Nik Everatt joins the company as Group Talent and HR Director with a remit to develop the Lucideon team across the globe.

He brings a wealth of blue-chip company expertise to the role, coupled with the experience of applying it within smaller and more agile organisations.

Nik said: "Clients love working with Lucideon because of the unique capability we bring to the global advanced materials marketplace. That capability rests to a large extent on the skills, experience, and quite frankly, the raw brainpower of the people in our business.

"At Lucideon I will be using my experience of developing technical organisations to help our people be even more successful and ensure that we can support the growth that we are planning for over the coming years.

"There is so much opportunity for us, as many organisations just don’t have access to the wide-ranging cross-functional expertise necessary to solve the issues in their business.

"Clients who know us really value our work and part of the challenge is to make more people aware of what we do and how we can help them.

Nik originally trained as a Chemist, and after a stint in IT, quickly made the move into HR.

Previously he was Head of HR at Victrex, the global leader in PEEK high-performance polymer.  Prior to that, Nik held the position of HR Director for Unilever's Global Home and Personal Care R&D teams.

Nik added: "From a personal perspective, I am a scientist at heart and was immediately attracted to the approach people at Lucideon took to science and innovation – the combination of passion for the subject and pragmatism to deliver commercial solutions.

"I enjoy helping people to be successful in the roles they do. This can come in many forms, from individual learning and development, to ensuring that jobs, teams and organisations are arranged to help people make their best contribution.

"Lucideon offers enormous scope to make a difference and I’m really looking forward to the work ahead."

Lucideon employs more than 240 staff across the globe – many of which are based at its global headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent.

The company's international footprint includes offices and laboratories based in North and South Carolina, where it is moving to a new 24,000 sq. ft. facility, New York and in the Far East.

It has recently opened offices in Austria and Switzerland – and is in the process of opening sales offices in the Far East.

Tony Kinsella, Chief Executive of Lucideon, said: "We are delighted to welcome Nik to the business.

"He joins us at an exciting time in our history as we continue to enjoy success within the aerospace, construction, nuclear, healthcare and technical ceramics sectors.

"Our goal is to be the technical partner for emerging technologies, processes and materials, and to be really at the forefront as a consulting partner for companies and organisations.

"We are in an exceptional position to expand globally and we need to ensure we provide the very best environment for our staff to achieve this success.

"Ultimately, Nik brings a unique set of skills to help Lucideon achieve these high growth ambitions."