After years of dedicated service and visionary leadership as Chief Technology Officer at Wayland Additive, Ian Laidler is retiring from his role. Ian has been a cornerstone of the company since its inception, playing a pivotal role in the development of our ground-breaking NeuBeam® technology.
Ian’s technical expertise and experience, specifically around controlling and managing electron beams, have been instrumental in guiding Wayland from early R&D stages through to becoming a recognised innovator in the additive manufacturing (AM) industry. Under his technical leadership, together with other Board members, the NeuBeam process was implemented into a full production system in the form of Calibur3, to offer a truly novel approach to eBeam metal AM that eliminates many of the limitations associated with traditional AM systems.
Beyond the technology itself, Ian has built and led a formidable engineering team, fostered collaborative R&D partnerships and mentored the next generation of engineers and scientists within the company. His retirement marks the end of an era, and the entire Wayland team is deeply grateful for his vision, commitment, integrity and the legacy he leaves with us.
As Ian steps into a well-earned retirement, we are also delighted to announce the appointment of Chris Smithas Wayland’s new CTO. Chris brings a wealth of experience in AM technologies, materials science and AM application development. He has been involved with Wayland from the earliest R&D projects and we believe he is an exceptional successor to Ian, to carry the torch forward.
Chris holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield that was focused on a novel topology optimisation method for producing minimal mass structures using AM and over the last eight years has progressed his career first at Reliance Precision and then Wayland under Ian’s guidance. We have no doubt that Chris will lead the continued evolution of the NeuBeam platform, drive new product innovations and guide strategic technology partnerships.
We extend our warmest thanks to Ian Laidler for his extraordinary service, and we celebrate the promotion of Chris Smith with great enthusiasm as we enter this next chapter of innovation and growth at Wayland Additive.