Born in Hayes, Middlesex an industrial town to the west of London in 1951, Chris was relocated to Cheltenham in Gloucestershire as a six-year old when the family moved to accommodate his father’s job.  Engineering being in the family, it was only natural that at 16 he started work as a Mechanical Engineering apprentice gaining experience manufacturing parts for Commercial Aircraft Undercarriages and fuel system components for the RAF Harrier jump jet.
 
Further career advances led Chris to design heat exchangers and later roller bearings.  He also had spells as a Project Engineer at Ina Bearing Company’s plant in South Wales and later as Bearing Line Supervisor.  It was in South Wales that his passion for running took him to develop Llanelli Athletic club with a few work colleagues.
 
With two young children in tow, the dreaded three day week introduced by the then Conservative party led the family to flee South Wales back to England where Chris landed the job he coveted - selling a technical product to engineers and buyers.  He joined SNFA Bearings, who, at the time, were a French owned high quality bearing manufacturer for aerospace and machine tool applications.
 
He was not there for long before a move to the company where he would spend the next 35 years came along and a move that had a great influence on his life. Hepco Slide Systems, at the time, were a small engineering company scratching out a living but developed into a major international organization under the name HepcoMotion.
 
Chris was heavily involved in developing a sales network, and at the time of his retirement as Sales Director the company employed 320 people and were selling automation components and systems worldwide. His job took him all over the world developing projects, making presentations and negotiating contracts with distributors and direct customers. After he retired he applied with his wife Lin to come to Australia, as by now all three children and grandchildren were here.
 
A keen runner and swimmer, athletics had been a wonderful experience even if it was all consuming at times.  Today he just runs for fun.
 
On his involvement with Rotary:
“I had a clear objective that I wanted to apply my business and project management experience to the good of community. Helping others who are less well off, people who through no fault of their own need help in many ways. Raising funds so the club can develop community projects – there is a lot we can do locally and further afield if we put our collective efforts behind fresh initiatives.”
His wife Lin has supported him at every twist and turn, she is not surprised that he is involved in Rotary, “Chris is not one for sitting around, he has to be involved and Rotary suits him just fine” says Lin.