Ian Pain

Mr. Ian Pain is the CEO of RENK America, a division of RENK Group located in Muskegon, Michigan. He accepted the role in December 2024. Ian previously held the position of CEO of Horstman, a UK headquartered division of the RENK Group with an international footprint and strong Michigan presence.

Ian brings strong global leadership and is at his best leading creative excellence. He is energized by the challenges of organizational change, business capture and ethical international trade. He has over 35 years of international experience in armored vehicles; astronomy/spaceflight; aerospace; and military communications, vehicle suspensions, engines, and transmissions.

Mr. Pain received his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Birmingham in the UK. His engineering path developed through armored vehicle stress analysis at Vickers, as well as operational site support of British government telescopes in Hawaii, before moving into project engineering on a cryogenic spacecraft mechanism now in orbit. Further in the aerospace industry, Ian worked as a project manager at Martin-Baker Aircraft on helicopter crashworthy systems for Sikorsky and Eurocopter.

A senior project role followed at ITT (now L3Harris), leading the completion of a secure ad-hoc networking tactical data system, with significant international business development. Completing the circuit back to armored vehicles from 2010, Ian then lead the growth and global expansion of suspension specialists at Horstman, through to acquisition by the RENK group in 2019, and subsequent Merger and Acquisition activities.

Mr. Pain is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He has provided expert advice to defense and industry trade bodies on supply chain resilience, small business growth and international trade.