Tell us about your background
I received a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from the University of Greenwich, London in 1989, and from there I began to work for Power Group International (PGI) starting as a Controls Engineer and subsequently a number of various other roles. In 1993, I received a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Greenwich. The focus of my research was on developing prognostic systems to monitor the health of diesel engines and to predict failures before they took place. This was obviously relevant to my subsequent career, but also taught me the valuable skill of balancing my workload, since I was doing my Ph.D. while also working full time.
How did you get into CGT, and what is your current role'
My Cummins career started in 1995, when they acquired PGI in the UK. A year later I relocated to Minneapolis, USA where I was Software Engineering Manager within the Power Generation Business Unit (PGBU). I was then responsible for our genset controls development programmes. Following on from this, in 2003, I became Director ' Offshore Engineering, and a year later started my MBA at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. I then held a number of more commercially focused positions, including leadership of our Global Rental Business. Fast-forward to 2014, and I relocated back to the UK as General Manager (EMEA) at Cummins Generator Technologies. A year on, and I became Global Sales and Marketing Director, where I am responsible for over 150 staff focused on selling and marketing our STAMFORD and AvK alternator products around the world.
How are our products different compared to others in the market'
One of our biggest successes most recently is the ongoing roll-out of the STAMFORD S-Range of alternators. These new products are proving very popular with our customers and I am confident that we will continue to see rapid growth as they become available from all our global manufacturing facilities. This range is equipped with a suite of advanced, patented CoreCooling' technologies which deliver improved thermal management, increased airflow efficiency and improved power density, optimising our alternators' performance at key genset nodes. For our customers, this means an increase in power and/or a physically smaller alternator, making it easier and quicker to engineer into their generating sets. Additionally, we are so confident in the reliability of the STAMFORD S-Range, we are now offering a 3 year warranty package as standard, providing our customers with the peace of mind they expect from the STAMFORD brand.
Could you tell us about the current market drivers'
Since the beginning of the year, we have seen modest improvements in the market, and the EMEA region shows some positive signs of growth. India continues to be strong, as it has been for the past year, largely driven by increased infrastructure projects in the country, and the general strength seen in the domestic economy. China and the Americas remain stable but relatively flat overall. Another part of our business that is looking positive is our large alternator product range, sold under our AvK brand. This is largely driven by increased demand from our existing EMEA based customers and also the acquisition of a number of new customers around the world. This is encouraging to see and reflects on the hard work put in over the past year to make us more competitive in the global marketplace. This is despite the fact that one of our major markets, the Marine segment, is still struggling to recover after a 3-4 year decline, largely driven by a depressed oil price.
Anything further you would like to add'
I'm really excited about what the future holds for our business, and I'm very positive about our ability to continue to grow in what is a highly competitive marketplace. We're facing a number of challenges around the world, including increased pressure from low-cost 'copy' products, and the rises in commodity prices in our supply chain; but these are not unique to ourselves, and I view them instead as an opportunity for us to continue to grow and focus on delivering the very best levels of service to our customers around the world.