Duncan Kerr, the newly appointed CEO at Scintam Engineering, shares his vision for future growth
Duncan Kerr wasn’t looking for a job when the opportunity arose to become Scintam’s new CEO. “I actually made myself redundant from my last CEO role as a cost-cutting measure, and was enjoying my time off.”
Duncan has a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge University and years of experience managing early-stage businesses. Having previously worked as CEO of Aeristech, a specialist in high-speed electric motor and compressor technologies, he was excited by the opportunity to take Scintam into its next phase of growth.
Andrea Mica at Oxford Technology Management posted on LinkedIn looking for someone with experience leading an engineering product company and a mutual contact, Ian Woodcock, recommended him. Founding CEO, Sam Catchpole-Smith, was leaving to travel in South East Asia and Scintam needed someone to lead the company towards sales of its cutting-edge FastEDR technology.
One month in, we sat down with Duncan to ask him about his vision and objectives for the business. He also shared the best advice he’s been given as a leader, and the challenges he foresees along the way to growth.
You’ve been at Scintam for a month - have there been any surprises? How's it going?
“I think it's going well, I'm very much an optimist, I hope that I'm right. I haven’t found any unexpected surprises. It's a very exciting opportunity - I like the idea of working in aerospace.”
What are the main objectives you are focusing on at Scintam at the moment?
“The main objective at the moment is to raise the next round of funding. We're looking to raise half a million pounds, mainly looking to high net worth business angels. The fundraising is EIS eligible, so that's a good tax break for UK-based investors,” says Duncan.
“The next priority is to raise market awareness for our solution for the CFM56 engine, which Casla is helping with, so that's a major push. The FastEDR system unlocks seized fasteners in gas turbines - that’s jet engines and gas electricity generation to the layman.
"The other major priority is to commercialise the ARTES automated machine for removing fasteners from automotive components such as turbochargers.
"Scintam is developing further grant-funded innovations for the removal of seized fasteners from gas turbines, including adjustable gantries and machine vision for accurate alignment and so that the operator doesn’t have to hold the FastEDR device.”
Over the next year what is your vision?
“Sales of FastEDR and ARTES, absolutely.”
What are your plans further down the line?
“We have some plans to have a higher power so that we can work on wider diameter bolts, more machine vision and for the ARTES application, developing tapping so that we can use the machines to tap holes for screws, and also screw and unscrew screws using that machine,” Duncan says.
What are the biggest challenges you foresee?
“Raising the money and sales,” Duncan says. “We're quite confident about technical ability to overcome technical challenges, we have a very good team of engineers for that. It's the commercialisation which is the main challenge, as it usually is.”
What’s one lesson from your past experiences that you’re bringing into this role?
“Not to grow overheads before it’s justified by sales. I'm not going to employ a salesperson before I've been through the whole sales process myself and know what it involves,” he says.
“I'll grow the staff and resource base according to demand - we're not going to employ ahead of the need.”
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a leader?
“Communication. Always communicate with staff about what's happening all the time,” Duncan says. “Making sure everyone's aware of where you're trying to get to and being open and honest.
“I suppose this is advice I would give, that it's just better to listen and to lead in a way where you're not telling people what to do but they're contributing because they understand what you're trying to achieve and want to help.”