Melrose Industries PLC, parent company of GKN Aerospace, has announced the appointment of Ian Barkshire to its board as an independent non-executive director.

Barkshire was chief executive at research company Oxford Instruments plc between 2016 and 2023. He spent more than 20 years at the company in a number of leadership positions, including chief operating officer, group technical director and NanoCharacterisation divisional head.

Barkshire has spent most of his career driving the development, commercialisation and delivery of innovative technologies and specialised products to the world’s leading industrial companies.

Earlier in his career, Barkshire was senior principal scientist at GEC-Marconi Materials and, before that, a research fellow at the University of York.

Currently a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, Barkshire is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Justin Dowley, non-executive chair of Melrose, said: “We are delighted to welcome Ian to the board, and we look forward to benefitting from his broad industry, commercial and technology expertise.”