David ("Dave") Wilcox was born in 1948 in the Midlands of England, where he was raised and educated, and started work in the cement industry in North Wales in 1970. He quickly changed jobs to work in the steel industry at Llanwern where he worked for 5 years as a chemical engineer until moving to North East England to work in coke production. After 21 years in coke production Dave made a career change into the lime industry for 8 years. In 2004 he returned to work in South Wales at Port Talbot resuming his career in coke production as Coke Ovens Manufacturing Manager and in 2007 becoming Works Manager, Raw Materials responsible for the Coke Ovens and Burden Preparation. In 2009 Dave transferred back to the North East of England to work at Teesside.
Dave is a Fellow of the The Institution of Chemical Engineers, a Chartered Engineer, and a Chartered Scientist. He is a Fellow and Junior Vice President of the Coke Oven Managers Association, Chairman of the Tata Steel Group Coke Performance Improvement Team and Chairman of the European Coke Committee comprising of 14 countries.
Dave is interested in a wide range of sports and was active in rugby union as a boy and became a keen follower of football in his university days in the 1960s and has always followed the fortunes of Stoke City FC. He is married and lives in Guisborough and his other hobbies and pursuits include record/CD collecting, being passionate about 50s Rock & Roll and Elvis, gardening, book collecting, and a modest amount of television viewing. David and his wife loved living in Wick in South Wales and would love to return to living in a small village, so you may yet see them on "Escape to the Country" when he retires, which Dave says "will not be for long time yet".