This week in our “5 Questions with…” series, we put the spotlight on Adrian Piper, Head of Human Resources at Gill Group. Adrian is new to Gill and the area, having relocated 10 years ago to be nearer the ocean where he enjoys kitesurfing. Read on to find out more about his experience so far at Gill and his love for extreme sports.
Q.1 – What excites you most about Gill and your role here?
It’s an extraordinarily fascinating business. I first came across the company whilst looking for local wind speed data but I soon discovered the team here have designed and built a huge variety of high performance sensors for a wide array of applications. In the 18 months I have been with the business I have been able to grow the sales and engineering teams across the globe in the US, Latin America, Europe and APAC regions and it has been very rewarding to see the investment in people drive the growth of the business.
Q.2 – You are relatively new to this industry. What interests you most?
I’ve worked in some very large corporate businesses, but what fascinates me most about Gill is how we function as a family run business. Having stakeholders who have a direct interest in the business means that we can be very agile when it comes to decision making and making things happen. I love the fact that I can have an idea to do something and be able to implement it without having multiple layers of approval. I also value the focus on long term investment rather than short term goals.
Q.3 –How do you see technology impacting your role over the next 5 years?
I think almost everyone will say AI, robotics or software developments and from a people perspective these are advances that I believe we will have to embrace. Upskilling our teams to take advantage of these new tools and platforms will be crucial to maintain a competitive advantage. Our future lies in connected systems that make life simple for our customers.
Q.4 – Who has inspired you the most in your career, and what did you learn from them?
I’ve been very lucky in my career to work with some very talented HR professionals and senior leaders, and I like to believe they all shaped me in some way. I also often recall the people who I didn’t want to emulate and I learnt a lot about how not to treat people from a few of them.
Q.5 -Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us.
I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I love riding motorcycles and Kitesurfing (just not at the same time). I actually relocated from Buckinghamshire 10 years ago to live closer to the sea and that decision ultimately led to me working 10 miles down the road for Gill in Lymington.
