Oxley Group Strengthens Leadership Team

The Oxley Group Board has conducted a review of its business and is re-aligning its strategic direction and its management processes to ensure that the full potential of the Group is achieved.

The core capabilities and intellectual property of the Group reside principally in the UK therefore it is considered important that the Group has its senior officers located in the UK.  The roles of Group Chief Executive Officer and Group Finance Director will be moving to the UK.   Martin Blakstad has assumed the position of Group Chief Executive Officer. Martin is a 56 year old, very experienced executive originally with a financial background who has, more recently, been working in the telecommunications, broadcast and media industries and who has been a non-executive Director of Oxley Group since August 2012.

Martin will be supported by Martin Sloan, President of Oxley Inc who will be addressing the significant and demanding USA market opportunities for the Group as well as taking a wider role to deliver a cohesive product and sales strategy for the worldwide Lighting and Systems Business Unit.  The Components Business Unit will continue to be run by Steve Wells.

Unfortunately, one of the consequences of this decision is that position of ODC Managing Director is no longer required, as the Group CEO will also assume this role. Peter Cotterill has therefore ceased his function as Managing Director of ODC and has left the Group; but continues to support the transition to the new business structure.

With effect from the 7th November Jackie Kelly has joined Oxley Group as Chief Financial Officer, Jackie is an experienced CFO  with knowledge of  the defence industry.  The existing CFO Mark Pritchard has indicated that he wishes to remain in the USA and is therefore leaving the Group.

The result of this re-organisation will be an improvement to the Group operating efficiency, responsiveness to customers, reactivity to market opportunities and a more focused product development strategy, whilst maintaining the Oxley commitment to quality and innovation.

Oxley continue to be industry leaders as evidenced by winning both the Innovation Award and the Manufacturer of the Year Award (joint winner) at the CN Group Business Awards in the last month.

The award win reflects the recent investment Oxley has recently made in a new state of the art production area, the new facility is enabling more efficient working on a range of contracts including the supply of LED lighting to submarines for the Australian navy and smart interior lighting for the Foxhound armoured vehicle.

Oxley has enjoyed a number of recent contract successes including providing LED navigation lighting for the new Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers currently under construction for the Royal Navy.  The team are currently working on one of the most complex lighting systems ever produced by the company, for the fly-by-wire refuelling boom of the KC-46, a multi-mission military aerial refuelling aircraft under development by Boeing.