Mark Hughes

Current

• Passionate Owner in Prague at DaMaHug

Past

• Robot Welding Concept at Adroit Design AB
• A wonderful place to work at Volvo
• Inspirational times at Volvo Trucks

• V1XEN Rear End Project at Volvo
• Caran on the Water Front end at Volvo
• Studio Engineer at Volvo Cars Design Studio, Gothenburg, Sweden
• Consultant at Caran UK Ltd
• Marvellous! A Studio Engineer at Volvo
• Great Body to work on XC90 at Volvo
• BIW Design Engineer at Volvo
• Design Engineer IP at Volkswagen
• BIW Design Engineer at Volvo
• Feasibilty Engineer at Mercedes-Benz Technology
• BIW Design Engineer at Volvo
• Design Engineer at KIA Motors Seoul Korea
• Trim Design Engineer at IID Interior Innovation and Design GmbH
• Design Engineer IP at Volvo
• Design Engineer Trim at NedCar
• Design Engineer Trim at Daewoo
• Design Engineer at NedCar
• CADAM and CATIA at Harrison GM
• BIW at Leyland DAF
• BIW at Nissan Design Europe
• Automotive Design Engineer at International Automotive Design
• BIW at International Automotive Design (IAD)
• BIW CAD2 at Nissan Design Europe
• Design Engineer at Metal Box later CMB, Crawley
• Section Leader Design Office at Hunting Hivolt, Worthing
• Simulator Section Leader at Singer Link Miles, Lancing
• Technician Apprentice HNC at Kearney and Trecker Marwin KTM later FMT
• Craft Apprentice ONC at Kearney and Trecker Marwin KTM

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28 more...

Education

• Brighton College
• Brighton Secondary Technical School
• Brighton Westdean County Primary

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Recommended

1 person has recommended Mark

Connections

161 connections

Industry

Import and Export

Websites

• Visit EuroHandCraft Site
• Build a Web Site made easy
• Web Creation by Watching

Mark Hughes’s Summary

I have always been passionate about inspirational design, sound engineering and precision manufacturing.
Now, after relocating and a lot of hard work I am pleased to announce that my company is established and in business here in the Czech Republic.
Prague was chosen as the seat of the business for a few reasons:
It is 'steeped' in history and well known for it's beauty. Therefore, it is the perfect place for your business trip that can be combined with a first class sight seeing tour. Very romantic if you bring your loved one with you.
Not to mention the first class beer and such good value. ;)
In the future we will be able to offer accommodation, however right now the house is under construction. Having said this, there are numerous excellent hotels.
The city with a population of about one point two million and is geographically located perfectly in the heart of Europe. It also boasts a first class infrastructure and Prague international airport is served by connections with a vast majority of locations on earth. All this combined with a healthy economy, need I say more?
There is actually one more thing that I would like to mention. Although the economy is healthy the average wage is still relatively low, thus enabling CZ to remain very competitive.
GBP Global Beverage Price index. One Unit CZ/UK 1:3.
Now, if you have read this far and wondering how does this help me?
The main reason that people do not get a chance to see if one of their ideas 'could', 'would', 'might', 'maybe'.....'possibly' work and be successful on the world market is time.
It does take a lot of time and energy to take an 'idea' all the way through the complicated process to a final cash in bank satisfaction.
I'm sure that so many great ideas never make this transformation simply because 'I have to earn the cash for the family and mortgage'.
Get in contact and lets make the future bright.
SKYPE: markwhughes

Mark Hughes’s Specialties:

Design, Engineering, Precision Machining, Product Planning, Product Marketing, Sales, Advertising, Promotion, Package Design, Web Site Design, SEO, Assistance with Patenting, Ultimate Customer satisfaction

Mark Hughes’s Experience

• Passionate Owner in Prague

  DaMaHug

  (Marketing and Advertising industry)

  March 2008 — Present (1 year 5 months)

  DaMaHug is focused on sourcing and supplying quality products from passionate designers and producers for discerning customers.
  We are passionate for the best things in life. Devoting a lot of energy to enhancing life in any and every way.
  Currently we're working with creative and highly skilled craft persons in the Czech Republic to reach a wider audience, most of whom have been limited to the CZ market due to language barriers.
  DaMaHug is keen to investigate and develop products with enthusiastic designers, engineers and inventors. Do you remember a 'eureka' moment but simply didn't have the time to make it a reality. Maybe now is the time?
  The Czech Republic has a healthy economy and is set for a bright future in the European Community. It's geographic location alone is a big bonus. Add to this, the skilled craft persons, the infrastructure, competitiveness.
  Let's make the future fantastic!
  July 13th 2008 Honey is born to Dan and Cathryn.
  Now I'm a five times Grandfather.

