Windsor, England, United Kingdom, July 2026 — Morgan Advanced Materials has announced the return of Melanie Harris as Global Human Resources Director for its Thermal Ceramics Division, strengthening the division’s global people leadership as the company advances its strategy of operational excellence, capability building, and sustainable growth.
In her new role, Melanie will lead the global HR strategy for Thermal Ceramics, a business with annual revenues of approximately £350 million, comprising 20 manufacturing sites, more than 2,300 employees, an extensive sales network, and established distributor relationships worldwide. She will partner with business and functional leaders to strengthen organizational capability, leadership pipelines, talent strategy, workforce effectiveness, culture, and employee engagement across the division’s international operations.
Melanie returns to Morgan Advanced Materials after serving as Human Resources Director, Non-Ferrous Foundry at Vesuvius. She transitioned to Vesuvius following its acquisition of Morgan’s Molten Metal Systems business and supported the integration of the acquired operation while contributing to global projects designed to strengthen the HR function.
Before the transition, Melanie spent more than six years with Morgan Advanced Materials in progressively senior global HR roles. Most recently, she served as Global Human Resources Director for the Molten Metal Systems Division, leading an international HR team and aligning people strategy with business growth, innovation, and inclusion. She also led the people workstream for the division’s sale, including HR due diligence and integration planning with the acquiring organization.
Alongside this role, Melanie was appointed Morgan’s first Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion. She designed and launched the company-wide Respect at Morgan Framework, establishing inclusive behavioural standards across the organization, and reported progress against diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities to the Board and Executive Leadership Team.
Earlier at Morgan, Melanie served as Human Resources Director, North America and China – Seals & Bearings Division, leading HR operations across the United States, Mexico, and China. She previously held the role of Human Resources Director, North America, where she modernized people systems, led organizational redesign, and successfully managed collective bargaining negotiations in complex unionized environments. She was also selected for Morgan’s Executive Development Program in recognition of her enterprise leadership potential.
Before joining Morgan Advanced Materials, Melanie held leadership roles across total rewards, talent, organizational development, and HR transformation. At American Textile Company, she served as Director, Total Rewards & Talent and earlier as Senior Manager, Organizational Development and Compensation, where she established the organization’s first job architecture and salary structure, launched a corporate university, and introduced enterprise-wide talent and succession planning.
Her earlier career included roles at WESCO Distribution, Kennametal, PNC, Federated Investors, and General Electric, where she developed extensive expertise in global talent management, organizational effectiveness, compensation, leadership development, employee learning, change management, sales effectiveness, and large-scale transformation.
Across more than 25 years of experience, Melanie has built deep expertise in Global HR Leadership, Strategic Human Resources, Organizational Design, Talent Management, Succession Planning, Leadership Development, Diversity and Inclusion, Total Rewards, Employee Relations, Union Negotiations, M&A Integration, Change Management, Organizational Effectiveness, and Culture Transformation.
About Morgan Advanced Materials
Morgan Advanced Materials is a global advanced materials company that combines material science, application expertise, and process excellence to design and manufacture mission-critical solutions. Its products support essential systems across industries and help enable advances in transportation, energy, industrial manufacturing, healthcare, and other critical sectors.
Building on more than a century of experience, Morgan Advanced Materials is pursuing a multi-year strategy focused on unlocking the company’s potential through operational excellence, improved asset utilization, portfolio value creation, innovation, and disciplined execution. The company aims to strengthen its leadership across selected markets while developing the capabilities required to support long-term, sustainable growth.
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