CAB appoints a new Technical Director

A key value to being a member of any Technical Association is the support it can offer its members. CAB has long been recognised as being the voice of aluminium for the Facade Industry representing members in developing standards, legislation and on associated industry bodies. With the return to membership growth of the Association in 2024, CAB is enhancing its technical support by appointing an industry experienced Technical Director.

Dale Pegler will be well known by many having worked for a well known systems company in a technical design, support and legislative environment, Members will also know Dale as he has led the CAB Technical Committee as Chair for a couple of years. CAB now welcomes Dale into the CAB team joining forces with Justin Furness to support our members in the facade supply chain.

Dale brings with him twenty years experience in the fenestration industry, he already sits on several facade related committees and will now be able to represent CAB members on even more fenestration related bodies in the future. Dale explains his passion for taking on the role, “I am looking forward to joining the CAB team in January and feel there is a great deal more we can do to support the facade supply chain across the UK & Ireland. To begin with I am looking forward to restructuring the Technical Committee and developing Member Working Groups to research and agree position papers within the CAB Membership and further enhance the Association as a respected centre of excellence for specifiers.

“I also recognise the plight of the Industry where we have a widening skills gap and the average age of experienced individuals is increasing rapidly with not enough new talent entering the Industry. CAB have already started to work on the skills gap by attending higher education open days and by initiating the ‘CAB Training Academy’, but there is more work to do. We need to make a career in the Industry attractive to school and college leavers as well as experience people in similar trades that wish to bring their experience into our Industry.

“Next year will see CAB bring back the Technical Conference, once again being held at Holywell Park, Loughborough University which is a perfect venue for us. We held the last Technical Conference here six years ago in 2018 and for 2025 we already have some interesting speakers lined up for the event. There will also be more networking time and, more importantly, sessions that will be led by members sharing and agreeing challenges that face the facade Industry today. We hope the resurgence of interest in the Technical Conference will allow CAB to listen and then lead Industry discussion with what is important for our members.

“As I look at our Industry, seeing how CNC machines and software have advanced our production capability, aluminium fabrication still lags well behind in automation terms compared to PVC window manufacture and, if we look at what is going on in automotive manufacture, I believe there is a lot that can be learnt and brought to aluminium fabrication. I’m hoping that we can raise interest in this area from some of our members and form a working group to research what can be done and feedback new and developing technology to our membership.

“In terms of supporting our membership “To add to the CAB badge”, which is a statement of commitment to the Industry, I want Members to see CAB as a paid ‘employee’ of their business, helping them to grow by offering accurate, unbiased advice and support.”

With a new format for events in 2025 and changes being brought about by listening to our members, CAB will become that additional ‘employee’ that informs and help members prosper in a challenging decade ahead. We look forward to Dale bringing his wealth of experience to CAB and his enthusiasm will help me and the team continue to raise the importance of Membership and how it benefits our market.