DAVE Gillett, md of GEA Searle, is to leave the company after 36 years with the Fareham-based heat exchanger manufacturer.
An announcement by the company to customers said: 'We regret that Dave has decided to retire now but would like to thank him for his valuable work and wish him all the best for his future private life.'

Having worked his way up through the company, he was md of Searle when the International Cooling Group, which included Searle and Dawmec in the UK and Raffel in Germany, was bought by GEA in 2008. Since then he has been heavily involved in the integration of the company into the GEA Group.

The company also announced a number of managerial changes within the GEA Heat Exchangers group. Robert Marsden becomes international sales director, Neil Stephenson becomes legal representative and director of administration and Kevin Apperley is appointed plant manager.