Meet the new President

20/01/2021

Iain Baillie is the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT)’s new President for the next two years. To give readers the opportunity of finding out what his plans are for his term of office, NDT News posed a few questions to the new President…

Q: Tell us a little about yourself and your background in NDT.
President: As technical apprenticeships did not really exist in the late 1990s, I opted to study applied physics with computing at University. After graduating in 2001, I started work in the steel industry (Corus, the former British Steel) at Teesside Technology Centre. I took the opportunity to complete an engineering doctorate (while working full time) and over the next five years led a European project to deliver a prototype system in conjunction with the University of Warwick. This is when I started studying for my MBA, during which time I moved to Rolls-Royce Submarine’s NDT team in 2009. Here, I worked on ultrasonic inspections, before changing to aerospace, as NDT Team Leader and eventually NDT Laboratory Manager across two sites. In 2020, I moved roles to become Chief of Resource Strategy for Aerospace, with budget, process and technical responsibility for our subcontract engineering suppliers, with a nine-figure budget. In 2006, I was invited to join BINDT’s NDT Technical Committee, which led to a position on Council and ultimately becoming President. I never thought I would reach this position, assuming there was a mysterious ‘old boys’ network’ or some kind of secret handshake to get on at BINDT. I can attest that this is not the case and I am delighted to have made it to the position of President. Outside of work, my passions are Star Trek and American muscle cars, which shaped my interest in technology.

Q: As the new President of BINDT, what do you see as the biggest challenges for the Institute?
President: Prior to both COVID and Brexit, it would have been enhancing our PCN Scheme, increasing BINDT membership and mitigating our ageing demographic. Institute finances are in good shape as we enter 2021, but we cannot be complacent. We have a limited budget for the year ahead and must remain conservative with our objectives for the year. Our strategic plan was last updated in early 2020 and I am keen to engage with the Committee Chairs to align realistic aims and objectives for each committee, which in turn tie into BINDT’s corporate strategy. We will not be able to move as fast as we would like to complete some of the objectives, but I am keen to see each one carefully planned, budgeted and resourced with both BINDT staff and our volunteers. Setting realistic expectations and stakeholder management are key to our success.
As I write this in early December, we have nearly signed a partnership agreement to help enhance PCN’s reputation in Europe to pre-empt any negative Brexit issues and this step maintains the validity of our certification across the globe.

Q: What are your priorities as the new President?
President: Stakeholder engagement is key, with an emphasis on the PCN Scheme. We must ensure that global industry, the insurance bodies and practitioners and their managers are happy with the PCN Scheme. We must also ensure BINDT staff and our volunteers remain engaged and enthusiastic about what we are asking them to do. I am spoiled having David Gilbert as our CEO, as he knows global NDT and has done a brilliant job leading our COVID response on top of his already busy day job. The BINDT staff has been stretched in 2020 and I am keen to meet with more of them during my Presidency and help out as much as possible. I do not intend to interfere with day-to-day management, preferring instead to maintain the fortnightly sessions my predecessor set up with the senior officers of BINDT, leaving the staff to focus on delivering our strategic plan.
This links to my next priority, which is updating our five-year strategic plan and working with the Committee Chairs and Vice Presidents to ensure they know their responsibilities and drive us towards completing our aims and objectives in a timely manner.

My next focus will be on certification. This generates the cash we use to spend on our charitable objectives. ISO 9712 is in the midst of being rewritten and we must have influence on this standard. We need to have IT systems in place to enable exam questions and examinations to be conducted online for all disciplines. Distance learning and a less complicated way to gain approvals must be further evaluated and implemented, while retaining the good quality and international reputation of our PCN Scheme.
I am keen to see closer relationships between NDT, condition monitoring (CM) and structural health monitoring (SHM). I will continue to lobby for closer working, for example combined conferences and publications. This is not always a popular opinion when I suggest combining conferences and publications, but I am tenacious and will continue to lobby for this to happen.
Apprenticeships are key to the future of NDT and, with the government mandating changes to the English Trailblazers, I will carry on being the Lead Employer to help improve our three apprenticeship standards and incorporate CM and NDT into them. By the time this is published, BINDT will have finalised two new Scottish apprenticeships.
I would like us to engage with the apprentices and students and to encourage younger people into the Institute. I joke that I am often still the youngest person in the room after being active in the Institute now for some 14 years. Engineering is still a conservative world and we must continue to push and change this to improve diversity across the Institute.

Q: How do you see the Institute’s role developing in the changing NDT world?
President: I used to be an NDT research scientist and, in my work, I recognise that we as an NDT community find it difficult to take technology from a university, equipment manufacturer or technology centre and use it in industry. Take, for example, my doctorate’s topic, electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs), which are non-contact ultrasonic probes. They have been around since the 1970s, yet there are very limited international standards in their use with no certification schemes, limited formal training or examinations, etc. The same argument could be made regarding shearography, air-coupled ultrasound and guided waves, to name but a few. Industry no longer employs 20 people per company conducting research and validating new technologies. We need a way to collaborate together and so I am keen to support the UK NDT Leadership Forum, of which the NDT Technology Taskforce will try and solve this conundrum. We need more financial support from government, with dedicated large-scale technology partners who can collaborate with industry and validate new technologies. Automatic defect recognition and Industry 4.0 are the future, but NDT is already lagging behind.
We have already done a brilliant job on apprenticeships and I look forward to us continuing to support this across the UK. We have nailed England and Scotland; now we just need Wales and Northern Ireland to be supported, if the employers want our help.

Q: How has your professional career helped you prepare for this latest challenge?
President: Being a research scientist taught me how to write grant proposals to achieve seven-figure grant money. As a project leader, I worked with other companies in Spain, Italy and Germany who had their own agendas and I had to ensure we worked together to deliver what we said we would in the initial grant proposal. My next role was as a people manager, which taught me improved negotiation skills and when to pick your battles. I admit, this is not the easiest of roles to do! I then worked in transformation projects, where I designed a new Technology Centre building and worked with seven different technical departments to reach a consensus on a shared state-of-the-art laboratory facility. Sadly, the decision was made not to build it, so I was given a few million to rejuvenate our current site in Derby. Here, I proved my popularity by making everyone hot-desk! My current role as Chief of Resource Strategy was just prior to COVID and I had a steep learning curve looking after several engineering suppliers and a workforce of ~2000. We have had an interesting time during the pandemic and have worked with our suppliers to generate cost savings of tens of (maybe a hundred) millions. Those that work with me are aware of my cost-conscious attitude. NDT has taught me great skills, particularly in process management and efficiencies, which I have read across to my new role. I am good at generating consensus, thinking about processes and ‘getting stuff done’. I bring to BINDT these skills and, in exchange, BINDT teaches me how to do company finances and educates me on company law and governance. With BINDT, I am spoiled working with people who are great to talk to and who all care about NDT. I am a big believer in BINDT’s mission. To be honest, it is bit daunting having your photograph hanging on the wall in Council Chambers and your name in gold lettering inscribed for prosperity on the walls. Thank you to those people on the Technical Committee back in 2006 for making me so welcome and showing me the ropes. Under my Presidency, I would like my legacy to be delivering on the six priorities that I mentioned earlier and handing the reigns over to Professor Ian Cooper so he can carry on BINDT’s good work as our next President. I’d also like to attend conferences again, in person!

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