INDEX Corp.’s Cris Taylor to retire

INDEX Corp.’s Cris Taylor to retire

Michael Huggett will succeed Cris Taylor as the company’s president & CEO, assuming leadership of the company during a transition period in April 2025, concluding with Taylor’s retirement at the end of that month.

Huggett brings more than 30 years of industry experience starting as a machinist, followed by roles of increasing responsibility at multiple prominent machine tool builders. Most recently, he has served as the director of sales for INDEX since early 2017.

“Over the past eight years, INDEX has significantly increased its annual sales in the North American market,” says Reiner Hammerl, managing director – sales of INDEX Werke, the German parent company of INDEX. “Michael has played a vital role in that growth and in the transformation of our subsidiary. He possesses the perfect combination of experience and expertise to ensure we continue to grow our customer base and evolve to meet their changing needs.”

Taylor took the helm of INDEX in January 2021 and has overseen much of the company’s growth. His retirement caps a 40-year career that began as a machine-building apprentice and culminated in serving as CEO of multiple machine tool organizations during the past two decades. In retirement, he plans to use his newfound free time to restore and work on his motorcycle collection and travel extensively. https://www.index-group.com/en_us/

In memoriam

Renishaw’s Co-Founder and Non-executive Director, Sir David McMurtry, passed away in December 2024. McMurtry founded Renishaw in 1973 with John Deer, a fellow Rolls-Royce engineer, to commercialize the 3D touch-trigger probe for coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). He had invented the probe the previous year to solve measurement problems faced in the manufacture of the Olympus engines that powered the Concorde supersonic aircraft. He was responsible for 47 patents at Rolls-Royce and went on to be named on more than 200 patents for Renishaw innovations.

With McMurtry at the helm, Renishaw revolutionized the development of CMMs, shopfloor metrology, and process control, and led the company’s diversification into other areas of metrology, manufacturing, and automation, from encoders and calibration systems to neurosurgery and additive manufacturing (AM).

Today, Renishaw is a globally respected business, employing more than 5,000 people in 36 countries. Sir David said from the start that he and John set out to create a company different to most others – different in how it applied technology to real world problems, in how it invested for the long term, in how it manufactured rather than outsourced, and in how it treated customers and local communities as partners. The culture he and Deer created remains today and is very much present in Renishaw’s values and especially that of integrity, where the company takes decisions for the right reasons and not just because that is what is expected.

Sir David will be greatly missed by so many, including the generations of Renishaw engineers he inspired and mentored. https://www.renishaw.com

Upgraded facility in move for HWR Workholding USA

HWR Workholding USA moved the location of its North American headquarters to 3103 W. 1000 North, Suite 101, Fortville, Indiana 46040.

The move represents a significant upgrade for HWR Workholding USA, substantially increasing the capacity of its warehousing capabilities via additional vertical storage space and a 30% increase in square footage. The new facility also provides the company with dedicated office and kitchen space, whereas those were community amenities shared by multiple tenants at its previous location.

“We have achieved substantial growth over our first three years in the North American market,” says Thomas Saur, CEO of HWR Workholding USA. “Our new location will allow us to stock, ship, and service an even higher volume of innovative workholding solutions to customers, while maintaining the logistical and geographical benefits of doing business from the Indianapolis metropolitan area. We are expecting continued success in 2025 and this move will help us accomplish it.” https://hwr-usa.com/