• Robot Welding Concept

  Adroit Design AB

  (Design industry)

  August 2006 — January 2007 (6 months)

  September 7th 2006 Blossom is born. Grandfather for the forth time. Well done again Gail.
  Automation, TIG, Handling, GD&T, FMEA (Risk analysis) to name but a few buzz phrases. This was a breath of fresh air to be working once again with truly conceptual special machinery design. Plus working once more with my colleague and friend Dave Jones.
  The customer a well known Truck manufacturer. The purpose of the station to produce finished welded transmission hub assemblies. Large, heavy assemblies involving a lot of heat from the large puddle welds.
  Dave & I looked at the existing system, looked at some proposals and then turned the whole concept on it's head and created an indexing system that controlled from underneath. This deleted the need of large water cooling systems and streamlined the whole process.

• A wonderful place to work

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  January 2006 — July 2006 (7 months)

  With the experience of Volvo Trucks very much in my mind I accepted a job offer back at Volvo cars but with rather sad feeling in my heart.
  At this time the future of the Automotive industry was not looking particularly bright.
  When it came to the traditional four week semester holiday I decided to throw all caution to the wind and see where life would take me.
  Reluctantly I closed the life that I had spent quite a few years and lots of effort to create.

• Inspirational times

  Volvo Trucks

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  October 2005 — January 2006 (4 months)

  I will always remember my first day at Tracks. After leaving Volvo cars where the atmosphere was sadly on it's way down entering trucks to see happy smiling faces was so refreshing!
  Two days into this exciting time came a phone call from a friend of mine in Cars. He said that he had heard a rumour of the project that I was working on being 'shelved'....
  Two more days of rumours flying and it then was made official.
  Mmmmmm....... me thinks.... is this really the future???

• V1XEN Rear End Project

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  August 2004 — October 2005 (1 year 3 months)

  March 14th 2005 Alfie is born and I'm a Grandfather for the third time. Well done again Gail.
  The Rear End tailgate period was, as with all placements in Volvo an excellent time. I worked along Side a French Gemtleman called Eric Laborderie. The worshipful Eric loved the game of Table football of which I had in my apartment. However, he would not consider a game unless I had proper competition balls. Eric came back after one of his weekend trips to France with a set of the afore mentioned.
  Game on! I was so scared when he performed moves on my table that I had never, even in my wildest dreams thought possible.
  It all ended in tears when...... well, I will keep the secret safe Eric.
  Work was exciting too. I worked closely with Clarence Campbell, an excellent Swedish guy with a very Scottish name. Stereolithography prototyping was our speciality.

• Caran on the Water Front end

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  November 2002 — July 2004 (1 year 9 months)

  Front end structure. The union feel consultants should not become part of the furniture, a perfectly reasonable policy.
  Volvo still have a project to complete on time to remain competitive in the ruthless arena of the automotive industry.
  Consultants would be located at their respective agents sites. My agent had just moved into new premises created by the transformation of a former 'Ship Building' yard into an inspiring complex, complete with Sea Gull recorded cries every two minutes on the glass roof to scare the real ones away.
  An office was set up for consultants. A cosy little tucked away mezzanine overlooking the studio plate.
  Our team leader Tom Stoddart would visit us from Volvo, often close to lunchtime.
  Twas a masterpiece of logistical planning.
  11:15 Leave office
  11:20 Catch Ferry
  11:25 Alight Ferry
  11:30 Arrive Maharani as doors open (important)
  11:35 Food on table (masticate)
  12:00 Leave Maharani
  12:05 Aboard Ferry
  12:10 Alight Ferry
  12:15 Back to work

• Studio Engineer

  Volvo Cars Design Studio, Gothenburg, Sweden

  (Import and Export industry)

  2000 — 2003 (3 years)

• Consultant

  Caran UK Ltd

  (Import and Export industry)

  2000 — 2003 (3 years)

