News Items from The Institute of Circuit Technology

Brian Savill with his wife Joyce about 4 years ago at Blenheim Palace.
Thanks to Jim Douglas for this photo

Born in October 1935 in Romford, Brian Savill passed away in a Cambridge nursing home in the early hours of November 6th 2024.

For me, it all began in February 1997. This was the first day of my new job at Plessey Ilford; I was warned to steer clear of Brian Savill, because ‘he was abrasive’. I As a result, I christened him Mr. Scotchbrite, He loved that. Five minutes after walking into my laboratory, Brian – a toolmaker by trade - walked in and for some reason, ‘cottoned-on’ to me. On that particular day at Plessey, they were in the process of commissioning a new Chemcut processing line, using cupric chloride as an etchant. John Elliott and Brian kept coming into the lab, asking me to analyse the solution. They would go back out to the line, twiddle a few buttons, come back in and ask me to analyse the solution. This scenario kept going on and on. In the end, I taught Brian how to carry out the analysis. They didn’t realise that their adjustments were futile. In the end, they gave up tweaking. This experience of using cupric chloride was to come to good use for me later on in my journey.

He became a good friend even though it was sometimes an embarrassment to be with him! He was very good to me. As well as being dyslexic Brian was idiosyncratic, disliked by some, which didn’t bother him in the least, but loved by others. He loved restoring old cars, golf and Printed Circuit Boards. He also acted as a Marshall in RAC rallies. He did not suffer fools gladly. When Plessey decided to shut-up shop, he was invited to join Trulon by Mike Fisher (later of Express Circuits). He remained there until shortly after Trulon was bought by Stevenage Circuits.

After leaving Plessey, Brian moved to Arrington near Royston. His final days were spent in a nursing home in Cambridge. He leaves behind his wife Joyce, sadly suffering from dementia, daughters Angela and Julia, a brother and a sister and a number of grandchildren.

• A Friend and colleague. I had time for Brian. He was bright and full of life... Alex Ross

• I liked him a lot... Andrew Hall

• Sad news... Peter Kirwan

• He always had a good sense of humour... Richard Wood-Roe

Jim Douglas
County Donegal
08/11/2024 

Ventec International Group has promoted Bill Wang to Group Technical Vice President.

Having served as Ventec’s Technical Director since 2013, Bill now adds responsibility for the group’s overseas business units to his remit, leveraging the company’s wide-ranging expertise to create solutions in sectors such as high-performance computing, cloud servers, communications and networking, cellular infrastructure, consumer products, and solid-state lighting. He will continue to lead the Technical Department at the company’s global headquarters, while also directing the Global OEM Technology and IMS Technology sections in the EMEA and Americas regions. Read more...

We are excited to welcome Donald Grieve to the ZOT team as Sales Manager for the Assembly Division. Read more...