Saiccor - The First 50 Years 5.8 MB - Sappi

The First Fifty Years
make all the decisions with the Chairman of IDC prior to Board
meetings� In 1961 Kearton became a Fellow of the Royal Society, in
1966 he was knighted and in 1970 he became a Labour Peer� Lord
Kearton FRS was a strong supporter of the British Labour Party� He
played a leading role in repelling ICI’s bid to take over Courtaulds in
1962, after which he converted all Courtaulds’ cash into assets,
thereby building a highly complex conglomerate company� Until his
retirement in 1975 (when he took charge of British North Sea Gas)
Kearton was a major driving force at Saiccor� In a speech at Saiccor in
1973 Kearton called Saiccor ‘the jewel in the crown of Courtaulds’�
In 1989 Derek Keyes, then Chairman of Gencor and a Sappi director,
also called Saiccor ‘the jewel in the crown of Sappi’�
In early 1960 design work for the Usutu mill commenced in
Johannesburg� Graham Mortimer and Ciano Ioppo joined the team�
In October 1961 some 30 engineering personnel from Saiccor went
to help commission Usutu, including Bruno Scorovich, section
foreman of Pulp Finishing, who remained there�
Bill Hastie, who had been appointed to the Saiccor Board in October
1960, was appointed Chief Executive of Usutu and left Saiccor in
February 1962, although he remained on the Saiccor Board� He left
Usutu in 1968 and joined Premier, where he worked with Ugo Testa,
a former Saiccor Shift Superintendent, and Thys de Waard, who from
1988 worked with Saiccor as Sappi’s Technical Manager� Bill retired
in the late 1970s and died in 1983� Ian Mackenzie joined Hastie in
March 1962 as Usutu’s Mill Manager�
Ken Reed became Saiccor’s Works Manager in March 1962, as well
as Development Manager until January 1965� In October 1967 he
was promoted to Technical Director� He retired in December 1975
and died in 1978� He was a very competent chemical engineer and a
very intelligent individual�
Norman Boulter became Technical Manager in March 1962�
Norman, a chemist, was seconded from Courtaulds in 1959 and
started working in the bleaching plant, where he simplified the
process control� In January 1965 he was appointed deputy Works
Manager and in July 1982 Works Director� He retired in May 1987�
For many years he knew as much about dissolving pulp, and the
making of it, as anyone in the world�
Tom Harman developed lung cancer in 1960, relinquishing his role
as Chief Engineer, but continued as an engineer in the Development
department� He died in November 1965� Viggo Melkjorsen became
Chief Engineer and part of the Management team in November 1960,
until he resigned in July 1965� In November 1962 Graham Mortimer
became Plant Engineer, his previous function of electrical engineer
was taken by Angelo Serravalle, who returned to Italy in June 1963,
when Bruno Trevisan, the Power Station Foreman, took over�
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Bill Hastie
Ken Reed
Norman Boulter