05.06.2023

New president for Skyjack

Skyjack has announced that president Ken McDougall will retire at the end of the year, and hand over the role to Charlie Patterson who is currently vice president of international operations.

McDougall began his Skyjack career in 1987 as a tool designer, with Skyjack’s parent company Linamar, moving through various increasingly senior roles including global sales and estimating manager, and vice president of operations.
He was first appointed as Skyjack president in 2008, when he saw the acquisition of two telehandler lines from Carelift/Zoom Boom and Volvo, but within two years he was seconded to Linamar’s Mexican power-train operations), which was facing some serious challenges at the time. In 2019 he returned to Skyjack following Brad Boehler’s departure and not only steered the company through the pandemic, but also organised the recent expansion in production capacity, taking the number of manufacturing plants from two in Canada to five globally.

Speaking of his departure McDougall said: “It has been an honour to serve as Skyjack president during this period of immense growth and transformation. 2023 marks my 36th anniversary with Linamar and Skyjack, and over those years I have had the great pleasure of working for and with countless talented and dedicated individuals. It has been an honour to lead the Skyjack team and I am confident that with his experience, knowledge and leadership skills Charlie Patterson will do an outstanding job in moving Skyjack forward.”

Charlie Patterson joined Skyjack in 2000 as UK sales manager, having previously worked with Grove cranes and Manlift aerial work platforms, he went on to head up all of Skyjack’s European operations and moved into his current role in 2014.

During his tenure he has overseen the opening of Skyjack offices in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Australia and previously led sales in the Asia Pacific region. He will work alongside McDougall for the rest of the year, in order to ensure a smooth transition and, one assumes find a suitable replacement for his own job.

Speaking of the change he said: “I am thrilled and honoured to take on the role as Skyjack president. Ken has done an exceptional job moving Skyjack forward to date, and I look forward to continuing to build upon that momentum. As always Skyjack will be dedicated to being easy to do business with, while developing simple and reliable solutions for rental companies worldwide.”

Vertikal Comment

This comes as a bit of a surprise as Ken McDougall is not exactly of retirement age, but this is possibly as good a time as any to make a hand over, having organised the current expansion programme, and given the currently buoyant – if uncertain – market.
Charlie Patterson is more than well placed to ‘take over the reins’ at Skyjack and is a great deal more than a ‘steady pair of hands’. He is well qualified and more than capable of making the most out of the recent increased in production capacity, and will almost certainly be warmly welcomed by most Skyjack customers and team members.