Glass Futures has appointed Justin Kelly as CEO, whilst founding CEO Richard Katz has been appointed as President.

Mr Kelly’s new role as CEO is effective as of today.

Mr Kelly began his career at Siemens, where he held several roles over nearly three decades culminating in his appointment to the Siemens Executive Management Board in 2017.

Mike Houghton, Chair of the Glass Futures Board, said: “We welcome Justin to Glass Futures as we move into the next phase of the organisation’s evolution as an operational research facility.

“His wealth of experience in leadership, strategy, transformation, sustainability, marketing, governance and a passion for responsible business will be indispensable to the continued growth of Glass Futures towards a sustainable and innovative future.”

Richard Katz, the first Glass Futures employee in January 2020, has been appointed as President.

He will continue to work closely with the UK Government to help them understand how Glass Futures’ research, development and innovation enables growth.

Mr Houghton said: “On behalf of the Board we would like to thank Richard Katz for his valuable contributions over the last 10+ years as Chief Executive, turning a vision into reality.”

Glass Futures was first developed by Mr Katz together with Dave Dalton, CEO of the British Glass Manufacturers’ Confederation, the representative body for the UK glass industry.

Glass Futures is a not-for-profit organisation, and is currently constructing its Global Centre of Excellence in St Helens, England, UK.

The 165,000 ft2 facility has been designed and built by the industry.

It will allow practical experimentation with alternative low carbon sustainable energy sources to replace high carbon natural gas, which aims to help decarbonise glass manufacturing.

Funding in the order of £75 million has been provided by National, Regional and Local Government together with the industry to build the pilot plant.

This next phase of Glass Futures continues with new appointments to the Board of Directors.

This includes Mike Houghton, Chief Commercial Officer of Process Industries Software at Siemens, as Chair, and José Miguel Ivorra, Vice President of Global Business Development at Guardian Industries.

Mr Ivorra will take over from Dr Richard Hulme, whose long-term secondment is drawing to a close.