As many of you know Wolfgang Shöpplein retires in May and will be present at the AGM to say goodbye to many of his friends and colleagues he has worked with over the many years he has worked with the ESA.
We are pleased to announce his successor who will be present at the AGM and we look forward to hearing from them both during the General Meeting. Peter has kindly written a short overview of himself as an introduction which can be find below, and I hope you all find as interesting as I did.
Peter will circulate his contact details at the AGM or they are available in the Members Area – General Support folder.
Mark Neal, Secretary General
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Letter of introduction from Peter Bowden
Hi, my name is Peter Bowden and I will be succeeding Wolfgang Schöpplein as Technical Director for the Mechanical Seal Division. I am 65 years old, married with two grown children and two grandchildren.
My home is on the east side of Manchester in the UK. I have lived within 15 km of Manchester all my life apart from a total of nine months on secondment in Houston, Texas.
I started work at 16 as an apprentice fitter (mechanical and electrical) with British Railways, qualifying in 1974. During this period I also commenced study at a local College of Technology and was awarded a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering in 1979. Although that year is best remembered for the birth of my second child, my daughter, it was also the year I left BR to become an R&D engineer with Flexibox. Outside of R&D I also worked on Design, International Projects, Contracts and Technical support. Following my second secondment to Houston I undertook a Business Development role, initially for low emission sealing.
While an engineer by profession, I am a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, I found my talents were always best utilised in combined engineering / marketing roles.
In 1998 Flexibox became part of the John Crane group where I worked on integration, headed up technical and market information and finally as the Global Product Manager for API seals. During this time, I was a member of the Task Force working on the 4th Edition of API682.
I took early retirement in 2015. During my career in mechanical seals I authored and presented many technical papers around the world. I feel privileged that my profession took me across the USA, around most of Europe and Scandinavia and many parts of Asia… including one memorable trip to Australia when my luggage arrived the day before I left for home. I have met some great people throughout my career and look forward to doing the same in my new role.
I see this as a challenge, not least because I have to try to live up to Wolfgang’s standards, a man I have great respect for. I believe a key part of my role is to support you, working not for you but with you, because life has taught me we achieve far more by working together than we ever do working separately. I look forward to this role with great anticipation.
Outside of engineering I have hobbies, sometimes I wonder if I have too many for the hours in the week. I have some other ‘work’ – I am a volunteer with the U.K. National Trust near Manchester working a few hours a month at Quarry Bank mill. My favourite hobby by far is dancing, mostly cross body and Cuban salsa, it is great exercise for both body and brain. I also enjoy walking, gardening and listening to music. Finally, I am a passive football fan, Stockport County was my childhood team but, controversially for a Mancunian, I also support Liverpool.