Charles Berry, Senior chairman, said: David clearly has the depth and breadth of experience, and the personality and drive to lead Senior through the next stage of its development.

"I am confident that Senior will continue to make strong progress under his leadership.

His 25 years of experience in the global aerospace and defence industry, working in both developing and larger organisations, will be a significant benefit to Senior as it grows and increases its profile with its customers.

Mr Berry also paid tribute to Mr Rollins who in August announced his plan to retire with the chairman pointing to the chief executives work in transforming the FTSE 250-listed business into an international operation with 7,500 staff in 14 countries.

Last year Senior reported annual pre-tax profits of 83.8m on revenues of 775m, which have almost doubled under his stewardship.

Mr Berry said: Mark has made an enormous contribution to Senior... including 15 years on the board, initially as group finance director and then, for the past seven years, as group chief executive.

In this time, Senior has been transformed from a lowly-rated, industrial conglomerate to a quality global engineering business, focused on the aerospace, defence, land vehicle and energy markets.

"The groups financial performance and market capitalisation have increased significantly during this period and Mark leaves Senior in good health, with encouraging prospects for continued, long-term growth.

Mr Squires will be paid a basic salary of 460,000 and will be compensated for the value of benefits he forfeits on leaving Cobham. Details of his bonus and pension arrangements will be given in Seniors annual report.

The news came as another company in the sector, Meggitt, announced it had acquired Precision Engine Controls Corporation (PECC) from America's United Technologies Corporation $44.2m in cash. PECC makes fuel metering valves and actuators for small gas turbines which are mainly used in the oil and gas and power generation industries.

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Senior appoints rival Cobham's David Squires as new chief executive