Fibercore, a UK based global market leader in the design and manufacturing of specialty optical fibers would like to announce two board level appointments. Ex BAE Systems plc CEO, John Weston, has been appointed as Chairman of the Board and ex Thus plc COO, Phil Male, will act as strategic advisor.
These appointments follow the recent management buyout of the group from Cisco Systems, Inc by CEO Dr Chris Emslie backed by H.I.G. Capital, a private equity fund with over €8.5 billion in funds under management.
Dr Emslie comments, “We couldn’t ask for better, more experienced industry veterans for our Board. I am delighted to welcome John and Phil to Fibercore. Both are highly accomplished executives in their respective fields and their collective experience will be invaluable in helping shape the future of Fibercore.”
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| John Weston |
Having studied engineering at Cambridge, John Weston worked with what was to become BAE Systems plc until 2002. Ultimately becoming CEO, forming a group with $20 billion in sales and employing 120,000 people, he was a member of the quartet credited with turning around the group’s fortunes in the 1990s. Since leaving BAE Systems John has held a number of chairman positions including Spirent plc, iSOFT plc, and Inbis plc. He is currently working with MB Aerospace, an aerospace machining and design engineering business, Torotrack, a manufacturer of continuously variable transmissions and Lo-Q, a systems company in innovative queuing devices.
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| Phil Male |
Phil Male has been involved in the development of the media, internet and telecommunications sectors since the late 1980s. He obtained a computer science degree from Imperial College where he was involved in the early operations of the UK’s first academic IP networks. Phil became Technical Director with the start-up Demon Internet, one of the world’s first internet service providers. Upon its sale to and subsequent demerger from Scottish Power plc, he became a founder and Chief Operating Officer for Thus plc as it then became known. This was further sold to Cable and Wireless plc where Phil became Operations and Customer Services Director. Phil is now CEO of UK2 Group, a multinational data hosting group and holds various non-executive roles.
Founded 30 years ago, Fibercore was formed as a spin-out from the world-renowned Optical Fiber Group of the University of Southampton (ORC), offering specialty optical fibers developed at the university. Today, Fibercore is a global leader in specialty optical fiber, developing, designing and manufacturing specialty fiber for more than 300 customers across the world. Shipping over 1.4 million meters of fiber per month, Fibercore provides fiber for a broad range of applications. This includes fiber optic gyroscopes, hydrophones and geophones, harsh environments such as high temperatures, pressure, hydrogen or radiation, fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers, current sensors, other sensors including discrete and distributed, telecommunications components and other medical, government and research applications. These in turn serve a number of industries, including government defence and aerospace, telecoms , oil and gas, medical, energy, academic and research. The group’s operations are headquartered at Fibercore House, a custom built, Southampton based facility.
- Twitter: @Fibercore1
- Contact: +44 (0)2380 769893
H.I.G. Capital is a leading global private equity investment firm, with more than €8.5 billion of equity capital under management and a team of more than 225 investment professionals. Based in Miami, H.I.G Capital has U.S. offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and San Francisco, as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Paris and Rio de Janeiro. H.I.G. specializes in providing capital to small and medium sized companies with attractive growth potential. H.I.G. invests in management-led buyouts and recapitalizations of profitable, well managed manufacturing or service businesses. H.I.G. also has experience with financial restructurings and operational turnarounds. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. The firm’s current portfolio includes more than 80 companies, with combined revenues in excess of €12 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com.
