Smiths Group appoints Kini Pathmanathan as Head of Smiths Excellence & Sustainability

Internal appointment to join Smiths Group’s Executive Committee

Smiths Group, the industrial technology company, today announces that Kini Pathmanathan has been appointed as Head of Smiths Excellence & Sustainability, effective as of 1st May. Kini will be based in London and will lead a new function combining our sustainability work and the Smiths Excellence System – our continuous improvement system – reporting to Roland Carter, CEO.

Kini has more than 25 years of experience working in matrixed advanced technology environments. She is an accomplished business leader with significant experience in continuous improvement, change and transformation, and has led teams across the USA, Latin America, EMEA and APAC.

Kini succeeds John Ostergren, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Tony Tielen, Director of Smiths Excellence System, who will leave the company on 1st May. Sustainability and Smiths Excellence remain key priorities for Smiths. Moving forward, these functions will be combined building on the strong foundations laid to drive higher performance and a stronger company culture.

Roland Carter, Chief Executive of Smiths Group, said: “Kini is joining our Executive Committee at an exciting time as we continue to identify opportunities for further growth and value creation. I look forward to welcoming Kini, whose deep experience in strategic leadership and continuous improvement will be invaluable to our future growth story.

“I would like to thank John for his sustainability leadership over the last several years at Smiths, helping raise the profile of our ESG credentials, and I would like to thank Tony for his dedicated service of the past nine years. His work for Smiths spanned various international assignments including Germany, France, Benelux and UK. John and Tony have laid strong foundations leaving us well-placed to build on this work. I send my sincere wishes and continued professional success to them both."

Promoting internal talent is a key priority for Smiths and this is another example of a key senior promotion from within the company and its strong talent pipeline and succession planning. Previously Kini was vice president of HR for John Crane, Smiths largest business by revenue. She was appointed in January 2023 after nearly six years leading HR for Smiths Detection and Smiths Asia Pacific.

Before joining Smiths, Kini was vice president of HR at Thales UK, the French manufacturing company that designs and manufactures electrical systems, devices and equipment for the defence, security, transportation and aerospace sectors. Kini graduated as a mechanical engineer and also holds an MBA.

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