Jack Semple runs the Engineering and Machinery Alliance of ten trade associations in the machinery and component supply chain. His role is to support members, working with government and others to help make UK firms more successful. Relevant to skills, he is a member of the National Manufacturing Skills Task Force and of Apprenticeships in Manufacturing, a working group set up by the Department for Education. Before joining EAMA in 2018, he was director of policy at the Road Haulage Association for ten years and before that a journalist. He worked for WS Atkins for three years in the 1990s.