"I had no clue what I was getting into!"

Two years ago, I made the decision to pack my bags and move out of Shanghai to HaiYan, to lead a company few outside of Wind industry had ever heard of and in a place that most people have never heard of!

I was lucky—joining Cooper & Turner only a few months after it was acquired by the Watermill Group gave me the opportunity, early on, to be a part of the experience as the Cooper & Turner Group started a new growth journey.

Since then, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with Watermill, our Chairman Ron Krisanda, the Brown’s (Tony and David - the original owners of Cooper & Turner ), more recently the Charbonnier’s (Hugues and Karine - the orignal owners of Beck), and many of our other people to shape both who we are and where we are going.

In these two years we were able to restructure, realign and reinvigorate our Cooper & Turner  China family and start a journey of transformation that I believe will enable us to succeed for years to come. 

I also learned and grew more than I could have imagined. Personal growth is a lifelong journey and I am always amazed at how much more there is to learn from those around me. 

Reflecting back, being a GM, Asia means taking tough decisions every day. I felt strongly that the future of our C&T China family was its people and our culture. I acted on that conviction. Whilst it was a major decision to make early in my tenure, it was clear that we had to say goodbye to people who had played an important role in the success of our company, and I elevated others to form a new senior leadership team for what became our Cooper & Turner  China family. I now work with incredible team of people who help me make the right choices for our Cooper & Turner China family and for our Cooper & Turner Group.

If, as a Cooper & Turner Group, we are truly going to fulfill our vision to become the preferred global provider of critical fastener solutions so that future generations will have a better life, we need to be willing to take bold moves in the most transformative areas of fasteners. Our mantra of ‘Yes WE Can’ was foremost as we merged with Beck, to form our new Cooper Turner Beck Group. 

It is essential that we are all extremely open minded as we build our new Cooper Turner Beck Group together. I’m sure some of my colleagues feel like that it has been cultural avalanche! It’s critical to remember, though, that our companies were brought together for a reason: the additive value of our combined heritage and our collective DNA is a competitive differentiator. In building our new one Cooper Turner Beck Group and one Cooper Turner Beck shared culture, whilst we must allow each locality to maintain its own personality – we must always put our Cooper Turner Beck Group and our Cooper Turner Beck culture first and foremost in everything we do.

This two years tested me in ways I have never experienced - physically, mentally, and emotionally. I sleep, exercise and see my family less – thank you for the extra 5kgs and bags under my blood shot eyes! Having me in this role is not easy for them. I’m away from home 5 or 6 nights a week. I make it a point to try to fully disconnect and be present with them. It takes discipline, and I do not always succeed, but I continually work at it.

I try to be mindful of the impact I can have on you. Every interaction I have with you, no matter how small, I try to be a powerful source of inspiration and energy, but equally, I know I can also cause disruption!

When I took on the role, I saw an opportunity to be part of a team that is intent on transforming what we have into the world’s preferred provider of safety critical fasteners powered by our people and technology. I am by nature someone who leans into change. But I’ve learned that helping to transform such a diverse enterprise will take great patience and consistency, and great people. 

We accomplished a lot in two years. Our Cooper Turner China family increased sales by almost x4 along with profit and capacity, and it has been a pleasure announcing record sales, record parts processed etc. on regular basis – even though cream cakes now have their own cost line item on our P&L! And it has been a pleasure to welcome 80+ new people to our China family of now 190 or so.  We have also added manufacturing and distribution facility in Singapore with a focus on energy and power generation industries.  Anchored in this success we will in early 2021 start-up our new bespoke 10,000m2 manufacturing and distribution facility in Chennai, India focusing initially on our Wind markets, and in mid-2021 we will start-up our new bespoke 18,000m2 manufacturing and distribution facility in Haiyan, China.  The future is exciting.

I have also learned that there will be negative and positive surprises almost every day. You can easily get caught up in the moment with these events and it can frustrate you if you lose perspective. 

After these two years, I feel a bit wiser and know that in the 160-year history of the Cooper Turner Beck Group and our predecessor companies, we will stay the course as we have for generations. While the customers, industries and market cycles will come and go, our fastener solutions will continue to endure the test of time. 

I am not here just to lead our Asia family for the next few years, but I’m here to be a part of our ‘ONE’ Cooper Turner Beck Group to help steer it toward another 160 years of creating incredible fastener solutions that can dramatically improve the life of future generations. That’s an extraordinary privilege and responsibility, and I get to do it alongside some amazing people - the reason I come to work every day.

I want to express my gratitude to everyone who supported, challenged, energized and inspired me these past two years – especially my boss, Tony. You all helped me to learn and become a better GM Asia, and thank you for helping both our Asia family and our ‘ONE’ Cooper Turner Beck Group get to where we are today. 

I wish you success on your own journey - whether you’re our leader, our leading a team or leading yourself. 

Whilst I had no clue what I was getting in to when I joined what is now Cooper Turner Beck Group, one thing I’m certain of - the best is yet to come!