Chemring Group PLC announced appointment of James Mortensen as Chief Financial Officer. James has a proven track record in industrial, engineering and technology sectors with extensive experience in building and managing global, multi-disciplinary finance teams. He joins Chemring from Smiths Group plc ("Smiths"), the FTSE 100 engineering group where he has spent the last seven years. James joined the Smiths M&A team in 2016 and, having played a key role in scaling ventilator manufacturing during COVID for the UK Government, he became Chief Financial Officer of the $1.1bn revenue Smiths Medical Division in 2020.

He held this role until the sale of Smiths Medical for $2.7bn in February 2022, having also prepared the business for a London listing. He is currently Group Head of Corporate Development with responsibility for sourcing, evaluating and executing acquisitions across the four major global markets where Smiths operate: Security & Defence, Aerospace, General Industry and Energy. Prior to Smiths James spent eight years at Smith & Nephew plc, the FTSE 100 medical technology company where he held progressively senior finance roles in the areas of group reporting, strategic planning and corporate finance.

Having graduated from Bristol University James started his career at KPMG in their audit practice and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. James will take over from Andrew Lewis, who announced his intention to retire on 23 January 2023 and whose notice period runs until 22 January 2024. The Group is working with James to agree the date on which he will join Chemring.

A further announcement will be made in due course.