The Business of Engineering

Recorded at CHAIN:17

IMechE

Oliver Farell

The Business of Engineering

Oliver is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer with an MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering with Manufacture and Management from the University of Birmingham. He became a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers at the age of 36. Oliver lead his university Formula Student team to a credible 8th place at the 2003 competition and then started his career working for Alstom (now GE) in Switzerland with various roles in their Gas Turbine Power Generation division. Oliver joined Farrat in 2006 and since then has steered the family business from a turnover of £800k to £5m in 2016 with the expectation for much more growth in future.

Oliver will talk about the key role that Engineers will play in our future with a focus on finding the balance between sound engineering skill and judgement, business acumen, risk, marketing and teamwork, i.e. it doesn’t matter if it is the best product if you can’t find a way to sell it to anybody! The talk will chart some of Farrat’s key decisions and milestones as well as others from the wider industrial world which should be relevant to the UKs future engineering success.

Video kindly recorded by the IET Greater Manchester Young Professionals