New Chairman for BMT Group

BMT Group, an international maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has appointed  Sir John Hood KNZM as Chairman of BMT Group Ltd with effect from October 1, 2015, following the retirement of Dr Neil Cross.

Dr Cross, who will retire at the end of BMT’s financial year on September 30, was appointed a non-executive Director of British Maritime Technology Ltd on March 20, 1997. He chairs the Investment and Nominations Sub-Committees, is a member of the Remuneration Sub-Committee and a Trustee of BMT’s Employee Benefit Trust.

As said in the company’s statement, Sir John Hood is a non-executive Director of BG Group plc and WPP plc, Chairman of Urenco Ltd (from which he will retire later this year), Matakina Ltd, and Study Group Ltd; President and Chief Executive Officer of the Robertson Foundation; and Chair of the Rhodes Trust and Teach For All.

BMT noted that Sir John Hood served for five years as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford and, before that, as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland after a successful career at Fletcher Challenge, New Zealand’s largest industrial conglomerate.

Peter French, Chief Executive, BMT Group comments: “We are delighted that Sir John is joining BMT as Chairman in the new financial year. The group will benefit significantly from his wealth of experience of international business and analytical rigour. I am sure that he will bring an original perspective to our business and help us to remain at the forefront of innovation and design in maritime engineering.”

“I shall, of course, be sad to see the retirement from BMT of our current Chairman, Dr Neil Cross. Neil has been with BMT for a total of 18 years and has for the last nine years been our Chairman, in which time the Board has implemented strategies that have seen us weather challenging times, nearly double our turnover to £165m and make distributions of £44m to our staff.  The Board and the staff of the whole group wish Neil a very happy and long retirement.”

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