Editorial Board

Since its launch in September 2008, WhichPLM has become an industry institution, packed with exclusive news, interviews, analysis and insight.  Our staff of contributors may have changed in the intervening years, but our mission statement has always been clear: we work on behalf of the fashion industry, creating the clearest possible channels of communication between its technology suppliers, brands, and customers. Collectively, the WhichPLM editorial board boasts a half-century of industry experience; as a team and individually, we understand PLM from the foundations upwards, and each of us is invested in understanding, reporting on, and helping to shape its future.

Editorial Board

Ben Hanson is WhichPLM’s Contributing Editor. Ben has worked for magazines, newspapers, local government agencies, multi-million pound conservation projects, museums and creative publications before his eventual migration to the Retail, Footwear and Apparel industry.

Ben is responsible for our style, and provides much of the on-the-ground reporting and interviews that have come to characterise WhichPLM. With a background in literature, marketing and communications, Ben brings more than a decade’s worth of experience to the day-to-day operation of WhichPLM and has in the process become one of the industry’s best-known writers.

Mark Harrop is the founder and Managing Director of WhichPLM. During a career that has spanned close to four decades, Mark has worked tirelessly to further the cause of PLM – providing the unbiased, expert advice that has enabled some of the world’s best known retailers, brands and manufacturers achieve efficiency savings across their entire supply chain through informed technology investments.

Mark founded WhichPLM to serve as an impartial channel of communication between suppliers and customers, and to provide unbiased, independent insight into what he knew would become the crowded industry it is today.

A senior contributor to WhichPLM, Kilara Le has a background in design and textiles, and a passion for streamlining product development. She has worked with major international retailers, brands, and technology providers on improving business processes, technology implementation and software development.

A seeker of elegant solutions to meet business goals and challenges, she is currently a freelance consultant with Walter Wilhelm Associates, and has previously worked with Gerber Technology, PTC, Dassault, and Lectra software.

With more than a decade of industry experience – including work for the Ben Sherman Group (where he led a five-year global brand repositioning), Firetrap, Timberland,  Nike, and for his own consultancy, Future Forward Consulting LLP – Sjors Bos is a strategic planning and reengineering expert of international standing.

Renowned for building strong relationships with stakeholders and helping to drive profit-led change in all areas, Sjors bring his considerable expertise to bear on educating and informing the WhichPLM readership, equipping them with the knowledge and the tools that allow them to effectively manage change and thrive in a difficult environment.

Kenny McMaster is an internationally-known textile specialist, with more than four decades’ worth of experience working across Europe and Asia.  In his current role as Business Development Director at Coats – the world’s leading supplier of sewing threads and supply chain solutions – Kenny is part of a global business with turnover of $1.5 billion.

Throughout his career, Kenny has built and maintained close relationships with many of the world’s leading brands and super-contractors, and has become over time an experienced implementer of supply chain solutions in his own right.  It is this unique blend of high-level and hands-on experience that Kenny brings to his position on the WhichPLM Editorial Board.

A prominent industry figure,  Morag Ashworth has more than 20 years’ experience – the majority of those specialising in product development and supply.

Morag studied at the Scottish College of Textiles.  She then began her career by accruing a broad experience base, including roles in Garment Technology, Production Management and Sourcing & Commercial Management for such prestigious brands as Van Heusen, Peter England, Umbro, Mountain Equipment, Cotton Oxford and several suppliers to Marks & Spencer.  Morag also worked as Senior Product & Sourcing Manager for international lifestyle and high performance sailing brand Henri Lloyd, before establishing herself as an indepent consultant and contributor to WhichPLM.

With over a decade worth of experience working within the world’s most luxurious tailoring houses from Huntsman, Harrods to Tom Ford, Katy Bowles has moved from being the youngest Savile Row-trained head cutter – directing a house in Mayfair – to establishing her own successful tailoring business within the west end.

Educated at the University of Leeds, London College of Fashion and with two Savile Row apprenticeships under her belt, Katy became a finalist in BBC British Tailor of the Year 2012 and continues to dress the world’s most elegant celebrities, royals and business professionals.

With more than 20 years’ experience in the design, development, sourcing and branding of garments, Andrew Dyer is an apparel industry veteran dedicated to educating designers and executives alike about the skills, processes and solutions that collectively transform the right designs into the right products for the right markets.

As one of the newest members of our Editorial Board and as a consultant in his own right, Andrew continues to champion CAD in fashion design through seminars and online tutorials (delivered to individual designers or corporate design teams), as well as articles and blogs specifically tailored to the same audience.

A graduate of Manchester Metropolitan University, Paul Timson‘s career was forged in the famous industrial city.  He went on to work as a professional consultant, specialising in “Predetermined Time Standard” (PTS) solutions, which lead him in turn toward training, implementation and support of “GSD” (General Sewing Data), the industry standard and de facto choice of the sewn products industry, where he has served as Managing Director since 1996.

Paul’s extensive knowledge of and experience in industrial engineering principles, work measurement, predictive costing and productivity improvement enables him to provide our readers with real insight into the world of labour and production – where products become reality.

Simon Meens has more than 25 years’ experience in the textile goods industry and holds qualifications in textiles, sales, marketing and management.  Over the course of his career Simon has marketed a range of design, development and production solutions across a broad cross section of the apparel industry, working with clients as diverse as Levi Strauss, Billabong, Pacific Brands, Canterbury and Speedo.

Simon brings a wealth of expertise across the apparel goods supply chain to the WhichPLM Editorial Board.  And it’s with this knowledge base behind him that he, in his current role with consultants Fashionlink PLM,  seeks to educate apparel companies looking to better understand the benefits PLM can bring to their business.

Peter Richardson began his career nearly 40 years ago as an Industrial Engineer with Australia’s largest clothing manufacturer, Bradmill.

As Managing Director for Lectra Australia and New Zealand for 15 years, he was responsible for the sale, implementation, training and ongoing support of CAD/CAM solutions to over 200 client, including Adidas, Puma, Target, K-Mart, and more.

Peter knows the industry, the technology and the people and brings to the WhichPLM Editorial Board a wealth of experience that extends right the way from concept to market.

Julie Becker is currently the Director of the Textiles Research & Training Institute and a Faculty member at Eastern Michigan University.  She teaches in the Apparel, Textiles & Merchandising Program in the College of Technology.  Julie has over 20 years of industrial experience in product development, manufacturing and design utilizing various CAD/CAM systems as it applies to furniture, apparel, automotive, military, marine and technical textiles.  She is currently working on her PhD in Technology.