SATRO, the Guildford based educational charity, is delighted to announce the appointment of Alan Foster, McLaren
Automotive Operations Director as new Trustee
Dr
Beccy Bowden CEO of SATRO has announced that Alan Foster has been appointed as a
SATRO Trustee. Dr Bowden said, “We are
delighted that Alan has joined the Board of SATRO – I know that his wealth of
business experience will be a huge benefit to us in continuing to grow and
develop our organisation. The Trustees of a small charity are very much unsung
heroes – we truly could not have survived in recent years without our
hard-working and knowledgeable Board."
Alan Foster commented, “Having
not excelled at school and chosen an apprenticeship route, I have an affinity
with SATROs vision. I was influenced by a couple of business leaders when I was
young and now find myself in a position where I can hopefully light a blazing
passion in people, so that they too can be supported to fulfil their true
potential. I bring enthusiasm, professional business knowledge and lots of
practical expertise to SATRO that will support the broad spectrum team in many
aspects of their pioneering work.”
Alan Foster’s career has spanned
39-years in the international automotive manufacturing industry, with over 20
years in management, executive and board positions. The last eleven years he
has been with McLaren as their Operations Director. McLaren Automotive are
manufacturers of some of the world’s most advanced, fastest and most expensive
high performance cars.
Alan also acts as a Brand
Ambassador for McLaren Automotive and regularly hosts internal events;
expanding the global awareness of the brand through interviews and videos. Alan
says, “The simplistic elegance of the manufacturing systems deployed within
McLaren has been referred to as “genius”. The philosophy is constructed around
simple visual controls and metrics, people systems and engagement.”
Before McLaren, Alan who started
as a Press Tool making Apprentice, went on to work in engineering, management
and executive roles at Ford Motor Company, Toyota UK at Burnaston, and from
1997 to 2005, for General Motors in the UK, Germany and in Switzerland, where
he was their Lean Consulting Group manager. Alan supplemented his work career
with academic qualifications, attaining a 1st class Honours Degree in
Manufacturing from Liverpool and an MBA from Cranfield. He was recently
acknowledged by The Manufacturer publication as one to the Top 100 most
influential people in the UK Manufacturing industry. He also holds Advisory
Board positions with Liverpool Superport and ICON Aircraft.
