Aurrigo's David Keene named as a Top 100 manufacturing professional for record-breaking third time

By Peter Davison

12 June 2023

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David Keen of Aurrigo

The man behind one of the UK’s leading providers of autonomous transport technology solutions has been named in The Manufacturer’s Top 100 of manufacturing professionals in the UK.

David Keene, who formed Aurrigo International plc 30 years ago with his brother Graham, made the prestigious collective for a record-breaking third time after judges praised him for his leadership and passion for engineering.

They also singled out his work in driving the UK’s presence in autonomous vehicles, with its Auto-Pod and Auto-Dolly solutions spearheading the way for new technology in ‘first and last mile’ transport and the aviation sector.

The award marks a major year for the graduate engineer, with the Coventry-based company successfully listing on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and signing a ground-breaking partnership deal to test its autonomous luggage dollies at Changi Airport in Singapore.

David Keene, who is also a Visiting Professor at Coventry University, commented: “It is such an honour to be included in the Top 100, especially when you consider the diverse and exciting talent that I’m among - spanning pretty much every engineering discipline you can imagine.

“I was in the original list when The Manufacturer launched the concept in 2013. It was needed then to raise the profile of industry and the people who are changing the world, the same ethos still applies today. In fact, the more we can do to promote engineering to the next generation the better.”

He continued: “This honour is for all the team at Aurrigo. We are continually pushing the boundaries when it comes to autonomous technology, and this is only possible thanks to the expertise and passion of our employees.”

Aurrigo International plc, which has recently acquired GB Wiring Systems, employs 93 people across its Advanced Engineering Centre in Coventry and international offices in North America, Australia, and Singapore

Since it successfully raised £8m in the IPO last September, the company has seen revenues reach £5.3m for the year ending December 31st and created more than 30 new jobs, with a fresh recruitment drive just beginning to take the workforce past 100 for the first time in its history.

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.