The CFA is marking the retirement of Garry Bateman, who is due to step down from his role at Forbo Flooring UK Ltd on 15 April.
Garry has had a highly successful 34-year career at Forbo, culminating as Head of Technical Sales & Support.
He has also had a distinguished career within the CFA, in which he has been highly influential and to which he has dedicated many hours of his time, going well beyond the ‘call of duty’. Garry’s CFA roles have included serving as:
- Chairman of the Manufacturers’ Committee from 2010 up to his retirement
- Council member from 2012 to retirement
- Vice-President 2016 – 2018
- President 2018 – 2020
- Immediate Past President 2020 to retirement
Throughout all his work with the CFA Garry has been an enthusiastic champion of training and excellence within our industry and indeed that was his chosen theme during his Presidency. He put this into practice in many ways, including creating the opportunity for FITA to use the Training Centre at Forbo’s factory in Kirkaldy, which enabled it to bring the full range of FITA courses to Scotland.
A regular columnist in CFJ, he has often been described as one of the “go to” guys in our sector. He was also known as a most effective chair of CFA meetings!
At Garry’s final Council meeting in February, Hamish MacGregor, CFA President, gave a short speech thanking Garry for all his hard work and wished him all the best in his new adventures – because knowing Garry, there will be some! The CFA presented Garry with a gift of a ‘Day at the Chelsea Flower Show’ for him and his wife Sue, and as is customary for past Presidents, Garry was awarded honorary membership of the CFA.
“Garry has been an incredible force in the industry and a great friend to the CFA,” says Richard Catt, Chief Executive Officer of the CFA. “As an industry that relies on technically sound foundations, Garry’s input has been immense. Indeed he was pivotal in the recent re-write of BS5325-2021 and his pragmatic approach to finding common ground in these sort of projects will be missed. He was an extremely effective President of the CFA, as a thought leader and equally as the Chairman of the Manufacturers’ Committee. He has never been shy of taking the lead and offering help and I’d like to publicly thank him for all his support in the areas mentioned above … and actually many more. Happy Retirement Garry!”
