John Pearce reflects on Chris Harrop’s eight years as Chairman of Made in Britain. 
Exemplary people make a measurable difference to the organisations that are lucky enough, and savvy enough, to have them join their ranks. Professor Chis Harrop OBE has been Chairman of the Board of Non-executive Directors of the Made in Britain Campaign since 2017.
Much of Made in Britain’s success and continued growth has been in large part due to Professor Harrop’s ambitious nature and enormous personal contribution. He has contributed hundreds of hours of his time to help make Made in Britain evolve into what it is today – 2,100 British manufacturing businesses all using the same official Trademark.
Made in Britain simply could not have had a better chairman than Professor Harrop for its first decade of emergence into the mainstream of British business representation and promotion. When he joined, and offered to volunteer his time on the board as his then employer, Marshalls plc’s representative, Made in Britain was a very different organisation than we know today.
Back then, some 600 members were using the Made in Britain licence and mark to identify their goods. Today, our focus remains the Trademark – which helps our membership community of British manufacturers to sell more of what they make – but we’ve grown and evolved to unify and represent more than two thousand businesses that are declaring an intent to construct a greener, fairer and more sustainably profitable manufacturing sector for the generations to come.
Professor Harrop was awarded an OBE for services to the prevention of modern slavery and exploitation. Through the years I’ve worked with him, I’ve learned that his starting point at work, as well as in life outside work, is an inherent optimism and belief in the power of what people can achieve. Beyond that, he believes that every business should be of the utmost quality, apportioning the same level of commitment to society and the planet as they do to sales and profit.
Like myself and the other members of the Made in Britain Board of Non-executive Directors, Professor Harrop is an idealist who believes, with both head and heart, in the very best of British business and that Made in Britain plays an important part in that story. He is known to be the one person in a room with the deepest evidence sets, data and insights to ensure that Made in Britain achieves its goals. He has seen our membership more than double and recognition of our Trademark skyrocket to 8 out of UK 10 businesses in 2024.
I want to offer an enormous personal vote of thanks to Professor Harrop and wish him well with the many different dimensions and responsibilities of his professional life – from me and all the people that work for Made in Britain today. He has consistently shown us that we can all aim to lead extraordinarily good lives and become the very best of ourselves at the same time.
Thank you, Chris, for eight extraordinary and brilliant years! You have helped realise the dream of turning Made in Britain from a campaign, a list of manufacturing businesses and a well-designed logo into THE official Trademark for British manufacturing.
Professor Chris Harrop OBE’s tenure as Non-executive Director and Chair of the Board at Made in Britain concludes on 31st July 2024. The newly-appointed Chair of the Made in Britain Board of Non-executive Directors, whose tenure commences following Professor Harrop’s departure, is Camilla Hadcock.
By Made in Britain 4 months ago | By Made in Britain