UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 19 DECEMBER 2011
Sir Anthony Bamford, the Chairman of JCB Ltd., has been given a lifetime award for his contribution to British industry and the plant and equipment community.
The honour was announced at The Plant and Equipment Management Innovation Conference (PEMIC-11), held at Birmingham City University, an annual event to celebrate, promote and showcase industrial innovation within the sector. The conference also hosted the Off-highway Plant and Equipment Research Centre (OPERC) International Awards for Excellence. These honours are given to celebrate outstanding contributions made by professionals throughout the sector in recognition of particular industrial, professional or scientific endeavour. Additional awards are also made to leading academics who have consistently demonstrated sustained leadership and research output of international standing.
The annual conference is organised by Professor David Edwards and Professor Gary Holt from The Centre for Business Innovation and Enterprise (CBIE), which is based within Birmingham City Business School, in partnership with Off-highway Plant and Equipment Research Centre (OPERC). Lord Digby Jones gave the keynote speech to the leaders and academics within the plant and equipment business sector.
Sir Anthony succeeded his father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, whose initials the company is named after, as Chairman and Managing Director of JCB in 1975, at the age of 30. He was knighted in 1990.
Gold Award
Professor Edwards said: “JCB has a product range in excess of 300 machines and a turnover of over £2billion – not bad for a business that was started in what can only be described as a small shed. On behalf of industry and commerce it is a pleasure and honour to present this gold award to the best of British in every sense of the word and for a lifetime of achievement beyond all reasonable expectation.” The award was accepted on behalf of Sir Anthony Bamford by Tim Burnhope, Group Managing Director, Product Development and commercial Operations, JCB.held on 16 November,
Other recipients of awards include Martin Knott, Speedy hire plc, for outstanding contribution to health, safety and the environment within the plant and equipment hire sector; Chris Miller, Miller Plant Hire for outstanding contribution to plant and equipment professionalism and supporting apprentice engineers; Mark Owens, Simons Group for outstanding contribution to construction workplace safety and in particular hand-arm vibration, and Vic Spillard, Spillard Safety Systems who received the Barry Robinson Award for outstanding contribution to machinery design and most notably all round awareness technologies (including rear view cameras, convex mirrors etc).