Mark Ridgway

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT MARK RIDGWAY

C. Mark Ridgway, OBE, DL, Hon.DUniv CEO, Group Rhodes Limited. Mark is Chairman and CEO of Group Rhodes, a Wakefield headquartered advanced engineering group, and past winners of Queen’s Awards for both Innovation and International Trade. Underlining his long-standing commitment to manufacturing, Mark is Chair of the Engineering and Machinery Alliance (EAMA), an organisation established to represent the interests of the sector with government, He is also a Director and Past President of the UK’s Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) and Council Member of the Metalforming Machinery Makers Association. Government appointments have included the BIS (now DBT) Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative and DBT’s Advanced Engineering Sector Advisory Board for whom, as Interim Chair he headed UK Trade Missions to India and China. He currently sits on a DBT trade advisory group (TAG). Over recent years Mark has been awarded the title of Regional Manufacturing Champion (NE) by Make UK (previously the Engineering Employers Federation) and listed in the Manufacturer’s UK Top 100. He was also appointed the UK’s Advanced Engineering Sector Champion for the London Olympic Games. Mark has chaired local government bodies and sat on the main board of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), chairing its Employer Ownership of Skills Board. He is currently engaged with EURIS, a body that seeks to deliver a positive outcome for the UK manufacturing sector from the Brexit process. Mark was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2011 for Services to Industry and is a Deputy Lieutenant to the West Yorkshire Lieutenancy. He holds an MSc in Manufacturing Leadership from Leeds University Business School, Honorary Doctorates from Sheffield Hallam University and Leeds Beckett University, and is a Visiting Professor at Huddersfield University.