Chris hopes to play a key role in British Steel's sustainability journey, alongside supporting the next generation develop their skills and drive the business forward. Chris encourages others to take opportunities as they present themselves, recognising that a wide range of skills are needed to support British Steel's growth.
What did you do before joining British Steel?
I joined British Steel straight from school as a technical apprentice at the British Steel Research and Development facility in South Yorkshire.
Why did you want to join British Steel?
I joined British Steel as a school leaver because it gave me the opportunity to continue in higher education through night school and day release whilst being able to gain work experience. During the interview and site tour, I was impressed with the technology and how the Research and Development process was looking into new types of steels and how they were tested and analysed. My dad and grandad had also previously worked in the steel industry in Rotherham.
What do you enjoy about your job?
Since working at Scunthorpe, I spent 23 years in manufacturing, over 20 of those years in steelmaking and casting operations. Steelmaking is quite a raw, and exciting process, however, it requires technically sophisticated solutions and technologies to ensure the process is accurately controlled which allows us to manufacture world class steel products.
The process also presents many challenges which need to be safely controlled, understanding the measures required to ensure the safety of our employees, a strong process safety focus and being environmentally responsible is essential.
Although I am no longer in the front line operations for the past few years, I enjoy supporting the business and plant areas to push forward on our safety journey, whilst developing innovative solutions to meet our customer expectations.
What does your day-to-day role involve?
My day-to-day role involves working with a number of different internal and external stakeholder to ensure our products and processes comply with the many health, safety, environment and product standards to which we operate. I also support the business with our low carbon roadmap and it’s plans for British Steel to become a low CO2 steelmaker which can have a sustainable future in a low carbon economy.
Where do you see yourself in 5 or 10 years' time within British Steel?
In five years time, I would like to be able to say I played a key role in the transition of British Steel to having a sustainable future, having embraced technologies and innovations for the long term, and significantly moved towards net zero.
I’m not sure about 10 years time as I would like to think the business was in the capable hands of the next generation to continue to drive it forward into the future.
What advice would you give to other people considering a career with us?
Working at British Steel presents opportunities across many disciplines from manufacturing, engineering, technical, procurement, commercial, HR, IT - diverse set of skills are required for our business to function effectively and efficiently. When opportunities are presented, grasp them and work hard, as you never know where the journey through your career may take you.