United Kingdom / Europe

Mike Lapham
Mike has been involved with consumer durables for much of his working life. He is an engineer by profession and his most recent role was that of Group Operations Director at Kenwood Appliances. This role encompassed the responsibilities for design, procurement, warehousing, quality,shipping and the manufacture of domestic appliances. He was responsible for factories in Southern England and Southern China and has sourced finished product, assemblies and raw material throughout Asia. He has more than fifteen years experience in dealing with procurement and manufacturing in China and was instrumental in transferring production from the UK to China, a project which involved the substantial reduction of the UK workforce and the transfer of plant and tools whilst maintaining service levels.

Tim Beech
Tim is a Chartered Accountant. Formally a Corporate Finance Partner with Grant Thornton, he joined Kenwood Appliances as Finance Director at the time of the MBO and eventually became Managing Director. With ten years relevant experience Tim is well versed in all of the financial aspects of sourcing from overseas and was key in the acquisition and absorption of Kenwood's Chinese factory.

China / Hong Kong

Brenda Chang
Brenda is a graduate of Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a Professional Diploma in Purchasing and Supply and a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Studies. Brenda is well connected in the 'procurement world' and has over twenty years experience in purchasing, materials management, QA, inspection and logistics.

Joseph Ho
Joseph has a degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is an expert in ISO9001 quality management systems and quality audits. In his early career he held a number of manufacturing engineering supervisory positions.

Both Brenda and Joseph are Hong Kong/Chinese Nationals who speak fluent Mandarin and Cantonese.