Senior appointments at AluK
AluK has made several new key appointments, including two appointments to the UK Board, with Paul Booth joining as R&D director and manufacturing specialist James Schools joining as finance director, plus the appointment of Jordan Kingman to a new role as head of architectural projects.
Paul Booth is an award-winning product designer with more than 40 years’ experience in aluminium system design. He says the opportunity to join AluK and lead a complete transformation of its product range ahead of the challenges presented by Future Homes was one he couldn’t turn down.
Paul commented: “Under Russell Yates’ leadership, AluK is a reinvigorated business in the UK with exciting plans and substantial backing from the European Group in terms of investment and resources. I’m delighted to be a part of that, and I’m already working with Russell and the rest of the engineering and technical team to remodel the new product development programme so that it is quicker, more streamlined and more customer focused.
“One of the key things that attracted me to this role was AluK’s philosophy of being a global company but retaining local market influence in product design, so that we design products which meet local market needs, rather than trying to force a one size fits all product onto the market. In line with that, I’m already getting out and about meeting customers to ensure that we are delivering on exactly what they want, and I can promise some welcome announcements soon on our slider and bi-fold offering.”
James Schools is a relative newcomer to the window and door market but has 14 years of finance experience working extensively with manufacturing entrepreneurs. He is promising to shift the focus of AluK’s finance offering, so that it better supports the needs of the company’s fabricator customer base.
He said: “I want to see us working more closely in partnership with our customers, focusing on how to improve the customer experience, whilst also re-investing into the continued evolution and growth of the business, and I have lots of new initiatives in mind to help us to do that.”
An experienced façade engineer, Jordan was specification manager at AluK from 2011 until 2020. During that time, he is said to have played a key role in helping the company build its reputation for adding value at the design and specification stage of projects, with a real willingness to work collaboratively with both architects and contractors.
He said: “I can’t wait to start reconnecting with specifiers on behalf of AluK again. We’ve recently implemented NBS Chorus so that we can work even closer with design teams in the future, and I’m really looking forward to helping our fabrication partners get involved in some exciting new projects.”
As well as heading up the commercial sales team, Jordan is also now responsible for AluK’s design studio in Shoreditch, where there are full size products on display and a regular programme of architect-focused events and CPDs.
He added: “The Design Studio is a really good example of our collaborative ethos – it’s a space which is open to all and a great location to bring project teams together.”
