Perfecting quality prototype parts

Tim Rowell: perfecting quality prototype parts

Tim Rowell is the last remaining PP original. Having joined the company at the tender age of 21, in 1994, Tim was in the company of retired Roger Barnes, the late Gary Turner and then owner Dennis McFetrich. He now holds the role of Quality and Operations Manager, but where did Tim’s journey begin?

After school, Tim headed to college to study sales and marketing before securing a position in retail management with the highly regarded Joshua Taylor department store in the centre of Cambridge. When the store closed in the early 1990s, Tim had to find new employment and soon headed to Royston to join Mint Marketing Company which would later become the luxury brand, Hotel Chocolat.

Becoming an original

After a couple of years, Tim needed a fresh challenge. A few friends were making parts for cars at Prototype Projects and, as a lover of cars and motorbikes, Tim made enquiries and so began his career here. In the casting department, Tim was responsible for trimming up plastics. As he progressed, he became involved in making the tools that make parts, before then making the patterns that make the tools that make the parts, alongside Gary and Roger.

But Tim wasn’t settled and left the company to work for an office fitting company which would see him travelling the country installing office fittings designed by his colleagues.

Wandering up the town in Royston, two years later in 2001, Tim bumped into Gary who asked how he was. Recognising Tim’s job was consuming his life, Gary suggested he come back to Prototype Projects which was under new management – Justin Pringle had taken over the company in 2000. And so, Tim returned as a Workshop Technician. The company was very small back then, less than ten people, but with a strategic vision even in those early days, Justin invested in 3D Printing machines to meet a change in industry needs, altering the direction of the company and vastly improving job satisfaction.

For the next couple of years, Tim worked as a Model Maker and 3D Printing Technician and then, as the demand for 3D Printing continued to grow alongside Tim’s knowledge and expertise, he was promoted to RP Workshop Team Leader, a role that he held for many years.

Becoming a leader

In early 2021, twenty years after his return to the company, Tim was promoted to Quality and Operations Manager. Initially the role saw Tim continue with his management of the rapid prototyping team and ensuring only quality prototypes were dispatched to customers. Then, with the promotion of Gemma Zouhar-Lewis to RP Workshop Team Leader, and following Gary’s passing over the summer, Tim’s role has evolved. Allowing Gemma the autonomy to manage her team, Tim continues to monitor the quality of parts and has also assumed many of the operational responsibilities that Gary managed including being part of the leadership team which is responsible for delivering the company’s strategic vision.

Added to that, Tim is keen to ensure the RP team is as highly skilled as the originals were and so he is embarking on an upskilling programme with Gemma to enable her to then upskill her team.

Extravagant plans

Outside of work, Tim spends most of his free time with his partner, Gemma, and their two young children. Having previously renovated a Victorian property in Royston, Tim now has extravagant plans to transform the garden of the family’s new home. Gemma’s then got her own plans for the garage which don’t include space for Tim to resume his passion for restoring old BMX bikes. Having previously bought 1980s BMX bikes, he would strip them down and then repaint them in the painting workshop – out of hours(!) – at Prototype Projects. A much younger Tim competed at a national level, earning many trophies along the way.

As Tim prepares himself for hitting the big 5-0 in 2022, Gemma has organised a surprise birthday trip in spring. Tim’s hoping it’s Rome so they can visit the Colosseum and other ancient ruins, as well as eating his favourite food, pizza!