• Marvellous! A Studio Engineer

  Volvo

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Automotive industry)

  January 2001 — October 2002 (1 year 10 months)

  15th May 2001 age 42 Brook was born, I'm a Grandfather! Cheers Dan.
  30th July 2002 Daisy born Grandfather twice, well done Gail.
  Communication key to success.
  To ultimately find the common ground between Design and Engineering. An extremely rewarding role but can also be quite tough at times. It has it's ups and downs.
  This is when I met my wife to be. Well, it could have been Isabela Hughes but it wasn't to be. Isabela and I had been planning things by way of what would be in the contract of marriage.
  I was allowed several girls but they all must have a skill, like gardening for example. In turn Isabela would have two dogs.
  We would only have one car, this way she would know where I was.
  Then there was a Volvo Party. They can be very wild events and this was no exception.
  Consequently the wedding was off.
  Diego Imaz and I worked together, we partied together and are still jolly good friends.
  There is now some km between us but when my business ramps up then trips to Mexico!

• Great Body to work on XC90

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  April 1999 — December 2000 (1 year 9 months)

  Bodyside of my favourite car.
  Well done to Doug Frasher for such a beautiful SUV the world loved from day one and still love to this day, even in the phase of big car dislike.
  As a body engineer at Volvo one naturally gets involved with 'safety'. I have been involved in the tricky business of absorbing crash energy through the art of encouraging steel structure to behave the way you want it to under conditions of, what would appear to be, total chaos.
  The reality is that a well designed body structure will behave beautifully well to absorb the energy in a controlled manner.
  This can involve many many computer simulated trials and it's good to work with a patient Calculations guru. Thankfully I had this luxury, the worshipful Henrik Tviksta. We achieved great results in the computer simulations and subsequently great results in really crash tests.
  We became friends outside of work playing Carambol. An interesting game with three balls on a Pool like table but with 'no' pockets!

• BIW Design Engineer

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  August 1998 — March 1999 (8 months)

  A highly intensive period developing body structures in close liaison with the calculations and crash departments. It's a real challenge to engineer the structure of a car body to behave well in a variety of possible crash scenario's. The key to this is to absorb the energy of the impact, in the deforming body, of the car in a controlled way.
  This can be a fun challenge! It's no use just making the body very strong, this results in a heavy car and the shock wave sent through the vehicle on impact does terrible damage to the occupants.
  The key is to somehow encourage the twisting deforming metalwork to do what you want it to.
  This can involve many many computer simulated trials. It's good to work with a patient Calculations expert.

• Design Engineer IP

  Volkswagen

  (Public Company; VW; Automotive industry)

  July 1998 — August 1998 (2 months)

  A short contract by design. Volvo shuts down for four weeks semester vacation and this happened to co-inside with G E Polymer Associates GmbH Gifhorn having a requirement.
  Marvelous short project at the end of which I was asked if I would consider staying. However, I of course honoured my contract with Volvo.

• BIW Design Engineer

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  August 1996 — July 1998 (2 years)

  Incorporating the first 'Inflatable curtain' into the S80 cantrail.

• Feasibilty Engineer

  Mercedes-Benz Technology

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  July 1996 — August 1996 (2 months)

  A short contract by design to cover the Volvo shut down for semester and to provide services to Gotech GmbH Weissach Germany.
  Extremely interesting feasibility studies for the Smart.
  Including: Headlamp Mounting and adjustment system.
  Kinematic modeling of 'scissor action' wiper mechanism.

• BIW Design Engineer

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  June 1995 — July 1996 (1 year 2 months)

  Many fond memories of this time. In this period of time computers where of course well established as the way to design cars. Further to this the crash simulations that computers could handle were becoming progressively more powerful. Granted it took the computer all night to have the result ready for examining the following day, but it was very exciting to receive the phone call (still with a wire) from the calculations engineer to say and have a look at the results.

