Armed with a catapult: Katherine Bennett in The Times

Katherine Bennett has told The Times about her progress through the motor and aerospace industries before she joined the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

The HVM Catapult chief executive spoke the newspaper’s industrial editor, Robert Lea.

She shared her highs and lows of fighting to build and maintain the UK’s manufacturing capacity and expertise across nearly three decades working in the sector, including at Vauxhall and Airbus. She also shares her top priorities in her current role at the centre of UK industry.

As well as acting as advocate and ambassador for high-value manufacturing, Bennett has other roles. Operationally, she is the conductor — or “the octopus” — sitting at the centre, co-ordinating the innovation centres, making sure they all work together, neither competing nor duplicating. She is also the “stone-in-the-shoe”, challenging the assumptions of the male-dominated engineering fraternity and acting as “their conscience”.

Read the article in full for Katherine’s views on the hot-button issues of offshoring, skills gaps and post-Brexit impact on manufacturing – as well as some insights into her motivations, inspirations, and taste in TV!