Ben Gaffney has joined UK high mobility vehicle specialist, Supacat, as Deputy Head of New Programmes following a 17 year career in the Royal Marines. A graduate of the Joint Command and Staff course at the UK Defence Academy, he brings both Operational and Defence capability management experience.

He has been responsible for the delivery of Combat capabilities to front line units and the development of specialist capabilities to the UK’s Commando Force. In his new role he will oversee the successful delivery of the £23 million Norwegian Special Operations Vehicle Project awarded to Supacat last year for a new fleet of HMT Extenda vehicles.

Ben will also be responsible for developing new commercial opportunities in UK and export defence markets for Supacat’s range of vehicles, which include the HMT Series, LRV 400 and SPV 400. Supacat has a world lead in the niche special operations vehicle sector where the HMT Extenda has become the vehicle of choice.

“Ben brings to Supacat a huge amount of end user experience in protected mobility and his understanding of users’ needs will be a major asset in building strong relationships with our stakeholders. Ben also has the distinction of successfully rowing the Atlantic in a two man boat and we’re delighted to have him on our team”, said Phil Applegarth, Head of Supacat.

SC Group has appointed commercial collaboration specialist Al Goodwin as Head of Commercial, a newly created role which bolsters the engineering group’s management team. Al joins from UK Top 100 law firm, Foot Anstey, where as a Partner he led a growing Complex Contracts and Collaborations practice.   As part of this he also advised SC Group.

He qualified with the London based international firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and advised on more than £40-billion worth of major projects involving the UK Ministry of Defence, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Barclays Bank plc and numerous public and private sector clients across a wide range of industry sectors.

He is also a frequent contributor to the Procurement and Outsourcing Journal, a regular speaker on Collaboration, and was commended in the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers 2014.

“We are delighted to welcome Al to SC Group. His expertise and sector experience will be invaluable in driving forward our growth and diversification strategy, which is based on forming successful alliances and teaming agreements to enter new sectors, such as nuclear, and to expand within our core defence market,” said Nick Ames, CEO of SC Group.

SC Group has been best known for its Supacat brand of high mobility vehicles, such as `Jackal` operated by British Armed Forces in Afghanistan and by Special Forces worldwide. Over recent years the company has successfully diversified into adjacent sectors by applying its hostile environment engineering skills to develop and build products for the marine, renewable energy and oil & gas sectors

With permission, we now have these fantastic images in our HMT400 Gallery.

Please click the link below to view:

https://www.supacat.com/products/hmt/hmt400/2/

 

The January 2016 edition of Manufacturing and Engineeering (MEM) Magazine features a fantastic three double-page feature article on Blackhill Engineering, part of SC Group.

The online version can be accessed free of charge from the following link:

https://www.joomag.com/magazine/manufacturing-and-engineering-magazine-volume-425-january-2016/0133695001454414574?short

Please click through to page 48-49 for the relevant article.