As Ignitec moves into its next stage of growth, we are strengthening our leadership team. Craig Surgey has been appointed Managing Director, with Ben Mazur moving from Managing Director into the role of CEO.
The change reflects a wider period of growth across Ignitec as we respond to increasingly demanding client requirements, larger and more international programmes, and a growing team. Leading and continually improving the business we have today, and setting the strategy, building the partnerships and creating the opportunities that will shape Ignitec’s future, have become significant roles in their own right. The new structure gives both the focus they now require, while creating more leadership capacity for our clients.
Building on 13 years of growth
Ignitec was founded by Ben in Bristol in 2013, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, with a clear idea: to create a technology-led design consultancy that could give clients a single partner for the development of complex products. From the beginning, the aim was to combine strong product design with the technical engineering depth required to turn ideas into technology that could work reliably in the real world.
That principle remains at the heart of Ignitec today. The capability around it has grown to encompass electronics, embedded firmware, mechanical engineering, sensing and measurement, wireless connectivity, test and verification, compliance, certification and manufacturing support. Our work increasingly centres on connected systems for critical industries, particularly where products have to perform in demanding, regulated or hazardous environments.
That breadth has become increasingly important to our clients. Engineering teams are being asked to achieve more with leaner internal resources at the same time as the products they develop become more complex. Rather than supplying an isolated piece of engineering, Ignitec is increasingly supporting clients from early technical definition and R&D through verification and validation, certification, industrialisation, manufacture and ongoing engineering support.
Our reach has changed as well. Where much of Ignitec’s early work was local or UK-focused, a growing proportion is now international. Taking the engineering expertise we have built to a wider global market is a central part of the company’s next stage.
“Ignitec has reached the point where leading and developing the business we have today, and driving the strategy for where it goes next, are significant roles in their own right. Strengthening the leadership team gives us the capacity to do both properly.”
Ben Mazur
CEO
What this means for our clients
For clients, the change is about greater leadership clarity and capacity, not changing what they value about working with Ignitec. As Managing Director, Craig will take responsibility for the day-to-day leadership and performance of the business, including our people, project delivery, operations and commercial performance. That gives greater focus to making sure projects are well resourced, teams are supported, decisions are made quickly and Ignitec can continue to grow without losing the responsiveness, agility and personal relationships our clients have come to expect.
Ben will remain Principal Consultant and relationship lead across the key client relationships he already manages. Some of those relationships have developed over many years and are personally important as well as strategically important to Ignitec. The change creates more space to work closely with those clients on their roadmaps, future challenges and business needs, and to identify where Ignitec can create greater value over the long term.
“I’m absolutely not going anywhere. I’ll continue to be closely involved with the client relationships I already lead, but with more time to understand their roadmaps, focus on the challenges ahead and work out where we can create more value together. If anything, I expect those relationships to become stronger.”
Ben Mazur
CEO
The result is more focus at both levels: stronger leadership around delivery today, and more capacity to look further ahead with our clients at the technologies, programmes and strategic challenges coming next.
Why Craig
Ben and Craig first met and worked together more than ten years ago, when Craig worked with Ignitec in a strategic advisory capacity. Since then, Craig has built a substantial track record across engineering leadership, people management, manufacturing, commercial management, strategy and marketing. He is strongly client focused and commercially driven, with a practical understanding of engineering and manufacturing businesses and extensive experience developing people and building organisations capable of performing at scale.
Most recently, Craig served as Group Managing Director at H J Knee Ltd, the home of Knees Engineering and Knees Home and Electrical, where he led across engineering, manufacturing and commercial operations. Since joining Ignitec earlier this year, his role has deliberately been building towards the Managing Director position. He will now lead Ignitec day to day, while continuing to strengthen the leadership structure, management systems and commercial discipline needed for the company’s next stage of growth.
“I’m incredibly excited to be appointed Managing Director and to help shape Ignitec’s next chapter, building a business where exceptional people, bold thinking and world-class engineering come together to create lasting impact.”
Craig Surgey
Managing Director
Strategy, global growth and world-class engineering
Ben’s move into the CEO role creates dedicated leadership around Ignitec’s long-term direction. Strategy will become a much greater part of the role, alongside major client relationships, strategic partnerships and international expansion. That includes building relationships with clients, suppliers, manufacturing partners and other organisations that can extend what Ignitec is able to deliver, while continuing to grow the company’s presence across the UK, wider EMEA and the GCC.
The ambition is broader than simply becoming a larger consultancy. Ignitec is building towards becoming a global engineering and manufacturing business with a market-leading position in connected systems for critical industries. Our particular strength is solving difficult sensing, measurement and monitoring problems where products need to be intelligent, connected, low power, highly reliable or capable of operating in demanding, regulated or hazardous environments.
At the centre of that ambition is a clear standard for world-class engineering. For Ignitec, that means more than technical ingenuity. It means engineering judgement, rigour and precision combined with professionalism, clear ownership, strong communication and dependable delivery. It means developing technology not simply to work in development, but to be manufactured, certified, deployed, supported and relied upon in the real world.
There are already a number of exciting developments underway around how Ignitec works with clients, our manufacturing capability and the strategic partnerships being built to support further international growth. More will be shared in due course. For now, the direction is clear: build on what we already do well, deepen the relationships we have with our clients and take Ignitec’s engineering capability to a much broader global market.
Stronger leadership. Deeper client focus. Greater global ambition.
Craig will lead and develop the business we have today, while Ben focuses on the strategy, relationships and partnerships that will shape what Ignitec becomes next.