After a career spanning 38 years in the leather industry, Ian Tate, Dutch specialty chemicals company Stahl Europe’s Leather Products Group manager in Turkey, has retired. He left his post in Izmir, Turkey, at the end of July where he has spent the last six years building up Stahl’s business among the many tanners in the area.

According to the company he was instrumental in successfully establishing Stahl Kimya Sanayi ve Ticaret Limited Şirketi following the earlier building of Stahl’s Applications Laboratory and Offices in Izmir, thereby securing Stahl’s business in Turkey.

Having begun his career as a laboratory technician in 1969, during which time he gained his qualifications at National Leathersellers College in London, he went on to work as technical manager at Melrose Tanners in Beverley until he joined the ICI leather department in 1986, joining Stahl’s staff when the department was transferred a few years later. He was later promoted to manager of Stahl UK’s Colours and Tanning Business, a position he occupied until the business was absorbed into Stahl Holland in the mid 1990s.

Having become an associate of the Society of Leather Technologists and Chemists in 1986, Mr Tate was awarded a fellowship in 1993 and subsequently became chairman of the SLTC’s Northern Group, then vice president and, in 2000, president of the society.