The DNA of a Leader – The Legacy of a Team: Grant Adams, CEO of Sertec

By Ilona Pitt, Made in the Midlands

Meet Grant Adams, CEO of Sertec - a global manufacturing group with thousands of employees across multiple sites and countries and a turnover in the hundreds of millions. Yet it’s not the title or the numbers that stay with you. It’s the way he walks into a room. The suit is sharp, the handshake firm, the expression measured. He carries himself with quiet authority, rarely giving away a full smile, but when he does, it’s worth the wait - the cool cat in every boardroom and factory floor.

Sit across from him and the layers start to show. A Brummie wit, a Villa fan’s loyalty - quick with a quip, always playing the long game. Behind the stories is a company with a remarkable arc: from a West Midlands “metal bashing” outfit to a modern Tier 1 supplier of complex body structures and energy management components for electric vehicles - and increasingly, into advanced engineering solutions beyond the automotive sector.

Grant Adams’s story is more than a career timeline - it’s a masterclass in resilience, loyalty, and leadership. This isn’t just an interview - it’s a glimpse into four decades of a man whose leadership is woven into Sertec’s DNA. From the moment he first stood at the Sertec’s gatehouse in 1983, he’s guided the business through booms, busts and breakthroughs - always anchored by the belief that leadership is about people.

Ilona Pitt: You’ve spoken about the first night you felt part of Sertec - before you were even on the payroll. Why does that memory still stay with you?

Grant Adams: It was 1983, two years before I officially joined. I was at the gatehouse as a customer, meeting Sertec’s founder, Harry Mosedale, about a problem with a part. And I felt something I couldn’t quite name - a rare sense of belonging. Call it culture, call it chemistry… around here, we call it DNA. Harry saw it in me that night. Once it’s in you, it never leaves. At that moment, I was a young man brimming with ambition and the corporate experience Harry had been searching for.

IP: A young man with ambition, standing at the doorway of a world he didn’t yet belong to - but already felt part of.

GA: Exactly. I didn’t know the ins and outs of the business, but I could sense the heartbeat of it. There was pride in the way people spoke, carried themselves, treated customers. Harry was one of those rare leaders who could see not just where someone was, but where they might go. From that moment, I was in. Not officially, but he got me, and I thought to myself, “I wish I worked here.”

If you’d told me that night this £2.5 million business would one day employ thousands across continents, host Prime Ministers and feature on every major TV channel - I’d have believed you. Even then, I knew there was something special here.

IP: That DNA seems to run through your leadership style. How would you describe it?

GA: My strength has always been people skills. I’m not the best engineer - and that’s actually been an advantage. When people don’t assume you know everything, they open up. You hear the ideas, the fixes, the real difference-makers. My job is to listen, connect the right people, and make sure they have the tools and space to get on with it.

The early career breakthrough came in the late ’70s at British Leyland’s Sherpa Van site in Washwood Heath, when I became the site’s first-ever Commercial Apprentice. I wasn’t cut out for the shop floor, but I could deal with characters and get things moving. That’s when I realised - this is what I can do.

It’s about trust both ways. Trusting people to deliver, and them trusting that I’ll back them when it counts. If you keep your word - even when it’s not what they want to hear - you keep their respect. That’s why you see people here who’ve left and come back, or apprentices who’ve risen right through to the boardroom.

IP: It wasn’t a straight path to the role, or was it?

GA: Not at all. I failed all my A-Levels. My mother worked in manufacturing and vouched for me when I applied for early apprentice roles. She believed in me before I’d proved anything. Without her, I wouldn’t be here.

That’s why I’m so passionate about giving people opportunities. Early in my career, others took a chance on me. They entrusted me with responsibilities I may not have been fully ready for on paper, but I rose to the challenge. At just 29, I was appointed Sertec’s Commercial Director - a promise from Harry that he kept.

We’ve had apprentices who started on the shop floor and ended up in the boardroom. That’s the Sertec DNA - belief that grows in people and stays with them.

IP: It sounds like connection is at the heart of your leadership.

GA: On my 40th anniversary, Graham Mosedale told me there was nobody else who could have brought together so many people from different walks of life into the same room and made it work. That meant a great deal to me.

Graham - Harry’s son - was the man with the vision on the shop floor, the engineer who could make things happen. I carried that vision forward, and together we made a strong team. Add Martyn Hughes to the mix - my school friend who stepped up as Finance Director alongside me in 1989 - and we were unstoppable. Well, unstoppable until Martin said so. His departure a few years ago was tough - both professionally and personally.

IP: Sounds like a dream team at the time.

