David Larcombe, formerly Managing Director at Bystronic UK (Coventry, England), recently retired after 40 years' service at the company. His colleagues at the Swiss company's headquarters in Niederönz invited David and his wife to a weekend in the Swiss Alps near the Italian border, beside Lake Lugano.
I’ve known and admired David for many of his years in the UK as a very capable and competent manager, and admired his persistence in promoting laser cutting in a rather-small market, where the competition is fierce and capital investment money has been limited over the past few years.
The pages of Industrial Laser Solutions are heavy with contributions on laser cutting case studies from Bystronic in the UK, thanks to David’s astute marketing skills. He was always ready to support a harried editor looking for a cover image, or an interesting laser cutting profile. In fact, one of these will likely show up on the cover of the November/December 2019 issue.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention David’s efforts on co-founding and on behalf of the Association of Industrial Laser Users (AILU), the UK’s very active voice for laser processing in that corner of the world.
Leaving, David commented, “I feel extremely privileged to have had the career I have enjoyed within the engineering industry. I have a large number of very special memories, especially the many years working for Bystronic. It has been a wonderful company to serve, as I always felt I was a friend rather than an employee. I have made many great friendships both within Bystronic worldwide and the UK sheet metalworking industry. I wish everyone the very best for the future.”