Trust: the secret behind the ventilator challenge success

Dick Elsy is the Chief Executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the go-to place for advanced manufacturing technology in the UK. With over £800m of assets, supporting both industry and academia, it represents the greatest concentration of advanced manufacturing research capability in Europe. Dick is a career veteran from the automotive industry, with the bulk of his time spent at Land Rover and then Jaguar, where he was engineering director. At Land Rover, where he started his career as one of the key project team members on the original Discovery programme, he became a member of the Board from where he led the creation, development, and manufacture of the Freelander. Prior to his current role, Dick was the CEO of Torotrak plc the FTSE listed developer of traction drive technology. Dick takes a keen interest in engineering innovation at a national level as a board member of the Aerospace Growth Partnership and a member of the Automotive Council’s Technology group where he is responsible for the manufacturing agenda. He is a board member of the Henry Royce Institute and is on the council of the UKRI-STFC. He supports the research and technology community both here and in Europe through his board roles with AIRTO and EARTO. Dick is the holder of a Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering and is also a Fellow of the IMech E and IET. He was recognised for his contribution to manufacturing and technology in the UK with a CBE in 2018. Most recently Dick has been chairing the Ventilator Challenge UK Consortium.