Craig Goodrum

Operations, engineering and product-development leader (BSc Aeronautical Engineering) with 25+ years' experience building and improving advanced composites businesses across manufacturing, distribution and technical sales. Strengths include scaling operations, translating customer requirements into manufactureable specifications, leading cross-functional teams (production, quality, maintenance, sales and applications), and driving profitable growth through structured problem-solving and disciplined execution. Career highlights include establishing and managing Aerontec's Gauteng branch, leading EMEA prepreg P&L and product management for Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials, and recent startup operations leadership for a new prepreg plant.

Operations Manager at CiC GmbH (2026-01 – 2026-08)

• Led operations for a greenfield prepreg manufacturing site (production planning, shop-floor execution, quality interface, maintenance coordination and delivery performance).
• Stabilised engineering and maintenance execution by tightening equipment ownership, cadence and escalation; introduced on-time delivery (OTD) measurement and visibility.
• Built daily management routines with line leadership; coached the Production Manager's transition into a people/area leadership role.
• Identified key operational constraints and created a focused improvement roadmap with 6S.
• Onboarded and trained new hires (incl. Warehouse Manager), aligning standard ways of working.

Head of Prepreg Business EMEA & Product Management at Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials (MCAM) (2023-11 – 2025-02)

• Responsibility for EMEA prepreg P&L (budgeting, forecasting, mix and margin), partnering with Sales and plant leadership on growth and delivery performance.
• Led product management for the prepreg portfolio: market requirements, positioning, specifications, roadmap and lifecycle decisions.
• Managed key accounts and customer programs, coordinating technical support and securing approvals.
• Served as interface to the Heinsberg plant: translated application needs into product/process/quality requirements for production and QC.
• Led root-cause problem solving on quality and delivery issues; drove CAPA closure with clear owners, deadlines and follow-up.

Technical Sales Manager (Gauteng) / Branch Management at Aerontec (Pty) Ltd (2019-02 – 2025-02)

• Established and managed the Gauteng branch: customer support, order fulfilment coordination and local operations.
• Owned key accounts across advanced composites (marine/aerospace/industrial), providing technical guidance and product selection support.
• Improved supply reliability for critical materials through proactive supplier coordination and inventory planning.
• Grew branch revenue by ~200% over four years; improved net profit from break-even (2019) to ~17% (2022).
• Maintained profitability through the COVID period via margin discipline, mix optimisation and cost control.

Owner/Director at Kusanii Composites (Pty) Ltd (2015-02 – 2025-02)

• Built a niche distribution offering around prepreg and composite materials; managed supplier coordination, purchasing and stock planning.
• Provided technical support to customers (materials selection, processing guidance) while managing day-to-day business operations.

Technical Manager at Blackstone Tek (Pty) Ltd (2010-02 – 2015-02)

• Led design and development of new composite products from concept through testing, documentation and release.
• Owned the quality system (QA/QC), including nonconformance management, corrective actions and operator training.
• Drove manufacturing cost reduction across materials, process and scrap/rework drivers.
• Managed the engineering function (priorities, resourcing, documentation and cross-functional coordination with production).
• Supported production management to improve throughput, quality and delivery performance.

BSc (Eng) in Aeronautical Engineering – University of the Witwatersrand (1989 – 1994)