Will Butler-Adams Keynote Speaker

Will Butler-Adams OBE FREng is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and Group CEO of Brompton Bicycle Ltd, the British folding-bike maker that has become a global symbol of compact, city-first mobility. Since taking the helm in 2008, he has helped scale Brompton from a £2m business with 27 staff into an international manufacturer with 800+ people, producing around 90,000 bikes a year.

Educated in Mechanical Engineering at Newcastle University, Butler-Adams built his early career at Nissan, ICI and DuPont, before joining Brompton in 2002 and stepping into the director role in 2006. His leadership blends rigorous engineering with brand-building discipline, showing how British manufacturing can compete  and win on the world stage.

His impact has been recognised with an OBE in the 2015 New Year Honours and election as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2024. In 2019, Imperial College London awarded him an honorary doctorate, reflecting his commitment to skills, education and the next generation of engineers.

Butler-Adams is co-author of The Brompton: Engineering for Change, named by The Times among its Best Business Books of 2022. He continues to push innovation at pace, including Brompton’s G Line launch in September 2024 and the company’s £100m Ashford HQ and factory plans, which gained outline planning approval in January 2025.

Offstage, he has led expeditions down the Amazon and is a private pilot; on stage, he brings the same curiosity and energy to audiences navigating leadership, manufacturing and sustainable cities. With practical lessons from building a premium brand through volatile market cycles, Butler-Adams equips leaders to design products, teams and cultures that thrive under pressure.