Nick Welch

Telford, United Kingdom After 25 years with RTITB, Nick Welch has retired as technical director. Welch joined RTITB in 1996 as an auditor/examiner and was later promoted to technical manager, eventually landing his current role as technical director. His role comprised of many different aspects - from providing technical reporting and business updates to the RTITB Board of Directors to interviewing new members of staff for the auditing and examination teams. Welch provided technical materials handling equipment guidance and compliance-based decisions and opinions to support the RTITB Team of auditors, examiners, and administrators. Part of his remit was also to write, sign off, and manage all of the training materials written by customers. Another important role he had was to provide professional opinions for prosecutions and defence teams where workplace transport incidents occurred. From 2017-2019, Welch was also chairman of the Accrediting Bodies Association for Workplace Transport (ABA).

Tull

Tornesch, Germany Elokon Group has appointed Gavin Tull as the new sales manager, UK. He brings a deep knowledge of the deployment of safety and assistance systems within the materials handling sector, having worked for materials handling organisations in both the USA and the UK. Tull will continue to advance the international growth of Elokon as a leading supplier of safety and assistance systems. Tull was responsible for EMEA sales for eight years at Hyster-Yale Group, before moving to a role focused on the use of AI, intelligent sensors and machine learning, to help protect people working in close proximity to forklifts and mobile plant. "We are thrilled that Gavin Tull is joining Elokon at this time. He brings with him a significant amount of sales experience and leadership qualities that will positively impact and support our growth strategy for the UK market," says Alexander Glasmacher, managing director of Elokon Holding. "He will be a key figure in expanding our UK footprint and in hiring and managing UK-based service technicians, to enable us to even better support our strong UK customer base."

Pruitt

Chicago, IL, United States Chris Pruitt, CEO and president of battery giant East Penn, has been appointed president of Battery Council International. Pruitt, as with East Penn, has a long association with BCI. He joined East Penn as a financial controller in 1986 before becoming CFO in 1999 and president of the firm in January 2018. He takes over from Dave Shaffer, CEO of EnerSys, who comes to the end of his two-year tenure of the BCI presidency. The new board of directors also consists of: Rick Heller of C&D Technologies/Trojan Battery, who becomes treasurer; Bill Moll from GS Yuasa as vice president, and Terry Murphy from Hammond Group as BCI secretary.