Business development director to take the wheel in 2004

At the helm..., July - August 2003

A new Chief Executive has been appointed to head TWI when the present boss retires in July 2004.

Dr Bob John, presently the Director of Business Development, takes the reins from Bevan Braithwaite on 1 August 2004.

Bob graduated in metallurgy from Swansea University in the sixties and studied the weldability of 5% nickel steel at post graduate level.

Since then he has played a variety of senior managerial roles at BOC Murex and the ESAB Group in Sweden and the United States. He joined TWI in 1991 as Business Development Director. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both the Welding Institute and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining.

Commenting on his recent appointment, the heir to the top job told Bulletin 'From a personal point of view this is a great honour......from the company's point of view it's a vote of confidence in the existing management, its business processes and its results as seen by the Council.'

A fuller profile of Dr John will appear in the Bulletin shortly before he takes the reins as the new Chief Executive.