Leading industry experts announced for manufacturing ‘Making The Future’ campaign update

The Black Country Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to mark the first anniversary of its hard-hitting manufacturing campaign, ‘Making the Future’, delivered in partnership with law firm FCB Manby Bowdler.

It has now unveiled a panel of industry experts, lined up for the breakfast anniversary event on Wednesday at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux home.

Chaired by Corin Crane, chief executive of Black Country Chamber of Commerce, the panel event will finish with a Q & A encouraging audience engagement.

Oxford graduate Adam Titchen, membership development manager at manufacturers' organisation EEF, is responsible for managing and developing relationships with member companies across the West Midlands, assisting with business growth and utilising services and support available.

Working alongside partner organisations Adam helps with business growth along and briefs regional media to raise the profile of businesses to ensure their interests are represented at a local and national level.

Alex de Ruyter – director of the Centre for Brexit Studies – brings a wealth of research experience and academic engagement in the area of regional economic development and labour market issues.

He has published over 50 academic outputs in leading national and international economic journals and has been the recipient of research funding, including being an investigator in the ESRC funded study on the effects on subsequent employment experience of workers from MG Rover (with David Bailey) after plant closure in 2005.

Jo Smith is managing director of Fortress Interlocks, based at their head office in Wolverhampton, the company have just been awarded their third Queen’s Award for export. Jo, originally from Stourbridge, obtained a law degree from the University of Wolverhampton, she is a chartered management accountant and mother to three young children.

Spending most of her career in the aerospace industry, prior to joining Fortress, she began her career at Lucas Aerospace on the company’s graduate programme in 1997. Over the last 10 years she has held various leadership roles with UTC, a large US corporation and was previously division finance director for UTC’s Aerospace Actuation division, with responsibility for SBUs in UK, France, Italy, USA, India and Poland. Her career has included key leadership positions within finance, operations and general management.

With 35 years’ experience in manufacturing both domestically and abroad, Neill Smith – head of SME engine business development at the Manufacturing Technology Centre near Coventry – is a graduate in applied physics & chemistry; starting life as a laboratory chemist.

Previous roles have included management in production, technical and quality in a variety of sectors but predominantly Electronics manufacturing. In 1995 he attained an MBA from Aston University, eventually going on to run his own Electronics manufacturing company. His role at the MTC is to manage the SME business development team nationally with the aim to engage with SMEs in using the MTC to support and improve their productivity and develop and implement innovation and technology

With a particular bias towards commercial and contractual disputes and contentious intellectual property, technology and media law disputes, Charlotte Clode – litigation partner at FBC Manby Bowdler – handles the firm's intellectual property litigation at partner level and also manages a portfolio of IT, software and development companies, most of whom have a national presence. She deals with the group’s contentious defamation and media law work and is fast developing a specialist niche in that area.

Charlotte is also a key member of the group advising on trademark infringements which have a criminal aspect. In addition Charlotte is one of the Firm’s lead advisors in respect of regulatory, business crime and motoring offences. She represents clients facing investigation or prosecution by regulatory bodies such as councils, fire authorities, the Health and Safety Executive, the Environment Agency and others, and represents clients before the magistrates court.

Director Melvin Wingfield has supported the growth of Smethwick based A&M since the company was set up in 2002 by Mark Wingfield and Arthur Watts. Melvin now works full time running A&M’s finance and administration to support a £5m turnover SME. Up to 2014 he combined this with a role as senior research fellow in local governance at De Montfort University, Leicester.

A&M has delivered sustained sales and jobs growth over the past five years through a strategy of continuing investment in facilities, equipment, people and skills. The combination of EDM spark and wire erosion, CNC machining and design engineering has enabled A&M to manufacture precision components, prototypes, production runs and tooling. Our customers are in the aerospace, automotive, Formula 1, general engineering and production assembly sectors.

Corin Crane, chief executive of the Black Country of Commerce said: “The Chamber are incredibly proud to line up such an esteemed panel of industry experts from our region. As a membership organisation, it is crucial that we are in continued dialogue with our members on a range of policy issues. Our manufacturing policy campaign is totally member-led, so the direction of travel for the next six to 12 months will be dictated by our manufacturers.

"We’ve seen some fantastic work completed and more of our manufacturers will want to engage with the campaign. We know that the policy landscape changes frequently at local, regional and national levels and we need to be flexible in our approach to the campaign aims we wish to pursue.”

This free event will take place from 7:30am to 9:30am at the Molineux football stadium. If you would like to book places, please contact the Black Country Chamber events team on 01902 912316.

Follow this link to book online https://www.blackcountrychamber.co.uk/bcc-events/manufacturing/making-the-future-one-year-on