Autumn 2002 PW 5 - Cranfield University

www. cranfield.ac.uk/alumni
Georgios Panagiotopoulos
MSc Quality Management 1996 – 97,
SIMS
George is currently working in the
field of the construction industry,
performing quality inspections and
management of telecommunications and
major electro mechanical construction
sites, and public works.
Previously, he worked for Honda UK as
an Engineering Co-ordinator for Quality
in the Parts Quality Department, where he
spent more than three years.
He says, “Cranfield has helped me
enormously in developing my career, both
in the UK and in Greece. My MSc has
been proven to be a key to opening many
‘career doors’ and the Cranfield logo has
been a major contributory factor to that.
“I thank Cranfield for my career up ’til
now, and hope to be back for an MBA in
the future.”
George is also a past President of the
Hellenic Society at Cranfield and was on
hand to help, by talking to interested
students, on the Cranfield stand at the
British Council recruitment fair in Athens
earlier in the year.
Rodolfe Roballos
MBA 1983, SoM
Last Autumn’s edition of Password
brought home some fond memories
of Cranfield in the early eighties for
Rodolfe Roballos.
Rodolfe, who has been working as
General Manager of an Argentine sugar
and paper company for the past seven
years, said: “The Cranfield training was
key to my career progress. I developed a
long and successful career, in Argentina
and other countries, in different
Mike Gregory
MSc 1971, CoA
PhD Graduate 2002, SIMS
New PhD graduate Wing
Commander Mike Gregory
reckons he probably holds the record for
the longest gap between masters and
doctorate degrees from Cranfield.
Mike came to Cranfield from the RAF
in 1968 for a year’s Foundation Course,
then a one-year CoA Diploma. Like
many others, he had to wait until
Cranfield (then CIT) was granted
university status in ’69, before finally
receiving his MSc in 1971. “I spent the
first half of my life getting my MSc in
aviation electronics and the second half
on my PhD in enterprise integration,”
he said cheerfully.
Throughout, he spent a long and
successful career with the RAF – from
1958 until he retired in 1996. This has
included working as Project Officer on
the Tornado team in Warton, Lancs,
responsible for its introduction into the
RAF service; similarly so on the Hawk,
Bulldog, Jetstream and the Lynx, and
later supporting Phantom aircraft on an
operational fighter station.
Further responsibilities have included
working with the MoD on all RAF flight
simulators; training policy, and
successful accreditation to Allied
Quality Assurance Procedures,
Brampton, as well as providing a
specialist team on engineering support
to the Joint Air Reconnaissance
Intelligence Centre.
companies – local and multinational;
different industries – oil and gas, tyres,
writing instruments, paper and now
sugar and alcohol; and different job
positions – consultancy, sales and
marketing, general management.
“And, all the time, the analytical skills
learned at my MBA studies, the ability
to perform under pressure and the
experience of team work were always
there to help.
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CRANFIELD PEOPLE
Nor does Mike’s story end with his
retirement from the RAF. He has finally
returned as an employee of Cranfield on
a research project – a collaboration
between Cranfield, Loughborough and
Salford universities on team-working
across the aerospace, construction and
general design sectors.
Since leaving the RAF, Mike has not
only found time to do his PhD, but also
to work on an aeroplane of his own.
From a previously smashed aircraft he
has helped to build a 4-seater 160hp
Jodel replica, building a new fuselage.
He has since proved its worth in a flight
to Prague in 2000.
“I would like to thank Cranfield for
that, and to send a very special greeting
to all my colleague students and my
teachers of those days, some of them still
there and doing a good job.”