The British Valve and Actuator Association (BVAA) has marked its 80th anniversary AGM with the launch of a new Future Leader Award, with Rotork’s Dave Godfrey named 2019 winner.
Established to recognise ongoing achievements of former participants on the BVAA’s Future Leaders Programme, the award is sponsored by the longstanding valve industry family the Greenhalghs. Martin Greenhalgh, Technical Consultant at the BVAA, presented the award. Four generations of his family have been involved in the valve industry, and Martin’s grandfather James Greenhalgh was a founding member of the association at its first meeting in September 1939.
Dave Godfrey, aged 35, joined the first cohort of the BVAA Future Leaders Programme in 2016. Programme leaders have been impressed with the way he’s applied learnings from the course in the real world to further his own career and benefit the wider industry. Earlier this year he was co-opted to the BVAA Board to give voice to younger members of the industry on a platform that tends to be dominated by an older demographic. He also now leads the project element of the Future Leaders Programme.
The BVAA’s mission is to support and raise awareness of the British valve and actuator industry in line with relevant issues, opportunities, and prevailing conditions. It was established 80 years ago and has around 200 members ranging from specialist SMEs to global engineering firms. The industry is a major STEM employer in the UK: 9,000 people are directly employed by valve and actuator businesses, and the industry contributes GBP 3bn to the UK economy each year.