Aamir Khalid
Chief Executive
Aamir has worked at TWI for the past 20 years. Aamir obtained an Applied Physics degree from University College London, a Masters and PhD in NDT from Brunel and Cranfield Universities and later an MBA from London South Bank University. He spent several years in industry before joining TWI as NDT section manager, specialising in applying robotics to non-destructive testing. From here, he progressed to lead the company’s non-destructive testing technology group in 2004 and became TWI Technology Director in 2010.
In 2012 he launched the Structural Integrity Research Foundation (SIRF), a knowledge transfer platform for technical excellence in structural integrity, alongside BP and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Through SIRF he has been able to deliver the National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC) with its aims of generating research outcomes to meet Member needs and at the same time placing 550 workplace experienced postgraduate students into industry. His work to create TWI’s Innovation Network has resulted in ten Innovation Centre partnerships, 24 Accelerated Innovation Programmes and four Private Technology Innovation Partnerships.
Outside TWI, Aamir is currently Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Business Board. He has been a former Director of the Manufacturing Technology Centre (part of the government’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult), and is currently an Associate Professor at Brunel University London.
Aamir became the Chief Executive of TWI in February 2019.
The Directors
Paul Woollin
Director of Research
Paul joined the Materials Department at TWI in 1992, earlier graduating and gaining a doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He specialises in the metallurgy, weldability and weld properties of stainless steels and nickel alloys. In 2000, he became Head of the Materials Department and was appointed Director of Research in 2010.
Mike Russell
Director of Technology
An expert in friction welding, Mike Russell began working at TWI in 1999 as part of a government-supported postgraduate studentship programme. He headed the friction and forge processes section for over ten years, becoming group manager of TWI’s joining technologies team in 2014 and Operations Director in 2016, before becoming Technology Director in 2020. Mike is a Chartered Engineer and recipient of The Welding Institute’s Lidstone Medal and the Larke-Lillicrap award. He has authored over 60 technical papers and represents the UK in ISO standards development for friction processes.
Shervin Maleki
Director of Global Development
Shervin joined TWI in 2006 and worked for seven years as the Associate Director in Global Training and Technical Services, as well as the Group Manager in Asset and Fracture Integrity Management. With expertise in risk and reliability engineering, risk assessment, risk-based inspection, and fitness-for-service, Shervin was appointed to the position of Global Development Director in 2019.
Tat-Hean Gan
Director of Innovation and Skills
Tat-Hean joined TWI in 2006 after graduating with a first-class honours degree in electrical and electronics engineering from the University of Nottingham before pursuing an MSc in Advanced Mechanical Engineering, his PhD in Engineering from Warwick University and his Executive MBA degree from the University of Birmingham. Tat-Hean’s areas of expertise include non-destructive testing, signal processing and imaging techniques, structural and condition monitoring, technology transfer and exploitation, business and technology development, IP and patents, project management, collaborative programmes, public funding, international business and recruitment for engineering services. Tat-Hean was appointed the Innovation and Skills Director in 2019. He is also the Director of the Brunel Innovation Centre (BIC) and the Director of the National Structural Integrity Research Centre (NSIRC), the UK's first industry-led postgraduate education and research centre in structural integrity, which is based at TWI.
Shahid Aslam
Director of Legal and Governance
Shahid joined TWI as the Director of Legal and Governance in February 2020, having previously worked as an external solicitor on several high priority and complex matters. With over 30 years’ experience in the legal profession, he has an LLB (Hons) degree from University College London, Solicitors Finals from the College of Law and a Masters level qualification in Media Law from UCL. Shahid is a qualified Civil and Commercial Mediator and a fully qualified solicitor of the Supreme Court of England & Wales and a Commissioner for Oaths. Shahid has also served as a local Councillor for the Borough of Gravesham as well as having been the Secretary of Gravesend and Dartford Muslim Association (2002-2003) a registered charity, during which time he took a leading role in developing strong community relations and updating the governance structure.
John Hill
Director of Membership and Strategy
John spent the first decade of his forty year career in manufacturing, starting as an apprentice and becoming a Chartered Production Engineer, specialising in polymers, composites and adhesives.
In the late 1980s, he moved into manufacturing research, training and consulting, joining a similar membership-based organisation to TWI called PERA (The Production Engineering Research Association). Over a 28 year career with PERA, he rose from Consultant to Section Leader, Director of Technology, CEO and finally Chair, representing the UK RTO sector on the Board of EARTO and becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
In 2016, he moved into Whitehall to better influence the Government’s industrial strategy, and learn first-hand how the machinery of government works. There, he spent time as a Director in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (then BIS) and the Department for International Trade (DIT). More recently, he transferred into one of the devolved Mayoral Combined Authorities, to understand better how manufacturing innovation and skills are implemented locally. There, he performed a business turnaround of a former Local Enterprise Partnership, merged into the Combined Authority, transforming it from the poorest performing UK LEP to the highest, creating 20,000 jobs and establishing a University in Peterborough.