Innovation
Engineering
Manufacturing
Josh Valman
Professional Keynote Speaker
Making Innovation Happen
Josh Valman is the CEO of RPDK, innovation advisor to the Royal Academy of Engineering, Investment Committee Board Member at the BDF and Board Member of multiple engineering and innovation businesses. He speaks on the subjects of engineering, supply chain and change management within businesses. Josh hates the word innovation and the platitudes that surround it. These talks focus on actionable insights that everybody from an individual to a FTSE100 CEO can implement from the next day, but they don’t hold back. Josh’s talks pull apart the reality of how making real difference in technology and the world happens and what is required. Be prepared to hear about the weird, the wonderful and often the uncomfortable.
Taking on innovation in some of the most exciting businesses in the world
Background and Bio
Josh started his engineering career age 10 years old, when the BBC TV Show Robot Wars first started airing. He joined what was revealed to be a global force of engineering competitions, initially working with Lego and household tools, learning to use design software and the maths behind what makes things work.
As the designs became more complex, Josh began working with factories in the UK to machine parts from his drawings, until ending up working with factories in China aged 13, to produce more complex ideas. By 15 he was working with global businesses on their manufacturing strategies and engineering designs.
At 17 Josh was fired. Nobody had ever asked how old their supply chain consultant was. Whilst running multi-million dollar production strategies for public companies, he was also still sitting high school exams.
Josh went on to found RPD International. A business joining the dots between ideas and mass production. RPD helped businesses take concepts and prototypes, create commercial engineering designs and set up supply chains to launch and scale new products. The work was broad, from complex medical devices and surgical devices, to consumer electronics and even sex toys.
In 2023, after 12 years as an independant company, the operation was acquired to become RPDK, a part of the Kinara International manufacturing group.
Throughout this time, Josh has worked with some of the largest businesses (including Carlsberg, Unilever and GSK) and some of the smallest startups launching global products from a bedroom with the help of his business. The challenges in these businesses have often been seen as engineering problems - however more often than not it is the people and the organisation change that Josh and his team delivered that made the difference.
Josh is also a frequent investor in engineering businesses, sitting on the boards of several UK companies as well as in advisory and grant board positions at the Royal Academy of Engineering and several investment firms - bringing specific engineering knowledge to the table.
Book Josh Through
“he has a unique skill to talk about complex topics in a way that is easy to follow.”
—Tomasz Kurach - Marketing and Technology Congress
SHOWREEL
Events and Topics
You can book Josh for conferences, AGMS, Board Meetings and After Dinners Speeches, if the dessert options are good.
Making Innovation Happen
Keynotes that focus on what ‘innovation’ actually means and how to make it happen. Detailed insight into how companies around the world develop and launch new ideas with deep actionable insights to take away and implement tomorrow. An interactive keynote that can work well with intimate groups or auditorium scale audiences.
Sustainability in Manufacturing
Keynotes that tear apart what the world considers ‘sustainable’ and look at the real source of impact in businesses that manufacture products. Insights into where waste really occurs, how it’s managed and how it’s controlled. These talks challenge convention and often prompt teams to take reflection as well as take away actionable insights.
Building Engineering Teams
Technical teams are hard. They’re hard to build, hard to manage and hard to retain. Having spent half of his life so far in the business of engineering teams, Josh speaks on the subject to managers and leaders across industries. A talk focussed on executional ideas to help develop the technical people within a team or an entire organisation.
Talking Technical
Sometimes a conference isn’t the right medium. Josh is often booked for AGMs, Board Meetings and team ‘away-days’ to get into technical detail. Sometimes this involves bringing some executional know-how to idea sessions, sometimes it’s bringing outside perspective to a strategy day and sometimes it’s getting in deep on a technical subject.
