Door Industry Journal - Winter 2019

Element Announces New CEO Element Materials Technology (Element) announced last month that current CFO, Jo Wetz, will succeed Charles Noall as Element’s CEO from 31st December 2019. This follows Charles’s decision to retire from his executive role after 17 years leading the Group. In his previous role as an investor at 3i, Jo alongside Charles, led the original buyout of Element in 2010 before joining the Group in 2012 as CFO. In his eight years at Element, Jo has been instrumental in growing the Group from 23 locations across five geographies with 600 employees to Element’s position today as one of the fastest growing privately-held testing businesses, with almost 200 locations operating in more than 30 countries with almost 7,000 employees. Together with Charles, Jo led the sale of Element to Bridgepoint in 2016, the subsequent take-private of the Exova Group in 2017, a $1bn transaction which doubled the size of the Group, and at the end of 2018 concluded the transaction that welcomed Temasek as a significant minority shareholder. Allan Leighton, Element’s chairman, commented: “I am delighted that Jo is taking on the role of CEO. This leadership transition is a great example of succession planning and will provide strong continuity as Element pursues its vision of becoming the world’s most trusted testing partner. “I also want to pay tribute to Charles’s immense contribution to the development of Element since its inception in 2010. His leadership focus and clarity of purpose have helped to build a powerful brand with a great reputation; a strong culture; high levels of customer loyalty; sector-leading growth year on year; and a valuation that is one of the highest in the sector.” Element is one of the world’s leading independent providers of materials and product qualification testing, inspection and certification services to the global Aerospace; Transportation & Industrials; Fire & Building Products; and Oil & Gas and Infrastructure sectors, where failure in service is simply not an option. The company exists to help their customers to make certain that the materials, products and systems that they make are safe, quality, compliant and ultimately fit for purpose, leveraging 200 years of testing experience and our global testing capabilities. www.element.com Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk Industry News