BINDT Appoints Chair of NDT Leadership Forum
Posted: 2021-1-7
The British Institute of NDT (BINDT) Advisory Group on Strategic NDT Leadership has appointed Mark Dowell as founding Chair of the NDT Leadership Forum.
The objective of the NDT Leadership Forum is to provide an effective, independent and long-term national forum that can:
• Brief government and influence other engineering professions about the benefits of non-destructive testing (NDT), condition monitoring (CM) and structural health monitoring (SHM);
• Advise on future supply of well-trained personnel to meet the NDT, CM and SHM requirements of Industry 4.0 and beyond;
• Capture the NDT, CM and SHM requirements from each industry sector to better inform R&D strategy and calls for proposals across the technology readiness levels;
• Initiate protocols, best practice guides and standards to underpin technology transitioning, including for technology and technique qualification, and training.
The Forum will bring together stakeholders from professional engineering institutes and key industry sectors, together with the research and development community, to address the above objectives.
BINDT has set up an Advisory Group on Strategic NDT Leadership to support the establishment of the Forum, including identifying a founding Chair and supporting the Chair during the initial work to establish the Forum. In the initial phase, the NDT Leadership Forum will be accountable to BINDT’s Advisory Group on Strategic NDT Leadership, but this will be reviewed after an appropriate period with a view to giving it greater independence.
Mark Dowell possesses strong all-round leadership, operational and commercial management experience and a proven track record within competitive, high-value technical, B2B and commercial market sectors. From 2013 to 2017 he was Managing Director at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), leading two very different acquired NDT businesses through integration and growth. Prior to that he was Business Manager at SGS UK, managing a business line at executive UK board level specialising in engineered assets, with input to UK policy and direction.
More recently, Mark has been providing his business development skills as Interim Business Development Manager at Intertek NDT Services, the Derby-based BINDT Corporate Member and member of BINDT’s Service Inspection Group. He was previously a Board Director at the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFED) and is currently active on several BINDT committees, including Council.
Professor Robert Smith, Director of the UK Research Centre in NDE, whose vision inspired the establishment of the Leadership Forum, said of the appointment: "BINDT identified a need to become more involved strategically in the industry and, amongst other things, brief government, capture future requirements and influence other engineering professions about the benefits of NDT, CM and SHM and to update the landscape report that was presented to the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and Innovate UK in 2014.
"Mark Dowell’s valuable knowledge and experience will help to establish a cross-institute, cross-sector NDT Leadership Forum, including representation from relevant engineering professions and most sectors that use or would benefit from improved NDT, CM and SHM. We are thrilled about Mark’s appointment and wish him well in this exciting initiative."
The objective of the NDT Leadership Forum is to provide an effective, independent and long-term national forum that can:
• Brief government and influence other engineering professions about the benefits of non-destructive testing (NDT), condition monitoring (CM) and structural health monitoring (SHM);
• Advise on future supply of well-trained personnel to meet the NDT, CM and SHM requirements of Industry 4.0 and beyond;
• Capture the NDT, CM and SHM requirements from each industry sector to better inform R&D strategy and calls for proposals across the technology readiness levels;
• Initiate protocols, best practice guides and standards to underpin technology transitioning, including for technology and technique qualification, and training.
The Forum will bring together stakeholders from professional engineering institutes and key industry sectors, together with the research and development community, to address the above objectives.
BINDT has set up an Advisory Group on Strategic NDT Leadership to support the establishment of the Forum, including identifying a founding Chair and supporting the Chair during the initial work to establish the Forum. In the initial phase, the NDT Leadership Forum will be accountable to BINDT’s Advisory Group on Strategic NDT Leadership, but this will be reviewed after an appropriate period with a view to giving it greater independence.
Mark Dowell possesses strong all-round leadership, operational and commercial management experience and a proven track record within competitive, high-value technical, B2B and commercial market sectors. From 2013 to 2017 he was Managing Director at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), leading two very different acquired NDT businesses through integration and growth. Prior to that he was Business Manager at SGS UK, managing a business line at executive UK board level specialising in engineered assets, with input to UK policy and direction.
More recently, Mark has been providing his business development skills as Interim Business Development Manager at Intertek NDT Services, the Derby-based BINDT Corporate Member and member of BINDT’s Service Inspection Group. He was previously a Board Director at the Safety Assessment Federation (SAFED) and is currently active on several BINDT committees, including Council.
Professor Robert Smith, Director of the UK Research Centre in NDE, whose vision inspired the establishment of the Leadership Forum, said of the appointment: "BINDT identified a need to become more involved strategically in the industry and, amongst other things, brief government, capture future requirements and influence other engineering professions about the benefits of NDT, CM and SHM and to update the landscape report that was presented to the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) and Innovate UK in 2014.
"Mark Dowell’s valuable knowledge and experience will help to establish a cross-institute, cross-sector NDT Leadership Forum, including representation from relevant engineering professions and most sectors that use or would benefit from improved NDT, CM and SHM. We are thrilled about Mark’s appointment and wish him well in this exciting initiative."
