A new CEO has been announced at St Helens' Glass Futures.

The not-for-profit organisation has appointed Justin Kelly as its new CEO, effective immediately.

He replaces founding CEO Richard Katz, who has been appointed president.

Glass Futures, a £54m innovative research and technology centre that will help decarbonise the global glass industry, opened in St Helens at Peasley Cross.

Mr Kelly is a chartered engineer with a BEng (Hons) in computers, management, and electronics.

He began his career at Siemens, where he held several roles over nearly three decades, culminating in his appointment to the Siemens executive management board in 2017.

He was also the founding CEO of the sustainable materials and manufacturing centre in Greater Manchester, and in 2023 became non-executive chair of Sustainable Ventures North.

Mr Kelly will join at the start of Glass Futures' next phase, which will see the organisation welcome new appointments to the board of directors, including Mike Houghton, chief commercial officer of Process Industries Software at Siemens, as chair, and José Miguel Ivorra, vice president of global business development at Guardian Industries.

Pictured: Richard Katz (left), former CEO turned President shakes hand with current CEO, Justin Kelly (right) (Image: Supplied) The pair will replace Dr Richard Hulme, whose long-term secondment is drawing to a close.

Mr Houghton said: "We welcome Justin to Glass Futures as we move into the next phase of the organisation’s evolution as an operational research facility.

"His wealth of experience in leadership, strategy, transformation, sustainability, marketing, governance, and a passion for responsible business will be indispensable to the continued growth of Glass Futures towards a sustainable and innovative future."

Richard Katz, the first Glass Futures employee in January 2020, has been appointed president.

He will continue to work closely with the Government to help them understand how Glass Futures’ research, development, and innovation enables growth.

Glass Futures was a concept developed some 10 years ago by Richard together with Dave Dalton, CEO of the British Glass Manufacturers’ Confederation, as an independent not-for-profit organisation to enable the glass industry to have access to an industrial scale experimental pilot plant.

The facility has been designed and built by the industry to allow practical experimentation with alternative low carbon sustainable energy sources to replace high carbon natural gas to decarbonise glass manufacture toward a sustainable future.