The British Textile Machinery Association (BTMA) has announced the appointment of Jason Kent as CEO of BTMA Group, effective Monday, 23 August 2021. BTMA was founded in 1940, which also includes subsidiaries nw texnet and The Textile Recorder (Machinery & Accessories) Exhibitions Ltd (TREX). The association actively promotes British textile machinery manufacturers and their products to the world, and also acts as a bridge between its members and the increasingly diversified industries in the textile manufacturing sector.
Jason Kent, who has spent 35 years of his career working in the carpet tufting machinery industry, has been a non-executive member of the BTMA board for over eight years. Kent is also a Chartered fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and also went on to study part-time for his MBA (Master of Business Administration) in 2011. As a time-served mechanical technician engineer, Kent ascended through a series of greater responsibilities at Cobble Blackburn until it was acquired by the Vandewiele Group in 2013, where he assumed the role of Managing Director for the tufting machinery business.
“The right person for leading the British Textile Machinery Association into the future”
BTMA Director Alan Little said Jason Kent is the right person for leading BTMA into the future; “Jason’s textile machinery background, business development skills, and extensive knowledge of BTMA and its members will help in delivering the strategic vision of the board. The current BTMA staff look forward to working alongside Jason to assist him in achieving his goals”.
Expressing the privilege to join BTMA, Jason Kent said; “I believe that there are several generational changes ahead that our members must face, and the BTMA needs to be ready and capable of supporting such challenges”.
“As I see it, we have three initial goals in providing better business outcomes for our members through active engagement in addressing industry skills deficits, ensuring we are at the forefront of the industrial digitalisation revolution, and leveraging opportunities brought about through innovation and the associated global focus on sustainability”.