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Graham Thomas
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- Consultant Engineering GPT Ltd
Graham Thomas is an accomplished engineer with a successful career spanning several decades. He began his career as an Electromechanical Design Draughtsman, before moving on to work for several prominent companies, handling electrical and instrument installations for Ciba Geigy Chemicals, BP, Croda, and Hazlewood foods. Graham's passion for diverse work led him to play a pivotal role in consolidating multiple bakeries into a new factory for Hazlewood Foods and Greencore. Over his 15 years working on the site, he worked with Bob Hinchcliff of Qualitech to build a bespoke Ultrasonic Robotic Cake Cutting System to replace conventional gear. Graham's expertise and accomplishments have led to presentations at several industry conferences, including BARA, the European Food Manufacturing & Safety Summit, and the Appetite for Engineering conference. He is now semi-retired and offering part-time consultancy work through Engineering GPT Ltd. -
Warren Clark
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- CEO Europa Science Ltd
Warren Clark is CEO of Europa Science Ltd, a leading publisher of science and technology business titles. Warren has been involved in the vision industry since being the founding editor of the magazine Imaging and Machine Vision Europe, first published in 2004. He has also previously edited The Packaging Professional for the former Institute of Packaging. -
Martin Miller
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- Head of Engineering, Supply Chain Greggs
Martin is a 35 year veteran of the food industry. He has a vast experience of central and site based engineering and operations roles, responsible for both maintenance excellence and capital projects. For the last 15 years he has been working at Engineering Director level across multiple sites in the UK for FMCG businesses such as PepsiCo, Morrisons, Allied Bakeries and has been with Greggs since 2021. He has worked directly with over 70 different factories ranging from abattoirs through to flower bouquet production. -
Chris Corkan
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- Region Director for the Midlands & East of England Make UK
Make UK (formerly known as EEF) is the largest voice supporting UK manufacturing employers. Chris’s role as Region Director for the Midlands & East of England is to engage Make UK’s members and to assist them in advancing their business. By providing bespoke introductions, industry insight, a programme of events & networking opportunities, promoting their business and ensuring their views are heard with government at both a local and national level. A key part of his role is to engage with stakeholders as the main industrial ambassador in the region for representing industry’s views. Including with the media, Local Enterprise Partnerships, the West Midlands Combined Authority, East Midlands Combined Authority, Midlands Engine and the Greater Cambridgeshire Greater Peterborough Combined Authority. Additionally, Chris is also responsible for Make UK’s Affiliate Partner network of sector-specific trade association and regional cluster networks across the country, ensuring all four corners of manufacturing are represented with the highest levels of UK government. -
Gail Hunt
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- Facilitator and Host UK Automation Forum
Gail Hunt has been writing about manufacturing technologies across several trade publications for over 30 years. She has worked as a business-to-business journalist with such titles as Food Manufacture, Fine Food Digest, Artisan magazine, The Grocer, British Baker, Builders Merchants Journal and DIY Week. While editor of Packaging News she won several awards and for the last 13 years she has been editor of Machinery Update, the machinery-only journal published by Automate UK. She stepped down from the magazine at the end of 2023 to work on projects for Automate UK including the brand new UK Automation Forum. -
Rod Addy
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- Director General Provision Trade Federation
Rod is director general of the Provision Trade Federation, representing processing, manufacturing and trading companies that cover a wide range of staple provisions, including dairy, pork and fish products, all sourced from UK, EU and international supply chains. Collectively these sectors account for 20% of UK household expenditure on food (around £24 billion a year). He was previously editor of Food Manufacture at award-winning digital data and events business William Reed, leading multi-media editorial strategy and content for the brand. He worked for William Reed for 21 years on publications such as The Grocer and Food Navigator, covering events ranging from the 2001 foot-and-mouth-disease outbreak to the war between Ukraine and Russia and its impact on the food chain. -
Adam Dickins
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- Consultant & Director AD Frameworks Ltd
Adam’s journey within Environmental Sustainability goes back over 20 years when he graduated from the University of Derby with a 1st Class BSc in Product Design, Innovation & Eco-design. After a number of years of initial graduate work, he moved into Facilities Management and has 17 years of experience, primarily dealing with Hard Services across various industries and sectors. He has delivered multiple projects which have significantly reduced utility utilisation, this directly impacted the businesses Scope 1 and 2 Carbon Impact. He has drawn on these experiences and continued to build his knowledge and skills to enhance what he brings to AD Frameworks’ clients. Adam is the primary Consultant and Director of AD Frameworks: a Business Sustainability Consultancy which is working with clients to enable them to find what Environmental Sustainability means to them, even when they can’t see the wood for the trees. AD Frameworks supports them on how to bring Sustainability into their core business thinking and as a competitive advantage. -
Paul Gander
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- Editor Machinery Update
Paul Gander is the new editor of Machinery Update, and has been in post since the beginning of the year. But he has been writing about packaging and equipment for nearly three decades. For many years, he wrote a regular packaging page, technology features and commentary for Food Manufacture. His other writing has been for publications as diverse as Plastics in Packaging, The Canmaker, SPC in the personal care sector and Manufacturing Chemist. He has edited food industry magazines in the fields of confectionery and ingredients, and for many years put together a monthly international packaging research association newsletter. His journalistic career started on Packaging News – and he has freelanced since the mid-1990s, with Machinery Update among the magazines he wrote for back then, too. More recently, he has researched and written PR and marketing material in areas such as automation and robotics.
