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At the Timber Trades Benevolent Society’s Annual General Meeting, held on Thursday 11th May 2017 at the Royal Air Force Club, Piccadilly, Ivan Savage, the Society’s General Manager since 2011, was also appointed as the National President for 2017 and 2018.
He succeeds Robert Bruce of MH Southern & Co Ltd. This is the first time, in the Society’s 120 year history, that the General Manager has also served as National President.
Ivan Savage joined the timber industry in October 1960 on the south coast with A.Olby & Sons Ltd (now part of the Cover Group), moving to Cox Long Ltd (now part of the Walker Group) in Stafford in 1976. He was subsequently a Director of S. Jackson (Walsall) Ltd which was bought in August of 1993 by the Carver Group, based in Wolverhampton and in 1994 he was appointed as the Carver Group Sales Director, the first non-family director in nearly 100 years, a position he held until his semi-retirement in November 2008. He was also a founder Director of the Carver subsidiary, Engineered Timber Solutions Ltd, Rodington, near Shrewsbury and continued in that position until February 2011 when he finally stepped down to take up his appointment as the TTBS General Manager.
Having at that time completed over fifty years unbroken employment in sales and administration within the timber and timber engineering sectors, together with many years involvement with the Midlands Region TTBS, the Society’s Trustees considered that he was exceptionally well qualified to understand the needs of the beneficiaries and to appreciate and nurture the relationships with the timber industry itself.
Throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, Savage was very active as a distance runner and triathlete throughout the UK, having competed in 29 marathons, including 5 London Marathon events and over 130 open water triathlons, as well as many other long distance road races and fell running events. He was secretary of Stone Master Marathoners veterans athletic club and also secretary of the North Staffordshire Triathlon club for many years and a member of the British Triathlon Association. He was also a keen walker, completing the 192 mile Wainwrights Coast to Coast in 1993, together with many other UK long distance pathways.
Since 1998, he has served on the Wolverhampton City Marathon organising committee and was committee chair and administrator in 2009 and 2010, as well as being a Trustee of the marathon registered charity. To date, this Carver Group sponsored annual event has directly raised over £350,000 for local organisations to assist the less fortunate in the West Midlands region. Since retiring from the Carver Group in 2011, Ivan has remained a Trustee of the Carver Marathon charity and has continued to assist the committee throughout the year in readiness for the annual September events.
Outside of his full time TTBS work and industry responsibilities, Savage is a member of Stone Golf Club in Staffordshire and enjoys competitive weekend golf with his regular playing partners.
He will be supported during 2017 and 2018 by National Vice President Paul Snape of WS Logistics of Bromborough, Wirral, a long standing supporter of the North West Region TTBS and representative on the TTBS Board of Management.