• Design Engineer

  KIA Motors Seoul Korea

  (Automotive industry)

  November 1994 — June 1995 (8 months)

  Wow! Intercontinental Hotel Executive Suite for the whole time. Such a country of contrasts.
  There are beautiful huge shops with staff to do everything. Even press the buttons in the lift. Then right outside you have dusty crap places where people are living.
  It was the same sort of thing for us. We had the faultless beauty of the Inter Continental but once we had had our Room Service Breakfast, then it was sit on a horrible bus for an hour driven by a guy who keeps pressing and taking off the accelerator.
  The KIA motors company was an experience to. I'll write some more about it later. It's a bit late in the evening now but I must tell you about the flying kick in the office after the promotion or not promotion evening. :)

• Trim Design Engineer

  IID Interior Innovation and Design GmbH

  (Automotive industry)

  September 1994 — November 1994 (3 months)

  Mercedes Door Panel Airbag.
  So expensive to get ones laundry done there. It was cheaper to buy new.

• Design Engineer IP

  Volvo

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  January 1994 — August 1994 (8 months)

  CATIA was becoming very established with CADAM still available for reference.
  It was my first time in Sweden and inspirational.
  I arrived 3rd Jan on the Stenaline ferry in a front Cabin with window and wow! I thought that white plastic bags were in the water, then realising it was ice.
  The picture of Sweden that had been painted mentally for me by Nick Bright and Steve O'Shawnasey was grim. Dark, depressing, ques everywhere. My expectations were low.
  Leaving the ferry I drove to Volvo it was beautiful, snow everywhere. Lots more I would like to say but not enough space here.
  My task was to develop a gas injected meter hood. The incorporation of 'Gas Injection' into the injection moulding process is a wonderful way of substantially increasing the strength of a component. It does demand careful planning and design and liaison with the tooling company.
  The end result was superb. The first part produced was perfect and presented to Volvo by the French supplier on my last day.

• Design Engineer Trim

  NedCar

  (Privately Held; Automotive industry)

  May 1993 — December 1993 (8 months)

  This was my second contract with Nedcar, this time with the worshipful agent Auto Design.
  I was very pleased to be asked to return for another contract by my previous boss Frank van den Flugt.

• Design Engineer Trim

  Daewoo

  (Automotive industry)

  April 1993 — May 1993 (2 months)

  Based at Hawtal Whiting Engineering.
  Heavy truck program.
  This was a very strange time. There was not a great deal of automotive work at this time.
  The contacts being offered were for one month, tough times.
  However, it was a great place to work. They had an interesting coffee system where if anyone was going for a coffee then you had to get one for everyone.
  I was only there for nine days but it was great. I even had a great leaving party.
  However, it was the phone call asking me back to Nedcar to work for my previous boss in Netherlands, what could I do?

• Design Engineer

  NedCar

  (Privately Held; Automotive industry)

  March 1992 — September 1992 (7 months)

  The project was the Volvo S and V40 program.
  This was my first assignment abroad as a representative of IAD.
  It was a very testing time as the person that I was replacing had only lasted for one day before he was told that he would be finishing on Friday of the same week. The pore chap was so stressed that he went into emergency surgery on the homeward ferry crossing and almost died. Thankfully, Keith survived and things turned out quite different for me.
  My boss Frank van den Flugt got on extremely well and it was a very inspirational period of my career.

• CADAM and CATIA

  Harrison GM

  (Automotive industry)

  September 1991 — March 1992 (7 months)

  Agent working for the worshipful IAD of Worthing with John Shute at the helm.
  First class company. Almost too first class really. The speed of growth was fast, maybe this was the fundamental problem. It was a great company that assisted my training well for the future, for which I will be eternally grateful.

• BIW

  Leyland DAF

  (Automotive industry)

  September 1990 — September 1991 (1 year 1 month)

  CATIA

• BIW

  Nissan Design Europe

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  October 1989 — March 1990 (6 months)

  CADAM

• Automotive Design Engineer

  International Automotive Design

  (Import and Export industry)

  1989 — 1990 (1 year)

• BIW

  International Automotive Design (IAD)

  (Import and Export industry)

  1989 — 1990 (1 year)

• BIW CAD2

  Nissan Design Europe

  (Public Company; Automotive industry)

  March 1990 — September 1990 (7 months)

  My forth child Paul was born 22nd June 1990

• Design Engineer

  Metal Box later CMB, Crawley

  (Design industry)

  July 1988 — October 1989 (1 year 4 months)

