Ian returns to North as director with DSC

Sep 6 2007 by Iain Laing, The Journal

A LEADING executive and hi-tech specialist has opted to leave a senior position in the US to work for one of the region’s cutting edge companies.

Ian Radley is relocating from Albany in New York State to head up operations for Durham Scientific Crystals (DSC) based in Netpark, near Sedgefield, County Durham.

Ian, 50, who graduated in Physics and Chemistry at Durham University, is returning to North-East England with his family for the exciting opportunities offered by DSC and for the quality of life offered by the region.

In the US, he was director of advanced product development for X-Ray Optical Systems Inc (XOS).

XOS is the leading manufacturer of X-ray optics, used by every analytical instrumentation company in the world. Ian led the growth of the company’s own instrumentation products, which now account for 85% of its revenue. These instruments are used by every major petrochemical company for the regulation of sulphur in diesel fuel.

He was also operations director of the X-ray technology group at Oxford Instruments between 1993 and 1998 and programme manager for analytical instruments between 1998 and 2001.

Now DSC has appointed him technical operations director, with responsibility for operational aspects of product and technology development and day-to-day running of the plant at DSC.

DSC produces specialist semi-conductor materials which are revolutionising digital X-ray technology and which have a potential world-wide market worth billions of pounds.

Ian said: “The opportunity was too good to miss. What attracted me was a combination of the amazing opportunity of working for a company which is pioneering world-beating technology and the wonderful life-style which North-East England offers and which I remember with great fondness from my days at university here.

“Durham itself is an incredibly beautiful city. When you have seen the midsummer sun setting on Palace Green it’s something you never forget. Thankfully, the city hardly seems to have changed from my student days, either physically or in its atmosphere. Apart from that, the whole region boasts a fantastic outdoors. Both my wife Janice and I are keen hikers and, in fact, we spent our honeymoon walking Hadrian’s Wall.

“And, despite the fact that the economy has been transformed since my student days and is being driven by highly innovative and dynamic companies such as DSC, the people are still friendly and life is relaxed.’’

Ian joins DSC at the same time as Fabrice Dierre and Mohamed Ayoub, who both join the company from France.

Fabrice did a Phd at the French Atomic Centre in Grenoble, and Mohamed, also a Phd, comes from the Phase Laboratories – part of the University Louis Pasteur – in Strasbourg. The new recruits join less than a month after DSC successfully raised £3.5m in a new round of fundraising to finance product development and further growth.