01.08.2012

I.D. Banks retires

Ian Drysdale-Banks, co-founder and managing director of Mobile Cranes Asia, has retired having spent most of his working life in the crane industry.

Drysdale-Banks or plain Ian Banks as he was known, began his career as an agricultural engineer before Holman Brothers – Grove’s dealer in Kenya – introduced him to mobile cranes. When he returned to England he was made a regional sales manager for Grove.

In 1984 he joined Krupp and contributed to setting up its UK operation Krupp Industries UK. At the time that Grove took over Krupp Cranes, Banks was approached by Demag to go to Hong Kong and make recommendations as to how it should handle business in the south east Asia region. In 1994, Demag agreed to adopt his recommendation to set up the south east Asian representative office in Singapore which later became a full branch office.
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Ian Drysdale-Banks

After Terex acquired Demag cranes in 2002 it decided to close the south east Asia office. Banks was given the option to take over the operation. Together with Rodney Chang they formed Mobile Cranes Asia serving as an agent for Terex throughout 12 countries within south east Asia.

Although retired Drysdale -Banks plans to remain active in Mobile Cranes Asia and will assist as a consultant for overseas projects in the region.