  This was when CAD came into the picture. The system was called Graftek GMS and all the computers were placed in a special room with no windows.
  For the first time I really felt that this was it I had arrived at the job that I would retire from.
  During this time I didn't actually have another child but one did become 'on the way'.
  My very special friendship with Sietse Roeda from North Netherlands came about here. Sietse and I were working together on the development of the same special machinery. Sietse was on 'work experience' from his Dutch College.
  We worked well together and would also enjoy a good party in Brighton. Sietse also introduced me to his now wife Anita in Metal Box and the two of us toured Anita around the factory. Great memories!
  My plan of retirement was shattered when a French company took over and decided to move the operation to Coventry.
  That was the last time I joined the 'company' pension system.
  Steve Judd used to say to me when at Singer. 'Go contract'

• Section Leader Design Office

  Hunting Hivolt, Worthing

  (Automotive industry)

  January 1986 — July 1988 (2 years 7 months)

  Manual draughting was still the way and of course smoking was aloud in the office. I don't remember smoking in the office but I do remember my mate Tim Nicholls did, always roll-ups.
  Our third child Simon was born 8th January 1987.

• Simulator Section Leader

  Singer Link Miles, Lancing

  (Aviation & Aerospace industry)

  January 1984 — January 1986 (2 years 1 month)

  This was in the days of manual draughting, the only computer in the office was my boss Dave Lindfield used to bring in his Amiga and print out job time sheets.
  Our second child Gail was born 11th February 1984.

• Technician Apprentice HNC

  Kearney and Trecker Marwin KTM later FMT

  (Design industry)

  September 1979 — January 1984 (4 years 5 months)

  On completion of the Craft Apprenticeship I then moved to the Design Office and continued studies to obtain an HNC.
  Our first child Daniel was born 13th April 1982.

• Craft Apprentice ONC

  Kearney and Trecker Marwin KTM

  (Machinery industry)

  September 1975 — September 1979 (4 years 1 month)

  Kearney and Trecker Marwin is now sadly no longer with us. They have joined all the other in company's somewhere in the sky.
  KTM had a very good reputation for providing a first class apprenticeship. They placed a great deal of importance on training and provided a complete workshop solely devoted to this end.
  It was run by Gill Percy and Tom Muggeridge with regular appearances from Keith Merrington.

Mark Hughes’s Education

• Brighton College

  HNC , Design Engineering , 1975 — 1983

  Top Apprentice Award

  Activities and Societies:

  Business Communications

• Brighton Secondary Technical School

  Design Engineering 1970 — 1975

  Top Engineering Student Award Won, Five years in succession.

• Brighton Westdean County Primary

  11 Plus , 1964 — 1970

  Favourite subjects: Music and making things with hands.

Additional Information

Mark Hughes’s Websites:

• Visit EuroHandCraft Site
• Build a Web Site made easy
• Web Creation by Watching

Mark Hughes’s Interests:

Inspiring, Design, Developing, Engineering, Creating, Machining, Surfacing, CAD, Precision, Handcraft, Handmade, Lighting, Lamps, Distributing, Communication, Prague, Czech Republic, Ceramics, Pottery, Travel, Website, Graphics

Mark Hughes’s Groups:

IEng MIET

•    Real Estate Connect
•    Women 2.0
•    Inbound Marketers - For Marketing Professionals
•    eMarketing Association Network
•    World Green Business Association
•    The Nibble: Gourmet Food Magazine
•    Twitter
•    Architecture and Interiors
•    Communication Arts
•    Social Media Today
•    Social Media Marketing
•    SalesBlogcast.com
•    Go Green
•    Tweeple
•    Cross Media Experts (www.twitter.com/mediamatchers)
•    EHSQ Elite [#1 IN SAFETY]
•    twitter innovators Innovation & Creativity Network of Tweeters
•    Internet World - Future of Social Media
•    Automotive studio engineers
•    Healthy Food & Beverages
•    Boston Salty Legs Career Club
•    Twittering
•    Twitter Power for Business
•    Friends of The Irish Institute of NLP
•    Business Club Mumbai
•    Strategy, Marketing & Innovation Forum
•    Twitter Twittegy
•    Twitter for Sourcing and Recruiting
•    The Ultimate Self

Mark Hughes’s Honors:

Student of the year in Engineering 1971
Student of the year in Engineering 1972
Student of the year in Engineering 1973
Student of the year in Engineering 1974
Student of the year in Engineering 1975
Apprentice of the year 1977

Mark Hughes’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch