UKESF appoints its first CEO
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation appoints Stewart Edmondson as its first CEO
The UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF) announces today Stewart Edmondson as its first CEO, with the mandate to expand the Foundation’s services and scope to support the development of world class skills for the UK electronic systems industry.
Stewart succeeds Dr Wendy Daniell, who is retiring from her position of executive director, a position she has held since the formation of the UKESF in 2009. Since that time, Wendy has worked alongside the Foundation’s founders and industry partners to lead the development of the UKESF to be the recognised, established and successful body it is today.
Stewart served for over 20 years as an Engineering Officer in the Royal Air Force, specialising in operational communications-electronics systems prior to assuming senior positions responsible for ICT policy and training, maintenance regulations and information management. Subsequent to leaving the RAF, Stewart worked at QinetiQ before undertaking executive roles in HR Services at Xchanging and then BAE Systems, where he focused on early careers programmes for graduates and apprentices. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Stewart said, “I’m excited and delighted to be joining UKESF as its first CEO. It is vital for the UK’s electronics industry that the skills challenge is tackled. I shall be building on the excellent foundations laid so far at UKESF and working to expand the scope and scale of our activities in order to help meet this challenge.”
Indro Mukerjee, founding chair of the UKESF advisory board and chairman of FlexEnable Ltd, said, “We are very pleased to have Stewart as our first Chief Executive. He joins us with a well-grounded appreciation of engineering skills due to his technical background and senior management experience. We are looking forward to working with Stewart, who will be taking UKESF to the next level in ensuring we help meet the wider skills needs of the industry.
“On behalf of the UKESF board, I would also like to thank Wendy Daniell for her endless energy and commitment to get UKESF off the ground and making it the successful and highly regarded programme it has become today. We wish her a happy retirement from her executive role but are pleased that she will remain connected with the Foundation as an advisory board member.”
Since UKESF was launched, the number of industry sponsors has grown from eight to nearly thirty, sponsoring regional competitions for 12–14 year-old school pupils, summer schools for pre-university school students and scholarships for electronic engineering undergraduates. The number of leading UK universities partnered with UKESF has increased from five to thirteen; with significant numbers of top students having benefitted from UKESF scholarships.