OPEN MIND Expands Service Team
13.06.2024 — With the relentless rate of growth at OPEN MIND Technologies UK, the Bicester-based CAD/CAM developer has now expanded its service team. To build upon its already exceptional reputation for service and support, OPEN MIND has employed three new Applications Engineers and it has restructured its application engineering team to streamline and strengthen the already industry-leading CAD/CAM brand.
Through the spring, OPEN MIND appointed Gareth Clarke, Matthew Brill and Victor Fapohunda as the three new Applications Engineers to bolster the pre-and post-sales departments. The dynamic new additions will undoubtedly enhance the existing service and support functions provided by the world’s leading 5-axis CAM developer.
Matthew Brill has accelerated his career progression since leaving school more than 10 years ago. He has completed a foundation degree in motorsport technology and from university, he worked as a Number One Mechanic for an international motor racing team before moving into manufacturing where he spent several years working for a high-end subcontract manufacturer in the motorsport industry. Firstly, he was employed as an assembly technician and machine setter and he rapidly evolved to CNC programming in 3 and 5 axis becoming lead programmer before joining OPEN MIND.
Joining the team alongside Matthew is Gareth Clarke, an engineer who started his engineering career more than 10 years ago. Working for a number of subcontract manufacturers, Gareth has evolved from CNC machining and programming to becoming a Team Leader and subsequently Head of Programming in his final role before joining OPEN MIND.
Gareth has comprehensive 3, 4 and 5-axis experience on a complete variety of machine tools and he has worked on a multitude of CAM systems. In his most recent role as a Head of Programming for a prestigious subcontract company, Gareth was pivotal in the daily communication and support provided to several major F1 teams, a position that ensures he will feel at home working with OPEN MIND UK’s high-profile and demanding customers.
Completing the trio of new arrivals is Victor Fapohunda, an engineer who started his career pathway as an apprentice machinist almost a decade ago. Victor has since progressed as a machinist and more recently held down posts as a Production Lead with extensive programming experience with hyperMILL.
Victor started his apprenticeship at 16 and then became the charge hand/production manager by the age of 21. Victor has worked extensively in the medical research sector, manufacturing parts for cancer research and cryogenics. Stayed there for just short of 7 years. Victor will be utilising this vast experience to take over the programming of knee joints for the OPEN MIND team whilst also project managing the rollout of OPEN MIND’s Hummingbird (MES) in the UK.
Commenting upon the new additions and the strengthening of the team, OPEN MIND UK Managing Director Adrian Smith says: “Our business is continually growing in the UK and has outgrown our internal business model. To further enhance our excellent level of service and customer support, we needed to restructure our highly skilled application team. Part of this restructuring strategy has been to divide our applications team into pre-sales and post-sales engineers, giving our engineers greater autonomy with customers - and allowing dedicated experts to maximise their skill set to the advantage of the end user. This will deliver an even better customer experience than ever before, making our team more dynamic and responsive than ever before.“
“To implement this strategy, we needed to grow the applications team and simultaneously inject talent with a fresh new approach. The appointment of Gareth, Matthew and Victor will certainly build upon our robust new structure and help us to deliver a foundation for future growth. We are delighted the new engineers have joined. To support the new application engineers, we have added more internal resources such as dedicated hotlines, a dedicated training room and ongoing enhancements to hyperMILL, such as availability from the cloud. We are in an exciting transformational period and it is invigorating to have such a dynamic and enthusiastic team driving our brand,“ concludes Adrian.