BMT Defence Services, a subsidiary of BMT Group, has appointed David Lester-Card as its new operations director. Commenting on his appointment, David said, “After three enjoyable and fulfilling years as head of naval engineering at BMT Defence Services, I’m delighted to take up my new role as operations director. I look forward to overcoming the challenges and seizing the opportunities ahead.”
Muir Macdonald, managing director of BMT Defence Services, said, “Our services, reputation and future are built on the experience and expertise of our employees. David exemplifies the high quality of BMT Defence Services’ people and his appointment strengthens our board to sustain our position at the forefront of engineering design and in-service support.”
David Lester-Card is a chartered engineer and a member of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology. He has extensive experience of through-life design engineering, project management and tendering. He began his career as a marine engineering cadet with P&O Deep Sea Cargo Division, serving until 1983 as marine engineering officer on various P&O cargo vessels. Over the next five years David obtained his BEng in Mechanical Engineering, and worked primarily in marine engineering for three companies and the MoD Sea Systems Controllerate, supporting the Trafalgar Class submarine programme. David then worked as design and construction engineer and mechanical project engineer, mainly on marine and port infrastructure projects.
He joined BMT Defence Services in 1998, first as senior engineer, then as engineering manager and senior manager design group. During this time he managed a wide range of naval engineering functions, working on the type 22 batch 3, type 45, CVF and many other programmes. In January 2006 David became head of naval engineering (Bath), responsible for a team of 67 full-time engineers and a number of part-time staff in Bath, Keynsham (submarine support management group), and Bristol (CVF design team). David’s successor in the role of head of naval engineering (Bath) is Martin Hails.