Iain Kennedy, the Managing Director of Realstone, the stone specialists in Derbyshire, has become the President of Stone Federation Great Britain.

Realstone, with its quarrying arm of Block Stone extracting stone from nine sites, is based in Derbyshire and is one of the largest dimensional stone companies in the country. 

Iain was to have become Stone Federation President two years ago, when David Ellis of consultants Sandberg took the post, Iain having stood down because at that time he had just been involved in the management buy-out of Realstone.

Iain said that as David invested him with the Presidential chain of office the retiring President had whispered jokingly in the new President's ear: "Tough luck."

Iain, pointing out he was only the latest President Kennedy and that he intended to avoid Dallas, said he has many aims and objectives for his two-year stint as the head of the Federation but that it could be summed up in one word: Education.

He wants to educate Stone Federation members and their customers in a better understanding of stone and its use and key to that is communication, he said. The Federation also wants to improve its communication with Government and plans to step up its lobbying. 

"There are more testing times ahead," said Iain, "and we all need to be team players in our niche industry."

He praised his predecessor and said: "It is with some trepidation that I take over from David as President. David has excellent diplomatic skills that have held him in good stead over the past two years. It has helped the Federation through some choppy waters. He's always been a great ambassador."