Smiths Group has appointed Julian Fagge as its new chief financial officer (CFO), after the current CFO, Clare Scherrer, announced she was retiring from the role as of 31 January.

Fagge is currently the president at Smith Interconnect and will take on his new responsibilities from 1 February.

He joined the group in 2013 as group financial director, before being promoted to group strategy and M&A director in 2017. He has also led two of the group’s businesses, being appointed as president of Flex-Tek in 2019 and then Smiths Interconnect in 2021.

Before joining Smiths, Fagge was finance director for UK and Ireland at Royal Caribbean Cruises, having previously worked for 12 years at Proctor & Gamble.

As part of the succession plan, Scherrer will continue to support a handover throughout the first half of the 2025 financial year before leaving on 30 April 2025.

The change comes as the engineering firm increased its full-year revenue forecast from between 5% and 7% to between 6% and 8%, which is above its medium-term growth target.

Chairman at Smiths Group, Steve Williams, said: "Fagge is a proven leader within Smiths Group and ideally placed to become the new CFO of Smiths. He has a deep understanding of our businesses, end markets and customers, and he has a strong financial, commercial and strategic background.

"Together, our CEO Roland Carter and Fagge have more than 45 years of experience at Smiths, have run three of our four businesses and have an unparalleled knowledge of the company and its growth and value drivers.

"On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Scherrer for her significant contribution to Smiths group. She has played an important role in our growth story over the last three years, and we wish her all the very best."

Fagge concluded: "It is a great privilege to be appointed as the new Smiths CFO. Having worked across the business in a number of roles, I am excited about the future and I look forward to supporting Carter, the board and the leadership team in achieving our strategic, financial and operational objectives for the benefit of all our stakeholders."

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