Lucas Oil Names Furgiuele as COO
Lucas Oil has promoted Naomi Furgiuele to chief operating officer, effective immediately. She will oversee manufacturing, customer service, information technology and supply chain operations.
Furgiuele joined Lucas Oil in early 2024 as senior product manager and was promoted to vice president of product development later that year and chief product officer less than a year later. She has more than 20 years of experience in product development, innovation and business growth.
Before joining Lucas Oil, Furgiuele led innovation and growth at Ignite Venture Studio and co-founded Small World Brands. She previously spent 16 years at Johnson & Johnson, where she worked on product strategies for brands including Neutrogena and Aveeno.
VLS Names Witham’s Bottom as Chairman
The Verification of Lubricant Specifications made Nigel Bottom as chairman, succeeding Darren Frogson. Bottom has been group managing director of Witham Group, a family-owned lubricants and paints manufacturer based in Lincoln, since 2005. He joined the company as its third-generation leader and has overseen its expansion into lubricants, paints and specialist products.
He has also held senior roles at the United Kingdom Lubricants Association, where he has been a director and vice president since 2005 and served as president from 2012 to 2014. Bottom has been a VLS director since 2013. VLS independently assesses lubricant performance claims and compliance with technical standards. Bottom said he plans to promote an open and fair market and maintain VLS’s work addressing non-compliance.
Castrol Expands Into Data Centre Cooling Services
Castrol has launched its Core thermal management service for data centres, as demand for cooling technology rises alongside growth in artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Core expands Castrol’s existing cooling business from a product-focused model to one covering design, deployment, start-up, operation and maintenance. Castrol will work with customers earlier in the development of data centre infrastructure and coordinate product, infrastructure, design and service partners through a single point of contact.
Castrol said its research indicates that data centre operators are seeking more integrated thermal management solutions as they contend with multiple cooling technologies, suppliers and supply chain challenges. The company also identified the cost of equipment failure and resulting downtime as major concerns for operators. The Core includes Castrol cooling technologies tested and validated with chip and hardware manufacturers including NVIDIA and Intel. In Asia Pacific, Castrol has established a regional data centre design team supported by local specialists. The company has completed a proof-of-concept programme with a data centre operator in China and is working on additional projects with global operators.