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Speaker biographies
Malcolm Campbell, Retail &
Textile
Malcolm Campbell began his career in this glorious textile industry in 1970, as apprentice weaver and textile designer for A&J Macnab of Haddington in Scotland, he attended the Scottish College of textiles in Galashiels on block release, and in 1975 was awarded the City & Guilds of London Institute
Certificate in Textile Design and Colour, and Business Management. In 1975 Malcolm moved to Yorkshire as assistant designer with Hirst & Mallinson of Huddersfield, and in 1978 was appointed sales and marketing director of West Riding Fabrics in Leeds. He moved in to the retail sector, and back to Scotland, in 1983 with The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, as design and marketing director, and in 1990, moved back to Yorkshire as design, sales and marketing director for the Parkland Group. Malcolm was appointed managing director of Alexander Drew, textile printers in Rochdale in 2000, and in 2002 became marketing director for The Woolmark Company in Ilkley until 2007, when he joined the Holland & Sherry Group as sales and marketing director. Malcolm is currently working for Retail & Textile Co. on projects in China, Europe and USA.
In 2004 he was appointed the first ever Scotsman to be President of the Bradford Textile Society, and in 2006 was awarded fellowships of the Society of Dyers and Colourists, The Textile Institute, and the Royal Society of Arts. He has lectured on wool globally, to Australian farmers, various industry sectors, and to textile design students. Malcolm believes that textile education is crucial to the future of our industry, not only to the technicians, but to the retailers, the retail sales staff, and the consumer, to stop price depreciation and the move to less expensive, expendable cloths, and to re-establish the versatility and the outstanding value of Nature's wonderful fibre, wool.
Peter Duffield, Global Textiles Associates
After graduating in chemistry from the University of Wales, Bangor, in 1968 Peter Duffield joined the International Wool Secretariat, latterly The Woolmark Company, at their newly opened Development Centre in Ilkley. In that heyday of wool textile R&D he was initially involved in flameproofing and mothproofing process development but quickly moved to coloration, which was when he joined the SDC.
Throughout his subsequent career, until 2006, Peter was involved in all aspects of colour management, product and process development and the provision of consultancy services to the textile industry globally for The Woolmark Company, achieving several notable technical innovations. He was also closely involved with environmental issues and was a member of the Soil Association Textiles Standards Committee, which developed standards that formed the basis of GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standards).
In 2006 he retired from The Woolmark Company and established Global Textile Associates with an old colleague. In this new position Peter continued to provide textile consultancy services globally, in co-operation with associates from other disciplines. The new company also represents in UK a supplier of novel, sustainable textile finishes, Beyond Surface Technologies, based in Switzerland.
Bill Macbeth, Textile Centre of Excellence
Bill Macbeth is the Managing Director of the Textile Centre of Excellence, a company that is dedicated to improving the skills base of textile and other manufacturing companies in England. The Centre forms part of a Group of companies, steered by a Board that represents over 70 local business members.
From 2000 to 2003, Bill held the office of President of the European Regional Information Society Association (ERIS@), a company based in Brussels. ERIS@ has over 40 member regions from all over Europe. ERIS@ works closely with regional governments and the European Commission to assist the take-up and implementation of new technology in all areas of education, business support, government services, and healthcare. Bill is now a patron of ERIS@ and is still active in European Employment/Education/ICT policy areas.
Between 1990 and 2000 Bill was the Head of Corporate Development with Calderdale and Kirklees Training and Enterprise Council, the first ‘TEC’ in the UK. Bill established the TEC’s innovation and business support services, marketing and European operations and developed a range of innovative partnership projects in business start-up and new technology fields.
Prior to 1990, Bill worked in the UK Civil Service including 5 years at the HQ of the Employment Department’s Training Services Division at Moorfoot, Sheffield, where he worked in strategy, evaluation and research areas including both Youth and Adult Training policy development.
Bill is also a Director of Equalskills UK, an Anglo-Irish company that develops new IT training materials featuring a range of language voice-overs.
David Lewis, University of Leeds
Currently Emeritus research professor in the Department of Colour Science at the University of Leeds [School of Chemistry]. Former head of both the Department of Colour Chemistry and the School of Physical Sciences Resource Centre at the University of Leeds. Prior to joining the University of Leeds, Professor Lewis was employed at the International Wool Secretariat (IWS), Ilkley as a Principal Development Scientist and at CSIRO, Division of Textile Industry, Geelong, Australia as a Senior Research Scientist.
Professor Lewis is an international specialist with extensive expertise in development and implementation of innovative textile and non-textile coloration technologies and is the co-founder and director of several companies, including Inovink Limited, Perachem (a University of Leeds spin-out company) and Powdertronics Limited.
Peter Ackroyd, Campaign for Wool
Peter Ackroyd is an independent consultant working as a Senior Advisor to Australian Wool Innovation (AWI/Woolmark). He was recently elected Vice President of the International Wool Textile Organisation. He is Vice President of the Strategy Board of Premiere Vision, the Director of the British Escorial Guild, an Advisor to the Harris Tweed Authority and was recently appointed to the Steering Committee of the Prince of Wales' Campaign for Wool.
Rebecca Sharp, Australian Wool Innovation
Rebecca has worked for Woolmark International for two years and is account manager for the UK. Woolmark works closely with wool growers and wool businesses throughout the supply chain developing marketing programmes and new innovations for manufacturers and retailers. Rebecca studied fashion design at Kingston University before returning to Yorkshire where she specialised in knit; she graduated with a First Class BSc honours degree in textile design from Huddersfield University.