The HIMA Group has appointed Carl Ramsden as CEO of Sella Controls – A HIMA
Company – effective October 1, 2025. This newly created position represents an important milestone in the further integration of the British company into the HIMA Group.
Dubai – October 1, 2025
With Carl Ramsden, the HIMA Group gains an experienced leader. He brings more than 20 years of international leadership and financial expertise from the industrial and technology sectors, including senior positions at a chemical company and an automation manufacturer. He has worked on both the manufacturing and end-customer fronts, giving him a comprehensive understanding of both perspectives within the industrial value chain.
Jörg de la Motte
As CEO of Sella Controls, Carl Ramsden will assume overall responsibility of the company and will lead it alongside Chris Parr (CTO) and Eddy Turnock (CSO). Carl will also take on the responsibilities previously held by John Blackwell, who will retire as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) on October 31, 2025 after many years of service.
Jörg de la Motte, CEO of HIMA Group, said: “We are delighted to have Carl Ramsden, an experienced and strategic manager, join us in this key position. With his expertise and clear value-driven leadership style, Carl Ramsden will further accelerate growth in the process and rail industries in the UK and Ireland and help us to further expand our global position as a solutions provider.”
CEO of Sella Controls, Carl Ramsden
Sella Controls was acquired by the HIMA Group in February 2023 following a long-standing partnership. The integration went smoothly, with central IT and management systems harmonised within a short period of time. Sella Controls now serves as the regional centre for the UK and Ireland and as the HIMA Group’s global centre of excellence for railway activities, currently employing over 130 people at its Stockport and Ashby sites.
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The HIMA Group employs approx. 1100 employees in 22 group companies worldwide. Regional centers are located in Breda, the Netherlands (Europe, HIMA Benelux), Stockport, England (UK, Sella Controls), Kristiansand, Norway (Scandinavia, Origo Solutions), Singapore (North and South East Asia, HIMA Asia-Pacific), Perth (Australia and New Zealand, HIMA Australia), Shanghai (HIMA China), Dubai, United Arab Emirates (HIMA Middle East) and Houston, USA (North America, HIMA Americas).
The open and independent HIMA Safety Platform combines hardware and software on a single technology platform and offers a uniform security concept. With more than 50,000 installed safety systems (SIL 3 / SIL 4, PL e, CENELEC SIL 4), HIMA is considered a technology leader. In addition to proven safety technology, HIMA offers consulting, safety engineering, and services as well as training.
This results in solutions that ensure functional safety and OT security, compliance with standards, process efficiency and plant availability throughout the entire safety lifecycle.
As a safety expert, HIMA is pioneering the digitalization of functional safety and generates significant added value for customers with holistic safety solutions.
Since the 1960s, HIMA has been a reliable partner to the world’s largest companies in the process industry, including chemicals, petrochemicals, energy, and oil and gas.
Typical safety applications include Emergency Shutdown Systems (ESD), Fire & Gas (F&G) systems, Burner Control / Management Systems (BCS/BMS) for Burners and Boilers, Turbo Machinery Control (TMC) for Turbomachinery and Compressors, Pipeline Management Control (PMC) with Leak Detection, High-Integrity Pressure Protection Systems (HIPPS) for overpressure protection of pipelines, subsea systems for the deep sea, and overfill protection systems for tank farms.
In 2015, HIMA revolutionized the railway industry with the first CENELEC SIL 4 certified Safety PLC. These commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products are open safety controllers that can be easily integrated and maintained into a wide variety of solutions. Today, HIMA also offers holistic safety solutions for applications such as level crossings, signaling interlockings, and on-board systems for rolling stock. Our rail solutions suite includes Power SCADA for Electrification, SCADA BMS for rail tunnel control, overspeed prevention systems, interlockings for railway depots, and automatic door control.
More information at www.hima.com