Judges Scientific appoints new group commercial director

Judges Scientific, a company specialising in acquiring and developing businesses within the scientific instrument sector, announced the appointment of Dr Ian Wilcock to its board as group commercial director on Monday.

The AIM-traded firm said the appointment was effective immediately.

It said Dr Wilcock was bringing 30 years of experience in senior roles across FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 technology and scientific instrument companies.

He would work closely with Mark Lavelle and Dr Tim Prestidge to support the growth and development of Judges Scientific's portfolio of businesses.

Dr Wilcock's career began at Renishaw, and he later played key roles in the leadership teams of small-to-medium enterprises that were acquired by larger corporations, including Footfall by Experian in 2006 and Irisys by Danaher in 2012.

He spent four years with Danaher before joining Oxford Instruments, where he served on the management board for eight years, leading the company's materials analysis division and driving significant growth.

Throughout his career, Dr Wilcock has led teams that had won multiple awards including three Queen's Awards for Enterprise in Innovation and a King's Award in the same category.

Dr Wilcock holds degrees in chemical physics from the University of Edinburgh, an MBA from the University of Bath, and completed post-doctoral research with Nobel laureate Gerhard Ertl's group at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin.

“We are delighted to welcome Ian to the Judges board, who brings with him a wealth of valuable experience,” said chairman Alex Hambro.

“We look forward to benefiting from his expertise as the Group continues to execute its buy and build growth strategy.”

At 1124 BST, shares in Judges Scientific were down 1.47% at 10,296p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.