Throughout his career, Chris has focused on helping products companies to grow, through international expansion, acquisition and effective R&D and product development. He provides strategic consultancy and corporate governance advice to engineering and industrial products companies, and also teaches strategy and corporate governance, both at business schools and on corporate education programmes.
He is Chairman of 42 Technology, a technology development consultancy. He is also a non-executive director of British Engines, an engineering products group and Chairman of Stephenson Gobin, a British Engines subsidiary. He is also a non-executive director of ComAp a.s., a Czech electronics controls company. All of these companies are mid sized privately owned businesses.
He retired from Rolls-Royce plc in 2012, where for thirteen years he was the Business Development Director, with specific responsibility for the strategy and development of the group’s energy, offshore and marine businesses. These businesses include diesel and gas turbine power and propulsion systems, nuclear power systems, and offshore oil & gas equipment, together with new ventures in fuel cells, tidal power, power electronics and control systems. During this period he was chairman of Bergen Engines AS, chairman of Tidal Generation Ltd., and on the marine and energy divisional boards. He was instrumental in the 2011 €3.4bn acquisition of Tognum, now Rolls-Royce Power Systems. He was also on the Board of the Energy Technologies Institute.
Before joining Rolls-Royce, he spent eleven years with Arthur D Little, the strategy and technology consultancy, where he was a European Director, focusing on growth strategies for technology based industrial and consumer products companies, ranging from new start-ups to large multinational corporations. His early career was in engineering research.
Chris is a regular speaker at business schools on issues of strategy and technology, and has written a textbook on technology and R&D management, titled ‘Managing Technology for Corporate Success’ and published by Gower in 1997.
Chris has a degree in engineering from Trinity College, Cambridge, a doctorate in aeronautical engineering from the University of Bristol and an MBA from London Business School. He is also a past policy fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy at Cambridge University.
Outside work, Chris is a keen walker and amateur photographer. He is also a classic car enthusiast, with a 1935 AC 16/66 which is unfortunately more frequently off the road than on, and a 1968 Triumph TR5 which is slightly more reliable.