soundproofed (I had to design and test / validate these) and some had explosion protected electrics (EExd).

4) Water companies - electrical distribution systems in pumping and sewerage plants including skid mounted back-up generator / pump housings including the C&I circuits. SCADA control systems. 

5) Petrochem / process industries - project management of a number of measurement and control enclosures for [snip]  All of these were in harsh or high risk environments and nearly all required explosion protected electrical circuits (EExd). The sampling stations monitored pressure, flow, temperature parameters and communicated these via a SCADA link to the main controller. The actuator stations housed proportional valves, pumps, switchgear etc mostly controlled by a SCADA link. Some of these pumps used 200KW motors and so electrical distribution became part of the project. 

6) For electricity distribution companies we made turnkey transformer and switchgear housings (LV / MV). These often included the line monitoring  trip equipment and SCADA interface. I project managed the design of the distribution and transformer network for the [snip] wind farm - then one of the 1st in the UK (1991).

7) Electricity generators and HV - I project managed in conjunction with [snip] (Trafford Park and Stafford) the design of  a skid mounted HV thyristor control enclosure complete with necessary building services / control instrumentation.. The first of these was used for the CERN atomic accelerator ring in Switzerland, the 2nd & 3rd for the HV DC under-sea transmission link between France and SE England. Thereafter these were used on other generation/distribution projects including electrified railways. Apart from the design of the thyristors and the HV insulators, I project managed the remainder.   

8) My remit with [snip] included the project management of a nuclear electromagnetic pulse protected enclosure project (256 units, £15m) for the MoD. These contained military communication equipment with back-up generators, cooling sytems, RF telemetry control and these needed to be interchangeable and helicopter transportable. This was a complete lifecycle project from initial feasibility, costing type approval (in the NEMP simulator in [snip] where I worked for many weeks with Plessey and BT to formulate a test procedure for production units), documentation, roll out and commissioning. I also interfaced with the MoD contract dept for costing deviations from the main contract. The success of this project led to further contracts for similar facilities (NEMP /  EMC) for communication companies (Mercury/BT), US Air Force (Unitar), and the civil defence agency. For a while I was a leading authority on NEMP enclosures and secure electrical distributioon systems (Tempest).  

9) [snip] – BNFL / AEA projects for C&I, process measurement and control housings. The first one was erected at Capenhurst in 1988 (then the largest composite enclosure in Europe) and this followed with 9 more large units into Sellafield. The benefit of these large skid mounted type enclosures was that they were able to avoid planning permission (these buildings were 'transportable'), the C&I/process plant/pumps etc could be fitted and tested at our factory resulting in a greatly reduced installation time at site (there were union issues at BNFL sites in those days). I would co-ordinate with the site engineers to ensure that the conduits, cables, ducts and pipes were in the correct positions (and that their function and size was correct).

We obtained this work after a discussion I had with the Chief Engineer at the Capenhurst site as to why all our process control enclosures were being delayed. He informed that these smaller enclosures were satellites to a much larger C&I building. This building was to be of standard steel reinforced concrete construction and to meet a 1 in 5000yr earthquake criteria (ground-roll) needed more concrete and steel to strengthen it. This required lots of calculations, lots of planning consent, lots of delays, lots of costs. I suggested we use a lightweight composite enclosure as Force = Mass x Acceleration, the lower the mass for any given ground-roll (acceleration) then the smaller destructive forces. They loved the idea - but the main sub-contractors didn't for obvious reasons - so we became a main contractor to BNFL and I the Project Manager.     

C)  [snip] – Management of FMCG factory. We also developed a 3D HF welding process and a polypropylene CD packaging product capable of fitting into all standard binding systems. We procured a new machine, modified it so we could manufacture 400 pieces / minute (with auto collation and packing). 

D)  Univenture - development of a CD polypropylene pocket packaging machine (U1000) which is rented to the customer and placed in their premises. The machine automatically places the CD/DVD in a fully sealed safety pocket (printed if required) and then applies a uniquely addressed label ready for mail-shots (huge demand for mail-shot CD's 2000-2002). The U1000 was interrogated nightly by internet link and the number of products run in the day (total cycles less known bad cycles) was logged as part of their weekly bill. As we controlled the material supply we could also send them raw material if their own inventory control system had not triggered a re-order. If they were behind in payment the machine would not be given a 'go' code after its nightly interrogation. I was brought in to trouble shoot operational problems and develop the interrogation link and 'on line' trouble shooting facility.  

E) Between 2001-03 I designed and built from scratch a soft drinks / food plant which became the production site for Qibla Cola (a Muslim 'hallal' alternative to Coca Cola ). This utilised my process engineering skills in a food grade environment and my control skills to make a fully automated production system.  This was a full build project from foundations up. It also required a complex electrical and control system. When running I could access or control the plant status (or view the operations) from my home pc or laptop and the process controller would send me a text message every time the line stopped / started - leading edge stuff then.   

F)  With [snip] we bought the [snip] brand from Europack. [snip] are a 40 year old British company recognised for their design of reliable thermoformers and automated packaging equipment. We set up a drawing office in Calcutta (£500/month) and from there modified the complete range of products bringing them up to data in terms of raw materials (ISO section steels), current pneumatic / hydraulic fittings, current PLC and control circuits, current guarding and safety requirements.  I also designed a 'green' thermoformer in that it contained very accurate heat control and directivity plus all electric actuators (energy on demand). This almost completely removed the need for compressed air. The interest in this machine is in the growing economies of the Far East where production output is limited by energy availablility.  Other notable achievements were the manufacture of  48"X48" automatic form cut and stack thermoformer (largest standard range automatic machine in Europe - 2nd machine I understand just ordered) plus 2 automatic razor packing machines. This would thermoform and cut the blisters, sort pick and place the razors, blister seal the package trim and remove into bulk packaging box. This would pack 104 razors minute and used 6 robot / pick and place stations. 

G)  My remit for my last project  involved taking a patented process from laboratory to full scale production. This includes building a specialised thermoformer to accommodate a material with very narrow melt window, developing and specifying the process plant for custom build, conceptialising and building the process / production system, developing the tooling design system (using 3D CNC machining). The facility can now manufacture up to 1000 decorative glass panels day using 10 people (who using conventional decorative glass processes could manufacture 60 panels / day). The product also benefits from excellent impact resistance, improved thermal and acoustic properties. The factory is set-up and running (full H&S, COSHH and management systems) and an initial stock of 5000 panels prepared.