Thomas Bennett , Leicester, United Kingdom

I am very much a career-driven individual; I set my goals for different reasons, one for a challenge and two to develop further my career path, which I am determined to achieve! I started my working life in the hospitality industry in where I worked my way up from an administrator to running my establishment in the very last year of my teens. After running my establishment for nearly one year, I started to work for an automation company in which my curiosity for engineering began. Since then, I have been involved in machine design and installation, running and maintaining a large factory maintenance stores, running a maintenance team as maintenance coordinator to now works engineering manager. I am also currently studying for my (BEng) Degree with the Open University.

While working within the maintenance function, I have developed advance skills with PLC logic, namely with Siemens. I have developed the skills to fault-find machine issues, change PLC programming to enhance the performance of the machine further to increase OEE. I have also undergone projects involving 3D CAD machine design through to machine build and install through to building and writing new machine program. My skill set sits using S7-300/400 using Simatic Manager, S7-1200/1500, Comfort HMI's, Sinamic Drives for both drive and positioning using the Siemens TIA portal v13/14/15.

I am the director of Tom Kelly Group Limited which is a holding company for TKL Motion Pictures and Thomas Kelly Developments Ltd; this business started when my partner and I decided to go into property development. With a passion for new build homes and the thought of creating homes of our design, we wanted to be able to buy and develop land to create an environment where people want to live. The business established in June 2019 but since then it has sat dormant due to personal life obstacles, but now back in the game with a head to push our business to form a profitable company. Since the COVID-19 pandemic personal circumstances have now forced for me to expand our business also to include Automation and Control services, Project management and also a fully approved CAA UAV Pilot with a Permission for Commercial Operations.