In the electricity supply industry, the terms ‘reliable’ and ‘resilient’ are used to describe power systems that continue to perform, even across rapidly changing and highly stressed environments.

In this case, however, these terms are being used to describe not a power system but a person.

As some in the industry may already know, Jean-Marie George has reached a remarkable milestone in his career – 40 years at Sediver.

All who know him would attest to the fact that he has performed his job as Scientific Director with a reliable and steady hand that has helped his employer remain at the upper echelon among insulator suppliers. This despite significant changes both in technology and in the industry’s competitive landscape.

What may not be so well known, is that Jean-Marie has also had to be exceptionally resilient to meet profound changes that took place in his own job description and requirements.

When I first met him 30 years ago, Jean-Marie was an enthusiastic young engineer at Sediver’s plant in the United States, which at the time manufactured a range of polymeric insulators. In fact, these days, with its unique focus on toughened glass, it may be easy to overlook the fact that Sediver was once a pioneer developing composite insulators – both long rod and hollow core types.

At the 1997 INMR WORLD CONGRESS in Miami, for example, Jean-Marie delivered a presentation that explained how acoustic measurement was being used to detect possible breakage of glass fibres in an FRP rod during crimping of end fittings. Potential damage to these fibres due to ‘over-crimping’, if not monitored and controlled, could result in polymeric insulators with internal defects. His message at the time was that every precaution was being taken during production to ensure that composite insulators would perform for decades.

Only 8 years later, at the 2005 INMR WORLD CONGRESS in Hong Kong, I sat in wonder watching Jean-Marie become one of the most vocal critics of composite insulator technology. Of course, this was not an easy pivot. Yet few in this business could doubt his sincerity during this transformation or fail to admire the methodical and scientific manner with which he put forward his arguments since that time.

In numerous technical articles (some of which have been selected for this INMR WEEKLY), Jean-Marie has argued that toughened glass is the best choice for overhead line applications – even when pollution is a major environmental issue. He has done this by helping develop broad-scale industrial application of RTV coatings to glass discs as well as by writing extensively on how coatings perform and how best to monitor them for end-of-life.

Jean-Marie has also been a valued contributor to updating international standards that govern the manufacture and testing of insulators. In this regard, he has offered well-researched and persuasive arguments detailing how critical details in the way insulators are manufactured by different suppliers can have great impact on their long-term performance.

Over his many years at Sediver, Jean-Marie has been a reliable and respected speaker at conferences across the globe – particularly at INMR WORLD CONGRESS events, where he has participated over the past two decades, almost without exception.

In 2018, in recognition for his outstanding contribution to technical development in the industry, he was presented with the Claude de Tourreil Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Electrical Insulators. This was a tribute Claude would surely have approved, notably because the two co-operated in the early 2000s at Sediver’s Research Center in France.