Element is led by an Operating Board with many years of experience in their respective leadership and management fields. The Operating Board meets every month to review the overall performance of the business and also to determine group-wide priorities.
Element's Operating Board members are:
Jo Wetz
Jo was appointed CEO of the Element Group in 2019 and is responsible for the overall strategic direction and growth of the Group. He previously served as the Group CFO since 2012 and was a board member of the Group following its buyout from Stork in 2010. Before Element, he built a career in private equity and led the investment in several global testing businesses in both Europe and the US, including the buyout of Element in 2010.
Under Jo's leadership, Element has experienced remarkable growth, expanding from 20 locations in five regions in 2010 to a global business with over 270 locations in 30 countries and a workforce of more than 9,000 employees. This growth is a testament to his efforts in driving organic growth and integrating 47 acquisitions. In his tenure at Element, Jo has led several successful buyouts, including those with 3i and Bridgepoint, as well as the take-private of Exova in 2017. Most recently he oversaw the successful buyout by Temasek in 2022.
Paul Woolf
Paul joined Element in September 2024 as Group CFO and sits on the company’s Operating Board and main Board of Directors. Paul brings a proven track record of over 30 years’ financial leadership in the consumer, technology, and tech-enabled services industries and has held a wide range of executive roles in both private equity backed and listed businesses.
Paul's experience in private equity backed companies includes tenure as CFO and COO for CPA Global, a $7 billion IP platform business (now part of Clarivate plc), and CFO for the UK’s Automobile Association. He has also been CFO for public companies including Mitie plc, a leading facilities management company, and more recently Cazoo, a European marketplace for used cars. His earlier career was spent in leadership roles for well-known international organizations including Dell Technologies, Jardine Matheson, and PwC.
Paul holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics from Oxford University, and is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA).
Rick Sluiters
Rick joined Element in 2004, originally as a Business Development Manager responsible for integrating newly acquired laboratories into the organization. He has held General Manager positions for Element’s laboratories in Los Angeles, Detroit and Amsterdam and led several US laboratories through a Lean process transformation.
In 2011 Rick took the position of Vice President of European Operations and formally joined the Element Executive Team. Rick became the Executive Vice President (EVP) of Aerospace in 2014. Under his leadership the global aerospace sector has more than quadroupled in size and successfully integrated over 10 acquisitions, adding capabilities, capacity and footprint to become the number one provider of aerospace testing services in the world. In October 2020 Rick was appointed EVP, Americas, with responsibility for all of Element’s operations in the USA, Canada and Mexico, covering 88 laboratories across the aerospace, connected technologies, defence, life sciences and transportation end markets.
Matt Hopkinson
Matt joined Element in December 2018, initially as EVP for Element’s global Energy business. In October 2020, Matt was appointed EVP for the Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa region (EMEAA) with responsibility for five business units covering Aerospace and Defence, Connected Technology, Life Sciences, Built Environment, Certification and Digital Engineering.
Matt has twenty years of experience in the Testing, Inspection and Certification sector, holding operational and commercial leadership roles based in Europe, South America and North America. Principally this has covered leading global laboratory networks, as well as leading teams focused on account management, technical governance, systems development and new growth initiatives. Before his role at Element, Matt was a member of the Group Executive Leadership Team at Bureau Veritas.
Trudy Cooke
Trudy was appointed as Group General Counsel in December 2022 and is responsible for leading the Legal, Insurance, Governance and Compliance Teams and building capabilities across Internal Audit and Risk. She has over 25 years of experience working in PLC and private equity environments across a range of different business sectors and in the legal profession.
Trudy was most recently Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at Avast PLC, an FTSE-100 global cyber security company. She sat on the Executive Team, leading teams across Governance, Legal, Compliance, Privacy, Risk and Internal Audit. She also spent over 14 years as Chief Operating Officer at Private Equity Firm Terra Firma Capital Partners.