Chemring appoints James Mortensen as CFO

Chemring said on Wednesday that it has appointed James Mortensen as its new chief financial officer.

Mortensen, who will replace Andrew Lewis at a date yet to be agreed, joins from engineering firm Smiths Group, where he has spent the last seven years.

Chemring said he has a proven track record in industrial, engineering and technology sectors with extensive experience in building and managing global, multi-disciplinary finance teams.

Mortensen joined the Smiths M&A team in 2016 and, having played a key role in scaling ventilator manufacturing during the pandemic for the UK Government, he became CFO of the $1.1bn revenue Smiths Medical Division in 2020. He held this role until the sale of the business in February 2022 for $2.7bn.

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, Mortensen spent eight years at medical technology company Smith & Nephew, where he held progressively senior finance roles in the areas of group reporting, strategic planning and corporate finance.

Chairman Carl-Peter Forster said: “I am delighted to welcome James to Chemring. He has a proven track record of success with strong financial and analytical skills, coupled with valuable M&A experience.

“Considerable work has been done in recent years to strengthen Chemring’s balance sheet and reposition itself. James’s broad experience within the industrials sector will be of great benefit to the group as we balance near term performance with long term growth and value creation for all our stakeholders.”