The British Compressed Air Society (BCAS) has appointed Andy Jones, managing director of Mattei Compressors, as its 55th president. Jones takes over the role from Derek Turnbull, general manager of Parker Hannifin, who has held the position for the past two years. He will continue to ensure the society evolves to meet the needs of both its members and compressed air end-users and their requirements for relevant, timely information. In particular, Jones will be promoting the benefits of using a BCAS member to provide professional and competent sales and service advice and support, as well as the wide range of training courses available from the society to help improve safety and standards across the industry. He commented: “Over the next two years, I want the BCAS stamp of approval to be an industry-wide sign of quality and its members to be customers’ first choice for compressed air and vacuum sales and support. In addition, I plan to extend the reach of our specialist compressed air training courses, particularly our range of online resources which can offer a more flexible route to learning.” Chris Dee, executive director for BCAS, added: “Andy has already played an instrumental role in BCAS in his role as vice president for the past two years and as a board member prior to that. We are very pleased to welcome him to his new position. Our thanks also go to Derek Turnbull for his work with the board in developing a new strategic plan to help shape the society for the future and to improve support for members.” Dee continued: “Customers today are demanding more efficient and innovative compressed air solutions to help meet their environmental obligations and to reduce cost of ownership. In this cost-conscious environment, BCAS fulfils an increasingly important role; not only in supporting its members’ interests but also in advising manufacturers, distributors and service agents on best practice and changes to legislation.” Jones continued: “I’m looking forward to working with our members to ensure that BCAS continues to deliver the right expertise and support in meeting these key challenges. BCAS is instrumental in helping to raise standards across the industry. In particular, initiatives such as our 12 months’ free associate membership scheme, an offer that is open to all end-user customers of BCAS members, are having a positive impact.” He added: “The offer provides UK companies with a whole host of BCAS membership benefits including discounts on training and publications, as well as access to compressed air codes of practice and the society’s networking events. Through the marketing committee, we plan to implement similar schemes in the future to help increase the reach of the organisation to even more compressed air users.” Further information about the new BCAS end-user membership scheme can be found at www.bcasairsafe.co.uk