Product category:
Plantwide control
News Release from: Perceptive Engineering
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 31 May 2005
Benson takes the chair
Perceptive Engineering has appointed Dr Roger Benson as Non Executive Chairman.
Perceptive Engineering has appointed Dr Roger Benson as Non Executive Chairman Benson joins the Perceptive Engineering team with over 38 years experience in the global process industries
Benson graduated from Swansea University with a 1st class honours in chemical engineering and an MSc in the principles and practice of automatic control from UMIST.
He initially worked for Caltex Petroleum in London and New York, but returned to Manchester to complete his PhD in 2 years.
Following his PhD he joined ICI, initially in Manchester.
His 30 year career with ICI included positions as Chief Engineer of Engineering Technology, Head of the Control/Electrical Function, starting new businesses, creating the manufacturing technology capability; and a Works Maintenance Manager and a Control Engineer.
ABB acquired Benson with the acquisition of ICI Eutech and he was appointed Manager of the Global Technology Programmes for ABB Analytics and Advanced Solutions, and an Executive Member of ABB Process Solutions.
Benson retired from full time employment with ABB in January 2005 and is now, in addition to his Perceptive Engineering role, Non Executive Chairman of ParOS, an ABB and a PICME Associate; a Judge for the UK Best Factory Award since 1994 and a member of rae2008 Sub Panel 26 (Chemical Engineering).
In 1995 he completed a two year secondment with the Innovation Unit of the DTI, which included joint authoring "Competitiveness - how the best UK companies are winning" and "Manufacturing winners".
While with the DTI he was the Process Sector Programme Manager for the EPSRC Innovative Manufacturing Initiative.
From 1997 to 1999 he was a member of Manufacturing Foresight Panel.
Since 1998 he has been chairman of the CPACT Foresight Initiative.
From 2000 to 2004 he was a member of the EPSRC User Panel.
In 1999 he was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He is a Visiting Professor to the Centre of Process Systems Engineering at Imperial College, the Department of Chemical Engineering the University of Teesside.
He is the author of the IChemE book on "Benchmarking process manufacturing", over 50 published papers, and has given many keynotes and presentations on innovation, process control, benchmarking, world-class manufacturing and the future of the process industries.
In 1984 he was a finalist for the Prince of Wales Award for Innovation.
In 1997 he presented the UKACC Lecture and in 1998 the Plenary address at the IChemE Research Conference.
A native of Haslingden in Lancashire, he and his wife Kathlyn live near Northallerton, North Yorkshire and have three grown up children.
Commenting on the appointment, David Lovett, Managing Director, said: "Naturally we are extremely pleased to have someone with Roger's capability and experience join the Perceptive team".
"As chairman, Roger will oversee the activities of Perceptive Engineering , bringing his extensive industrial experience to the boardroom".
"I will look to Roger to provide guidance on company strategy, corporate standards and ways to improve the delivery of 'world class' software and engineering services to our clients".
"His views on benchmarking and 'best in class' manufacturing are aligned with those of Perceptive Engineering; and through our 'Perceptive audits' we plan to extend our industry auditing capability, and continuous performance improvement services to help our clients reach 'best in class'".
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