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Senior Leadership Team

The Senior Leadership Team of Smiths Interconnect is a strong group of experienced managers, who work together under the leadership of President Julian Fagge to set the company’s long-term success.

Image of Julian Fagge

Julian Fagge

President, Smiths Interconnect

Julian Fagge

President, Smiths Interconnect

Julian joined Smiths in July 2013 as Group Financial Controller and was appointed to Group Strategy and M&A Director in October 2017. Appointed CEO of Flex-Tek in 2019, he became the President of Smiths Interconnect in September 2021. Prior to Smiths, he spent two years at Royal Caribbean Cruises as Finance Director for UK Ireland and prior to that, he worked for 12 years at Procter & Gamble, based predominantly in Geneva, Switzerland.

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Carole Hutchins

President, Smiths Interconnect Inc.

Carole Hutchins

President, Smiths Interconnect Inc.

Carole has had an illustrious career in the aerospace and defence industries and most recently was Senior Vice President of Programme Management at Fincantieri Marine Group.

Prior to Fincantieri, Carole worked at L3 Harris, where she led programme management across their Space & Airborne business. And before that Carole spent the majority of her career with Northrop Grumman in increasingly senior programme management roles. Her last was as Senior Director, where she led DoN, USMC and USA advanced threat warning and countermeasure product development, aircraft integration, production and sustainment programmes.

Carole graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in Chemistry, and has an associate degree in Electrical Engineering.

 

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Tullio Panarello

VP & General Manager Fibre Optics and RF Components

Tullio Panarello

VP & General Manager Fibre Optics and RF Components
Tullio joined Smiths in October 2019, having spent the previous 2 years supporting various start-ups, including Reflex Photonics, where he served as Executive President. He is currently responsible for running and growing the newly formed Fibre Optics and Components Business Unit of Smiths Interconnect.
 
Tullio started his career as a Diode Laser Designer at PerkinElmer, where he developed a passion for working with customers and advancing state of the art diode laser technology. His initial work included the development of diode lasers for military (targeting), medical (Optical Coherence Tomography) and Telecom (980nm Pumps) systems. Tullio eventually moved into Product Line Management and later accepted a position at Lucent Microelectronics. In 2003, Tullio left Lucent and founded his first start-up, PyroPhotonics, a high-power fibre laser company which he sold in 2010. Since that time, he has held Senior Executive positions with various other start-ups (Solantro Semiconductor, Aeponyx, Reflex Photonics, Genia Photonics) including co-founding the A.I. driven e-Nose company Stratuscent in 2016. Tullio continues to serve as the Chairman of the Board for Aeponyx Inc.
 
Tullio has a BSc. in Physics, a Master of Engineering, an MBA and has authored more than 25 patents.
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Brian Mitchell

VP & General Manager Semi Test

Brian Mitchell

VP & General Manager Semi Test
Brian joined Smiths Interconnect in 2010 as a Controller for Interconnect Devices. He has held numerous leadership roles in the finance organization and most recently was the Finance Business Partner for the Semi BU. Prior to joining Smiths Brian held multiple finance roles at Danisco A/S
 
Brian has a BBA in Finance and an MBA in management.
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Mark Kelleher

VP & General Manager Connectors

Mark Kelleher

VP & General Manager Connectors

Mark joined Smiths Interconnect in 2017, in April 2018 he was promoted to the position of Vice President, Global Operations.  He has responsibility for the Operational sites in China, Mexico, USA, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia & UK.

Previous to joining Smiths Interconnect,  Mark held a number of senior operational leadership roles within Smiths Medical having both multisite responsibility & led large scale transformational change programmes including Manufacturing & Distribution Centre site closures, manufacturing process transfers and the implementation of new engineered processes within Mexico, USA, China, Germany, Italy, UK & Czech Republic sites.  In 2013, Mark led the program to establish a new 10k sq. m Smiths Medical manufacturing facility within the Czech Republic.

Mark is a company appointed member trustee of the Smiths Group SIPS UK pension scheme.

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Sarah Forrest

Vice President Finance

Sarah Forrest

Vice President Finance

Sarah joined Smiths in March 2017 as Group Financial Planning & Analysis Director, and in August 2018 transferred to John Crane to take the role of Senior Finance Director, Product Line.  Sarah was appointed Vice President of Finance for Smiths Interconnect in January 2022.. Sarah is a qualified chartered accountant having started her career spending ten years with PwC in assurance, and before joining Smiths held various finance positions at Rexam PLC.
 

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Jerome Vacher

VP Operations & Transformation

Jerome Vacher

VP Operations & Transformation
Jerome joined Smiths in March 2017 as Group Procurement and Supply Chain Director. He joined Smiths Interconnect in December 2021 as VP Of Operation & Transformation.

Before joining Smiths, Jerome was VP Purchasing and Supply Chain for GKN Driveline CVJ, based on UK. Since 1995, Jerome worked in Procurement for a number of Automotive companies including Renault Nissan, Faurecia, Treves and more recently GKN Driveline. During his career, Jerome has been based in Shanghai (2005 to 2007) and Singapore (2013 to 2016).

Jerome has a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering and Master’s degree in Procurement.
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Rob McLoughlin

HR Director

Rob McLoughlin

HR Director
Rob joined Smiths in 1997 as a Graduate Trainee and spent nine years in a variety of roles within Group HR, his most recent being HR Manager Smiths Group head office. In 2006 Rob took on HR leadership roles for Smiths Interconnect within Europe as well as globally, recently acting as Business Partner, Sales and Marketing.
 
Rob has a Masters from the University of Edinburgh in Politics & French and a Masters in Personnel Management from Westminster University. He is also a Chartered member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.
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Nicole Keen

Divisional General Counsel

Nicole Keen

Divisional General Counsel

Nicole joined Smiths in 2011 as Smiths Interconnect’s Director of Trade Compliance and Senior Counsel.  She became Associate General Counsel in 2013 and stepped up as Interim Divisional General Counsel from January 2014 to August 2015, after which continued to support the division as Associate General Counsel - Americas.  She was appointed Divisional General Counsel in June 2019.

Prior to joining Smiths, Nicole was a litigator and international trade lawyer at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, DC.

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Katherine Morris

Business Engagement Manager (BIS)

Katherine Morris

Business Engagement Manager (BIS)
Katherine joined Smiths in early 2015, taking a role in BIS (IT function) as the IT Service Owner for Collaboration technologies. Prior to Smiths she had various roles at Barclays Bank (including Head of Collaboration Services) and even further back at Electrolux, working in Sales.

Katherine took up her most recent role at the end of last year, working as an IT partner to the Interconnect division. This involves supporting Interconnect on any IT related initiatives, as well as helping define the IT roadmap and strategy.

Katherine has a Maths degree from Nottingham University.