Chartered Engineer · Iron & Steel and Building Materials Manufacturing

Animesh Prakash

Engineering performance into the world's iron & steel and mineral wool operations

Fifteen years. Four countries. A Chartered Engineer and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with £5M+ in measurable plant value delivered — leading iron & steel and mineral wool (building materials) operations across India, the UAE, and the UK — and now in France.

0Years, Global
0Countries
£5M+Value Delivered
0Furnaces
01 — Origin to Present

A career built across four countries

01
Varanasi & Chennai, India
The foundation
Born in Varanasi, in northern India, in 1990; began his schooling there, then moved to Chennai, in southern India, for college — a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering at Sathyabama University, graduating 2012 — the foundation for everything that followed.
02
West Bengal & Odisha, India · 2012–2017
Blast furnace operations
Started as a Graduate Trainee at Rashmi Metaliks in West Bengal, moving through shift management, then to Visa Steel Limited in Odisha — five years of blast furnace operations and process control, capped by a stint in the Director's office gaining techno-commercial exposure: procurement, supplier negotiation, and cost analysis alongside the technical work.
03
Silvassa, India · 2017–2019
The pivot to stone wool
Joined Rockwool India as Production & Process Head — the move from iron & steel into mineral wool (building materials) manufacturing that would define the next decade.
04
Fujairah, UAE · 2019–2022
Process Engineer to Department Manager
Joined Fujairah Rockwool as Process Engineer across hot end and cold end, then rose to Department Manager — running a 180+ member plant team, holding the line on plant KPIs across efficiency, safety and output, and delivering energy and recycling initiatives worth over 1.7M AED in combined savings.
05
Bridgend, Wales, UK · 2022–2025
Process Engineer & Hot End Manager
Joined as Process Engineer across three UK manufacturing lines, promoted to Hot End Manager, then Process Lead — optimizing resin and melting materials for £1.6M in annual value.
06
France · 2025–Present
Senior Process Engineer, Saint-Gobain
Now on Saint-Gobain's central team — supporting factories and R&D worldwide, and leading greenfield and brownfield project work, from design validation through Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs) — the fourth country, and the widest reach yet.
02 — By the Numbers

Impact, not just tenure

£1.6M+
Annual value delivered

Optimized resin utilization and melting materials across three manufacturing lines in the UK.

7% / 700K AED
Efficiency gain & annual savings

Led energy optimization across LPG, LOX, and Coke, plus refractory projects, in the UAE.

16% / 1M AED
Recycling increase & total savings

Initiated and scaled a recycling program supporting sustainability and cost reduction in the UAE.

Process support has also extended to factories in the US, Canada, Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, and across Asia.
03 — Career Progression

Experience

Mar 2025 — Present
Saint-Gobain
Senior Process Engineer, Central Team — Global Factory & R&D Support, Greenfield/Brownfield Design Validation & FATs · France
Oct 2022 — 2025
ROCKWOOL UK (ROCKWOOL Group)
Process Engineer → Hot End Manager → Process Lead · Bridgend, Wales, UK
Jul 2019 — Sep 2022
Fujairah Rockwool Factory
Process Engineer (Hot End & Cold End) → Department Manager · Fujairah, UAE
Nov 2017 — Jun 2019
Rockwool India Pvt. Ltd.
Production & Process Head · Silvassa, India
Oct 2014 — Nov 2017
Visa Steel Limited
Engineer, Blast Furnace Operations & Director's Office (Techno-Commercial) · Jajpur, Odisha, India
May 2012 — Oct 2014
Rashmi Metaliks Ltd.
Graduate Trainee → Assistant Engineer, Blast Furnace Operations (Shift Management) · Kharagpur, West Bengal, India
04 — Technical Range

Expertise

STONE / MINERAL WOOL MANUFACTURING

Hot end & cold end process engineering

Hands-on across 21+ furnaces, fiberizing & forming, binder & resin systems, in building materials (stone/mineral wool) manufacturing.

IRON & STEEL / BLAST FURNACE OPERATIONS

Heavy industry & blast furnace operations

250m³ and 215m³ blast furnaces, raw material handling, refractory, iron and steel process engineering.

LEAN SIX SIGMA / CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Continuous improvement (CI)

Lean Six Sigma Black Belt; OEE, 5S, World Class Manufacturing (WCM), root-cause and process variation analysis.

PROCESS CONTROL / SPC

Process control & data analysis

Process Control Monitoring (PCM), Statistical Process Control (SPC), A3 & Engineering Change Notes, technical benchmarking.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT (NPD)

New product development

Fire Stopper, Fire Boards, hydroponics substrates, high-compressive-strength and low-thermal-conductivity products.

QHSE / COMPLIANCE

Quality, safety & compliance

ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, OHSAS 18001:2007; HSE leadership and plant safety programs.

REFRACTORY, CAPEX & CAPITAL PROJECTS

Refractory, CAPEX & capital project engineering

Refractory design, technical procurement, erection & commissioning, and greenfield/brownfield project work — design validation and Factory Acceptance Tests (FATs) — across capital projects in four countries.

Ed
Sathyabama University, Chennai · 2012
B.Tech, Chemical Engineering
Chartered Engineer (CEng)
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt
05 — The Road Ahead

Building toward global leadership

Fifteen years of adding scope at every step — technical, then people, then multi-site, then multi-country — is the pattern, not the finish line. The next challenge: P&L ownership and cross-functional leadership at a global manufacturing organization — building, over the next decade, toward broader executive leadership.

General / Executive Management
Global Manufacturing Leadership
Beyond the plant floor

Board, advisory & non-profit leadership

Fifteen years leading iron & steel and building materials operations across four countries built the judgment boards and advisory mandates depend on — in operations, risk, continuous improvement, and cross-border strategy. Animesh is pursuing executive board, board chairman, and advisory appointments, alongside non-profit board service and select consulting work through a family-led advisory practice he is building.

Executive Board Member
Board Chairman
Advisory & Consulting
Family Advisory Practice (Founder)
Non-Profit Board Service