I joined Hewitt Refractories Ltd in 1977 as a lab technician within the technical department before gaining further experience in quality management roles and production management.Hewitt Refractories was acquired by Dyson Group in 2000 and I was appointed as manufacturing manager with production spread over three sites in Stoke on Trent, UK. When Dyson consolidated the kiln furniture manufacturing onto one site in 2003, I was responsible for managing its operations.In 2009, I was involved in the MBO of the Dyson Kiln Furniture division and am now operations director (and shareholder) of IPS Ceramics Ltd. My time is split between UK operations at our site at High Carr Business Park and our manufacturing operations based in China.IPS Ceramics’ kiln furniture and technical ceramic products are renowned for their designs and technical capability. Our cordierite kiln furniture and our technical ceramics range (including Alumina, Aluminium Nitride, Silicon Carbide, Silicon Nitride, Steatite and Zirconia) are used around the world. We serve all industries including tableware, sanitaryware, investment casting, laboratory research, tech development and more. We are also constantly expanding our range of products and have recently been developing products for the electric vehicle battery industry