Filtronic names McLaren executive as new chairman

The Leeds-based firm has appointed Jonathan Neale as its new non-executive chairman. Mr Neale has been chief operating officer of McLaren Group for the past five years, prior to which he held a number of executive roles including chief executive of McLaren Racing F1.

Mr Neale, who will take over the role of Filtronic's chairman on November 15, will also be a member of the audit and remuneration committee, as well as chair of the nominations committee.

Filtronic, which designs and makes products for the aerospace, defence, telecoms infrastructure and critical communications markets, said that Mr Gott retired at the firm's AGM on October 28.

The group said that Mr Neale has taken on a number of principal roles at McLaren, leading strategic operational and infrastructure planning for the business and has been pivotal in the integration of the McLaren Racing, McLaren Applied and McLaren Automotive businesses.

Prior to McLaren, Mr Neale was at BAE Systems, UK, as managing director - Hawk Military Aircraft.

He started by working as a project design engineer where he led major systems projects for commercial aircraft. He was then promoted to director of operations and support operations at BAE’s Manchester and Prestwick sites. Whilst in the role, he was responsible for aircraft production, customer support and pilot training.

After that, he returned to defence systems and aircraft, taking charge of the Hawk Fast Jet Programme as managing director in 1999.

Mr Neale gained an MBA during the 1990s and participated in the UK Government’s prestigious Top Management Programme working with public and private sector colleagues.

He graduated from the University of Nottingham with an honours degree in physics and is a fellow of the Institute of Directors, a council member of The Foundation for Science and Technology charity, a fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology and a chartered engineer.

Richard Gibbs, Filtronic's chief executive, said: “I am delighted to welcome Jonathan to Filtronic, with his extensive aerospace experience and leadership across fast moving technology businesses, and I look forward to working with him as we seek to execute engineering programs and scale the organisation."

Mr Neale said: “I have been impressed with the capabilities of the Filtronic organisation and I look forward to working with the board to expand and grow the Filtronic capability from its very solid engineering base into new markets, partnerships and customers."