Karim Sekkat
Chairman, Oxford Engineering Ltd
Karim was educated in Morocco, Germany and France and has continued to develop
his thinking with financial and management courses like BGP at Cranfield. He started
his first venture while at business school, followed a path in investment banking and
held various board positions of private and public companies in the UK, France and
Switzerland before going at it alone. Since 2003, Karim has pursued a European buy
& build high investment strategy refocused into deleveraging prior to 2008 and has
successfully managed growth, recession and portfolio diversification without losing
sleep. He and his group received numerous awards including finalist at the National
Business Awards for Entrepreneur of the Year and Business of the Year. He is a keen
sportsman, race driver in the Ginetta G40 car series, licenced specialised skydiver,
kite-surfer and ranked tennis player.
KAS TECHNOLOGIES GROUP
The KAS Technology Group holds over 40 years of engineering experience and
achieves annualised sales of over £20 million with its 150+ employees. New standards
were introduced for the protection of the environment and the expectations of a worldclass business creating one of the top 10 UK contract manufacturers, specializing in
lean manufacturing, supply chain management and precision engineering. The KAS
Group has excellent long-term relationships with global, blue chip companies including
the medical, oil and gas, aerospace, semi-conductor, Formula 1, nuclear, cryogenic,
communications and pharmaceutical industries. The outstanding success of Oxford
Engineering was recognised by Secretary of State for Trade & Industry who called it “a
jewel in the crown of British Engineering” and is a MAS reference site for LEAN
manufacturing.