Pam Murrell, CEO of the Cast Metals Federation and current Chair of the Metals Forum, presented Giles Willson with a case of wine in appreciation of his work running the UK Metals Council since its inception in 2015.  During his time as Manager, the Metals Council has established a number of work-streams with representation from large and small employers from the sector, to work collaboratively on topics such as training & education, energy, supply chain and sustainability & the circular economy, as well as responding to consultations, working with officials from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, at a time of significant uncertainty and change for the manufacturing sector in the UK.

“I would like to thank Giles for all his work setting up the Council and coordinating the work-streams over the last couple of years and wish him well in his new role”, said Pam.  “The Metals Council is still very young but already we have been able to raise the profile of the sector and demonstrate the importance of metals to the rest of the manufacturing supply chain.  We are keen to build upon the work to date and are in the process of recruiting a new person to run the Council as soon as possible.  One of the work-streams is currently involved in an exercise to map the metals supply chain for components in the automotive, aerospace, construction and renewable energy supply chain – this is important work which will identify weaknesses and opportunities for UK plc.  As a mature sector, metals are not always seen as important, and therefore faces some particular challenges as it is dominated by SMEs.  But there is increasingly a recognition that metals are a valuable resource and there are opportunities for the sector to grow in the UK and provide a number of highly skilled jobs.”