Pocket springs have been used in mattresses for a number of years, but the technology to manufacture them in smaller sizes now opens up the possibility of using them in transportation seating.

I am leading Nedra into the last mile delivery and urban people movement markets. This will be exploiting our EV Technology whereby we aim to deliver practical lightweight EVs in City Hire, Car Share and Last Mile Delivery markets. These EVs will be low purchase cost, low energy consumption weighing under 500kg, and manufactured with a minimum of 25% natural materials. This will achieve ecological manufacture and use compared with other EVs.Developing Natural Fibre Composites using flax fibres has been challenging and we have had to learn fast, but we can now see how this can be achieved.It is an exciting time and very challenging.

I have owned and run Didcot Auto Centre, taking the business and growing it to £500k turnover.Sold in 2020 to put more energies into our EV developments

Arden Automotive supplied services for vehicle engineering. Over its ten year life, Arden delivered a number of projects covering manufacturer of earth mover suspension, design and build of bicycle trailers, design and build of Iveco trucks that could wade in seawater up to 2m, design and build of an electric vehicle prototype as well as the build and IVA of many different specialist and sports vehicles with the speciality for the Murtaya kit car.

Working as part of a team, Arup assisted Transport for London in redesigning their maintenance contracts to be output based - i.e. contractors were rewarded for good performance - and then ran the ITT, evaluation and contract award with TfL staff and specialists for Traffic Signals, Traffic CCTV and Tunnel Equipment.

I ran a project on Craftsmanship where we looked at the drivers for what is now known as Perceived Quality. This covered from concept and review processes, through design aids to support to first tier suppliers to JLR on their manufacturing reporting and measurement systems.

I originally started to look at project systems and reporting before managing projects which include many driveline systems demonstrators for first tier suppliers and vehicle manufacturers. This included the RWD MGZT260/385 programme. This also covered internal projects including a novel leaning vehicle.

Roles including bidding work, providing project support services, facilities management and quality management. This including building a styling studio, bringing on new facilities, integrating newly purchased organisations, and trying to keep everyone happy!

Covering 20 divisions operating from manufacturing of electric motors, switchgear, mine fans, injection mouldings, retail, construction and pre-mixed concrete and tool room services, I lead a quality drive to improve exportability of products with ISO9000 accreditation, plus looked for organisation and technical improvements to add to the bottom line.

RDS CAD and RDS Engineering were an outsource design agency, performing CAD design and manual drawing services as well as the supply of CAD agency staff. They uses Computervision CADDS 4 and 5X, Intergraph and early Dassault Catia systems. My role was to gain BS5750 accreditation to support their work with OEMs and first tier suppliers, but I was also involved with quoting and performing projects, and publicity efforts.

Initially designing Nickel Zinc batteries, we produced a battery pack for the Lucas Chloride EV Systems Bedford CF Van. With our pack, we had an urban drive cycle range of 125 miles in 1982. But without a sophisticated BMS system it didn't last very long. The pressed plate technology which we had pioneered was then applied to nickel cadmium, and we established a pilot production facility to make PSV, marine and other large battery systems.