Former GKN boss awarded honorary degree 

THE former head of finance at engineering giant GKN and the current chairman of the Black Country Living Museum Trust has received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Wolverhampton.
 
John H. Hughes has been recognised for his achievements in the field of finance and general management and for his role as chairman of the museum.
 
Hughes said: “I am truly humbled that my career in the finance and industrial sectors and latterly with the museum should be recognised with this most prestigious honorary degree by this great university of opportunity.”
 
In 1967, Hughes qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the now PwC in Birmingham. In 1970 he joined GKN initially at Joseph Sankey and Sons Ltd at Bilston and then moved to GKN Vandervell. 

Motiva consolidation plan completes latest stage

THE opening of a high-tech workshop complex is set to improve the operational performance of Stoke-on-Trent-based fleet specialist, Motiva Group.

The group has invested in transferring its fleet maintenance facilities in Bucknall to the company’s headquarters in nearby Longton. The move is part of a strategy to consolidate all of the group’s activities on one site.

The state-of-the-art unit represents the first phase of a £700,000 project to redevelop the entire Clarence Road premises.

John Cartwright, group operations manager, said the move would have significant implications for the company.

“The workshop signals the start of a new era for the business and it will deliver massive benefits,” he said.

“On a practical level, the move gives us much better facilities, far greater capacity and almost doubles our compound space.

“But it also makes us massively more efficient at a stroke and will create significant savings.” 

IASME Consortium system improves cyber security for SMEs 

ONE of the UK government’s largest suppliers of IT systems has utilised a new process developed in Worcestershire to help improve the cyber security of hundreds of SMEs in the West Midlands.

HP Enterprise Services UK has used the system created by Malvern-based IASME Consortium to improve the security of firms involved in its public sector supply chain.

Piloted with the help of West Midlands SMEs, the IASME standard helps SMEs compete for public sector contracts by offering a cost-effective route to compliance with ISO/IEC 27001:2013, the complexity of which is often seen as a major obstacle for smaller suppliers.  

Stuart Bladen, vice president and general manager, UK Public Sector, HP said: “HP Enterprise Services is one of the UK government’s largest suppliers of IT systems, with a supply chain that includes more than 600 SMEs, and we need to make it easier for them to attain security accreditation.

“As well as ensuring that the IASME standard can be readily implemented in our supply chain, this agreement opens up a market valued at up to £250,000 to the IASME Consortium which will ripple through to a variety of other Worcestershire-based SMEs.”