Industrials group Liberty, part of Sanjeev Gupta’s global GFG Alliance, has recruited Jon Ferriman, one of the UK’s most senior steel executives, as integration director to help lead its expansion in continental Europe.
Liberty has made a binding conditional offer to acquire seven steel producing sites from ArcelorMittal in six European countries, including two major integrated works in the Czech Republic and Romania.
For Mr Ferriman, 53, this will be the latest step in a distinguished 36-year career which began with a mechanical apprenticeship at Llanwern steelworks in South Wales and led most recently to his appointment as Hub Director of Tata Steel UK, heading the company’s entire Strip Products UK business and its UK research and development activities.
Over the intervening years he has held a series of key leadership positions covering mainly flat product manufacturing within Tata Steel UK and its predecessors Corus and the British Steel Corporation, implementing major change programmes and guiding the business through some of the most difficult periods for the international steel sector.
In addition to these prominent operational roles, the Cardiff University mechanical and production engineering graduate and Chartered Engineer has been responsible for major innovation programmes within the UK steel industry.
He served as a board member of ‘Specific,’ the flagship research and development project involving Tata Steel, Welsh Government, Swansea University, and other industrial companies.
In 2014, Mr Ferriman was awarded a five-year honorary professorship by Swansea University Science and Engineering faculty in recognition of his personal contribution to the steel industry and technology.
Commenting on his new appointment, which he takes up on 1st April 2019, he said: “Liberty’s global growth and development over recent years has been extremely impressive and I’m looking forward to being part of this next exciting phase which will see the business become a major new force in the European steel industry.”
Executive chairman of the GFG Alliance, Sanjeev Gupta said: “We are taking on new challenges and scaling new heights, and Jon Ferriman is exactly the kind of talented, dynamic and experienced leader we need to take us through this next period of expansion.”
