BMT appoints Sarah Kenny as Chief Executive

Posted on 9 May, 2017 by Advance 

BMT Group Ltd (BMT), the leading international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has appointed Sarah Kenny as the successor to Peter French, the current Chief Executive who retires in September.

Sarah (above) joins BMT on the 1st August.

BMT’s Chairman, Sir John Hood explained: “Sarah is well qualified to take on this role. She is ambitious for BMT and her extensive background in the marine and defence industries means she is ideally positioned to ensure that BMT’s research and development roots are cultivated and innovation nurtured.  Her mission is to continue the creation of higher value services that sharpen BMT’s competitive edge, whilst adding value to its customers, many of whom have complex requirements.”

Sarah comes from QinetiQ, with deep knowledge of the maritime defence and commercial sectors. As an active mentor and a STEM ambassador, she is passionate about developing people to help them realise their potential. Sarah’s latest role at QinetiQ saw her establish and lead the Maritime, Land & Weapons business as Managing Director, reporting to the Group CEO. She has a solid track record of delivering customer success and strong business performance, whilst harnessing innovation through rapid development and exploitation of ideas and technology.  Sarah is very proud to be an Honorary Officer of the Royal Navy.

Sarah Kenny commented: “The maritime sector and its adjacent markets are rapidly evolving. In this environment, there are exciting opportunities for organisations that are agile, and work in partnership with their customers and supply chains, innovating to meet and anticipate their needs. BMT has a compelling blend of world-class technical specialists, an incredible body of knowledge, and a track record of innovating and collaborating. This is an excellent foundation to build upon and I very much look forward to working with the BMT team to take the business and its people into a new phase of success and growth.”

Commenting on Peter’s retirement, Sir John Hood said: “Peter is a man of enormous integrity who has contributed very considerably to BMT over the past 27 years, the last 12 as Chief Executive. During his leadership tenure, he has overseen a remarkable period where BMT has played a major role in delivering engineering excellence internationally. A business in constant evolution, adapting to the world as it develops, BMT has been led and nurtured by Peter to its most recent cycle of transformation. The Board and staff of BMT wish Peter a long and fulfilling retirement.”

During Peter’s tenure as Chief Executive, BMT has demonstrated its engineering pedigree through world-leading projects. For example, the company is a leading independent expert in submarine design; the Royal Navy’s future aircraft carrier and MARS tankers are BMT designs; BMT’s ship-manoeuvering simulator REMBRANDT is in use onboard international shipping fleets. The company has fed into or led over 100 EU research projects and some of the world’s most iconic buildings such as the Burj Al Arab and the Beijing Olympic Stadium have had their aerodynamics modelled in its wind tunnels. BMT also uses high end technology, sophisticated modelling techniques, sensors and big data to transform the shipping industry and make ports more secure.