GA: Alongside us was Dave Steggles, who I mentored from apprentice during the ’90s right through to standing shoulder to shoulder with us in the MBO of 2006, and again during the Mosedale family’s final departure in 2016. Dave’s rise was proof of the Sertec DNA in action – talent recognised, trust given, responsibility earned.

These were the moments of succession. Graham placed the key in our hands. His father had built the door; Graham trusted us to open it. And as we stepped through as shareholders, the Mosedale family stepped away – not in retreat, but in continuation of Harry’s plan for succession, ensuring the business lived on in new hands. Together, we had the DNA, the courage, and the readiness to carry Sertec into its next chapter.

Succession is the entry; leadership demands choices that don’t just mark a moment, but echo for decades - in you and those around you.

I’ve always been straight with people. Even when I’ve had to let someone go, I’ve done it in a way that kept respect intact. One of my closest mates has been made redundant by me twice – he’s now running a plant for us. That’s the truth of leadership: sometimes, if you treat people right, they’ll come back. And sometimes, they don’t. Either way, those absences and returns shape you – because in leadership, you carry them all.

Not just a sign at HQ — a lived truth in the hearts of the Sertec team.

IP: Looking at Sertec today, how would you describe where you’ve taken the company?

GA: Sertec now is unrecognisable from when I started. Alongside pressings and welded structures, we’re deep into EV energy management - battery cell covers, busbars, dielectric coatings - precision parts at the heart of battery packs.

Our stamping centre turns out over a million pressed parts a week. We’ve invested heavily in automation and expansion across our UK sites, with further growth in Europe. That scale brings pressure, but it also brings resilience.

IP: How have you stayed ahead of the changes in manufacturing?

GA: Back then, it was manual presses, welders in booths. Now we’ve got progression and transfer presses doing in one hit what used to take several, welding that’s almost entirely robotic.

Our mission now is sustainable engineering solutions. That meant expanding into technical, high-value work - laser welding, joining dissimilar metals, automation-heavy assemblies. It’s not just a buzzword. It’s why we’ve won contracts far beyond traditional stamping and welding.

Right now, the automotive market is oversupplied. If you’ve only got one offer, you’re already on the back foot. We’ve ensured Sertec is poised for whatever comes next beyond automotive, securing a broad mix of major, diverse contracts that keep our shop floors busy, our future flexible and our team ready.

IP: With growth on that scale, there must have been testing moments.

GA: Plenty. I’ve led through customer collapses, recessions, Brexit, COVID-19, ownership transitions - even a complete industry shutdown.

In those moments, you’re under immense financial and operational pressure, and the only way through is to keep calm, keep clear, and keep people’s trust.

Calm isn’t passive - it’s decisive. It’s reading the room, knowing when to act, and making sure everyone believes you’ve got it covered. If the leader loses their head, the team will follow.

IP: Leadership has its costs too.

GA: It does. One of the hardest moments was making Ken Grogan - a Sertec legend - redundant. Not long after, I learned he’d passed away. Looking back, I know it wasn’t the right decision. That was over 20 years ago, but it still haunts me. Leadership isn’t just about performance - it’s about people’s lives. You move on from the moment, but you carry the weight of it.

IP: And the personal milestones?

GA: My 25th anniversary party in 2010 stands out. Harry had left the company, but he and his wife Irene still turned up. They said they would never miss it - it’s Grant. My mum once told me, “Harry changed your life.” She was right.

This year’s 40th anniversary was humbling. The people, the gifts, the memories - it made me stop and think about the effect I’ve had on their lives.

Then there’s a building that means a great deal to me - where I spent the majority of my career from the early ’90s through to 2014. It’s about to have a new chapter that carries my name, in recognition from the people working at Sertec. My full name - only my mother once called me, because I’m too cool for cats - will now stand above the door. But to me, this will be more than a sign; it’s about creating a space that reflects our values and is built for the people who work here. This will be officially announced soon, and I am humbled and proud. 

IP: Your message to the next generation of manufacturing leaders?

GA: Never make a promise you can’t keep, and always treat people as you’d want to be treated. Your attitude shapes everything - relationships, reputation and results. Embrace the challenge - because the challenge is the change. 

Grant Adams is nominated for The Great100 Awards in recognition of four decades of resilience, transformation, and people-first leadership.

From that night at the gatehouse in 1983 to today, Grant has carried Sertec’s DNA - and shaped it for everyone who followed. His story with Sertec is still being written. The Mosedale family call him the man who changed the face of Sertec; his mother said Harry Mosedale changed his life. Both were right.

The buildings, the teams, the milestones past and those still to come – all tell the story of a leader who never walks alone.

The DNA of a Leader becomes the Legacy of a Team.

And once it’s in you, it never leaves you.