Apollo Fire

Richard Bramham

Marketing Director

Richard joined Apollo in June 2009 as Marketing Director. He has responsibility for Apollo's Product Management, Marketing and Technical Sales teams.

Richard brings more than 20 years senior management experience to the position, including 16 years with Farnell Electronic Components Limited for whom he launched operations throughout Southeast Asia and China, including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. Immediately prior to joining Apollo, Richard was Group Marketing Director at Deutsch - the world leader in interconnection solutions for OEM applications - where his responsibilities included e-commerce development, branding and global account management.

Richard is keen to bring his skills to bear at Apollo. He says:
"Apollo is a company with clear business goals and real ambition, but also with a very strong sense of customer loyalty. It is currently making the exciting transition from being a UK-based manufacturer with worldwide sales to a truly international player with global presence.

"This transition requires a careful balance between committing the resources to establish a direct presence in strategic territories such as the Middle East, China and the US while continuing to uphold the levels of customer support that have made Apollo so successful to date. Marketing will play a key role in ensuring that the Apollo brand continues to represent innovation and reliability as the company grows, and I am looking forward to spearheading the strategy to take this forward."

A comprehensive review of the company's marketing and communications, embracing elements such as customer relationship management systems, online presence and e-marketing, is currently under way.

Chris Elkins

Business Operations Director

Chris first joined Apollo in 1989 as Chief Accountant, a position he held for eight years. After a period working for a manufacturer of consumer durable goods in Havant, he returned to Apollo in 1998 as Materials Manager and in 1999, took over from the previous Manufacturing Director as Operations Director.

In June 2007 his career took another direction when he took on the newly created position of Business Operations Director with the primary objective of overseeing the regeneration of our business processes - an initiative launched in April 2008 as the Apollo Lean Enterprise Programme. To assist in this objective he now has board responsibility for the core infrastructure areas of HR, Quality, IT and Conformance.

The lean enterprise initiative is an exciting new phase in Apollo's ongoing success story. Bringing together these core business functions will allow us to readily align our people and organisational development plans. Our key focus is to make doing business with Apollo as easy as possible for all of our business partners. 

Tim Preston

Finance Director

Tim Preston  joined Apollo Fire Detectors Limited in February 2008 as Finance Director. His role also includes working for the Fire Division of parent company Halma plc.

A Cambridge University Maths graduate, Tim brings 14 years financial experience to the position. Immediately prior to accepting the Apollo role, he worked as Group Financial Controller for Dalkia. Prior to that he held a number of positions with companies including Unipart, Hozelock, Yoplait and Hovis.

Barry Roach

Manufacturing Director

Barry Roach joined Apollo in December 2008. Barry is a graduate mechanical engineer and a Chartered member of I.Mech,E. He has extensive manufacturing electro-mechanical knowledge gained from overseas experience with IBM, Xyratex and more recently Tyco Healthcare where he was Plant Manager.

Barry's philosophy consists of his infamous three P's: people, parts and process.

Commenting on his philosopy, he says "People require investment - not only in the more tangible terms of education and training, which is already a priority commitment for Apollo, but in terms of culture as well. Apollo has a fantastic reputation within the industry, but reputations are easily broken. I require hard work and determination from my team and, above all else, a commitment to quality.

In terms of 'parts', I want to grow a world class supplier base that can match my own ambition and high quality standards. Suppliers will take responsibility for the quality of their parts and build it into their own processes, rather than the old fashioned trend of inspecting it out.

Lean, six sigma processes will be a priority for me. Using modern IT and leading indicators will allow us to proactively avoid any process issues. This is in complete contrast to many companies that use outdated lagging indicators, which only allow a reactive response to process problems."

Stephan Sommer

Technical Director

Stephan Sommer has joined Apollo from Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte (BSH) where he was R&D Director for processing technology activities.  In addition to his technical role at BSH, Stephan managed development centres in Germany, USA and China as well as smaller operations in Spain, Turkey and Poland.

Stephan joins Apollo with the objective of optimising our international product development resources and to strengthen our product development capabilities.

Stephan is focused on the long term prospects of the company to ensure Apollo's success story continues into the future. He believes this can be achieved through investment in innovation and developing an efficient quality process. One of his approaches to improve efficiency is to combine Apollo's three regional technical centers (China, USA and the UK) into one working system, as he has done in previous positions to great success. This will simplify the processes in development and increase Apollo's opportunities in the international market.

Stephan says:

"A good working Technical Department is much more than only technical. It is more like innovation and development, and of course quality, performance and reputation. My Apollo vision is to combine these key factors in an open minded and fruitful group, to set up a mind of a wider view, supporting Apollo and its customers with the best they can get on the fire detection market."

Neil Taylor

Sales Director

Neil Taylor joined Apollo Fire Detectors as Sales Director EMEA in February 2012.

Neil manages Apollo's UK and international sales teams and customer care division. He is responsible for leading sales growth in the UK and expanding the international side of the business.

Neil spent 15 years in the automotive component industry and achieved an MA in European Marketing Management and an MBA from Henley Management College. He later joined United Technologies, progressing to the role of VP EMEA of Carrier Transicold, growing the transport refrigeration business from a £300 million to a £500 million company over five years and selling into 62 countries across the EMEA. Neil's first experience of the fire industry was when he joined Chubb Fire UK where he was responsible for driving growth and efficiency.

Outside of work, Neil is a keen traveller, reader and sports fan of football and golf. Neil also has a passion for languages and is currently learning Russian and Armenian, adding to the French and Spanish languages he can already speak.