Director Profiles
Roll your cursor over the photos to view an individual director’s profile.
Jonathan Templeman - CEO
Graduating from St Peter’s College, Oxford, in Modern History, Jon is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has worked as a Director of Pricewaterhouse Coopers (1984-2001), and as a Corporate Officer with Charter PLC. Jon went on to become Chief Financial Officer (2001-2002) and then CEO (2003-2009) at ESAB Holdings, before joining Bridon International in October 2009.
John Churchfield - Global Director of Operational Change
John gained an education Degree from Leeds University before joining Bridon as a Manufacturing Graduate Trainee. He subsequently ran the major manufacturing facilities within UK, before being appointed General Manager of Crane & Industrial Rope in 1997. Appointed President of Bridon America in 2000, John spent two four-year periods leading Bridon`s US based Distribution and Surface Mining business, whilst continuing to oversee Bridon Group`s international operational development.
Johannes Verwaayen - Chief Technologist
Johannes qualified as a mechanical engineer in 1979, joining Thyssen Draht AG wire rope division. When the wire and wire rope business was separated from Thyssen Stahl AG in 1994, he became responsible as Managing Director of the newly established Ltd, which was taken over by Bridon in October 1995. Johannes Verwaayen was appointed Technical Director in August 2004 and in September 2012 took on the role of Chief Technologist.
Chris Newton - Group Technical Director
Chris is a Chartered Materials Engineer with a BSc from Brunel University and a DPhil from Oxford University. Having worked in a range of technical roles for companies in Energy, Minerals and Metal industries Chris has gained over 30 years experience leading technology development. As part of 18 years with Alcan International, Chris had over 10 years based in UK and Canada in R&D and Technology programme management roles. Prior to joining Bridon Chris was Business Development Manager for Intertek-CAPCIS, joining Bridon as Product and Process Development Manager in 2011. Having played a key role in developing Bridon’s strategy to achieve global technology leadership in all of its key markets, Chris was appointed Group Technical Director in 2012.
Graham Hardcastle - Finance Director, Bridon International Ltd
Graham graduated from Nottingham University and trained as an accountant with Arthur Young in Manchester. He then joined Smiths Group plc where he spent a total of 18 years including 7 years working in the US, 5 years as the Finance Director of the Specialty Engineering Division and 2 years as the Finance Director of the Medical Division. Prior to joining Bridon was CFO of Global Operations for Smith and Nephew for 4 years.
Ivan Ng - Managing Director, Asia Pacific
Ivan graduated with a commerce degree from Australia and during his working life completed his MBA. He has worked and lived in major cities in Asia namely Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin not to mention his home country Singapore. He has wide ranging industrial experience in Sales & Marketing Management, Factory Operations and International Business. Ivan has held several senior regional management positions in Asia with Reynolds Metals Inc. ,Schott Asia and before joining Bridon, he was General Manager for Sundyne Asia: a UTC company. Ivan is the Managing Director for Bridon Asia Pacific.
Chris Dugan - Managing Director, Bridon American Corporation
Chris earned a BA (cum laude) from University of Rochester, after which he served as a U.S. Navy SEAL officer for 9 years. He earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania and was subsequently hired as a consultant by McKinsey & Company. He then held positions as a Sales and Marketing leader for United Technologies, and ran a global Interconnect P&L for Cooper Industries.
