Our people

Appointed to the board as Non-executive Director on 22 February 2008, Roger McDowell became Chairman in March 2008. After University Roger worked for some 20 years with Oliver Ashworth Ltd., a pipeline products distributor, where he became MD and was instrumental in growing sales from £1 million to over £100 million and achieving a full listing on the London Stock Exchange. Roger has held a number of non-executive appointments in both private, Official List and AIM quoted companies across a diverse set of sectors.

John was appointed as a Non-executive Director on 22 February 2018. John held several executive roles in the NDA including latterly both the CEO and Accounting Officer to Parliament from 2012 to 2017, responsible for managing the activities across 19 nuclear sites in the UK. Prior to joining the NDA John was Managing Director of International Nuclear Services and spent 23 years at Sellafield. John holds a number of other non-executive and advisory roles in the energy, infrastructure and charitable sectors. John is Chair of the Remuneration Committee.

Les was appointed as a Non-executive Director on 1 September 2014. Les has over 40 years’ experience in the Oil and Gas industry, in various subsurface, engineering, operational and senior management positions. Les was CEO of Ithaca Energy, a significant North Sea Oil & Gas producer, from 2013 to 2020 and has previously served as a main Board Director of Wood Group and Chief Executive of its Production Facilities business and Group Director responsible for HSE. Prior to this, he spent 22 years with Marathon Oil, including four years as European Business Unit Leader. Les is Chairman of the Audit Committee and Senior Independent Director.

Steve joined Avingtrans as CEO in 2008. Prior to joining Avingtrans, he held senior executive roles at Serco, the National Physical Laboratory, Oxford Instruments, Mars Inc. and GEC Marconi. Steve has a 1st class degree in Engineering. He is currently a trustee director on the Board of the Institute of Export and was previously a non-executive director of the EEF (now Make UK) and the UK Atomic Energy Authority.

Stephen was appointed Finance Director and Company Secretary in September 2002. He is also a Director and Company Secretary for each of the UK Subsidiary companies. Before joining Avingtrans, Steve worked for PWC where he was a Senior Manager in the Assurance and Specialist Transaction practice. Stephen obtained a first degree in Mechanical Engineering and has since gained extensive experience in M&A having overseen more than 15 acquisitions and 2 disposals to date and establishment of the Chinese WFOE’s, capital raising, reporting and restructuring.

Jo joined the board as a Non-executive Director on 1 March 2022. Jo has over 20 years’ experience as an equity research analyst, focusing on capital goods/industrial companies in both sell-side and buy-side roles. She was a Senior Research Analyst at Singer Capital Markets from 2009 to 2019. Prior to this she held roles at Merrill Lynch, British Steel Pension Fund and NatWest Markets. Jo has a BA Hons in Mathematics from Oxford and is a member of the CFA society of the UK.

Austen Adams joined the Avingtrans plc main board as Chief Operating Officer in 2025. He has extensive international experience in managing and developing world-class manufacturing businesses, frequently through turnaround and growth following acquisition.

Since joining the Group, Austen has led the successful development of both the PSRE and AES divisions, establishing AES as a high-performing collection of industrial businesses with a global customer base. He has also played a central role in Avingtrans’ M&A strategy, with a strong track record in leading and integrating acquisitions followed by lucrative exits to create and deliver long-term shareholder value.

Austen is a main board director of Make UK and formerly served as Chairman of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Business Board (LEP). He is a committed advocate for UK manufacturing and for supporting the development of young people in engineering.

Duncan has spent the last 12+ years living and working in Brisbane, having grown up and worked in the UK prior to moving to Australia. Duncan has a business and technical background, with over 20 years of experience gained from high-tech product commercialization in a range of industries including medtech, energy, mining, defence and satellite communications.

Duncan holds a number of qualifications, including an MBA from The University of Queensland and two technical degrees from Universities in the UK.  He is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Chartered Engineer.

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Willem Baralt is a Non-Executive Board Director and Chairman with significant international start-up, PE-backed, listed company and not-for-profit experience across Healthcare, Telecoms & Technology, Real Estate and Finance. He specializes in facilitating commercial growth, developing sustainable strategies, fundraising, M&A, and building teams.

He joined as Chairman of Adaptix in February 2023 and currently serves on the Boards of several private healthcare companies and charities.  Previously, he oversaw the NASDAQ IPO of Flag Telecom and set up the first startup boutique investment bank in Dubai’s financial center. He later served as NED and Chair of Chestertons for 8 years, supporting its growth to become one of the largest UK real-estate agencies.  Most recently, he was at Quanta Dialysis Technologies where he grew the company from R&D through FDA clearance, commercialization and the largest private dialysis company raise in history ($245m).

Willem obtained his MBA at Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Chicago and has degrees in Corporate Governance from Wharton and Sustainability from Oxford.

Sarah Small BSc, ACA is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience of leading financial functions, including C-level experience within an AIM listed company .

Sarah has worked across a various number of industry sectors including digital marketing, retail, entertainment, education and construction. Sarah has a mathematics degree from Warwick University.

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