Global Material Sourcing

Robert Phillips

Chief Executive
Global Material Sourcing - UK

Harro Koopmans

Director of Offices
Malaysia, Vietnam & one of our offices in China

Tom Hou

Director of Offices
Hong Kong and China

Key Staff

Robert Phillips - Chief Executive of GMS

Born in Dublin he was educated at Wesley College following which he graduated in Business Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse he joined the management team at Knightsbridge Furniture Productions in 1984. He was Managing Director from 1995 – 2005 when he set up Global Material Sourcing. He is a firm believer that the UK furniture industry does have a future by being innovative and assembling broad configurations of product, bespoke to the customers needs but using standard components sourced from low cost economies.

Harro Koopmans

Harro spent his childhood in Hong Kong and attended both American and British schools there until he was 18. Subsequently he graduated with a degree in Applied Economics from the University of East London in the UK. After graduation Harro held a number of posts in Hong Kong until moving to Malaysia in 1993. True North was set up in 1996 to assist companies outsource the manufacture of their products and to augment their product ranges with additional design. Robert and Harro have been working together since 1996.

Tom Hou

Born in China Tom left for Hong Kong with his father when he was four years old. Educated in Hong Kong he then went to university in Ontario where he gained a BSc in mechanical engineering. He subsequently worked in the cement industry in Canada, Switzerland, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil and finally in Macao. He then set up his own business, sourcing components for furniture manufactures before joining GMS in 2006.

A fluent speaker in English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese as well as a number of local Chinese languages, Tom’s Engineering background as well as his knowledge of both Asian and European cultures makes him a key element in the GMS service. Tom manages the Chinese project and quality control team as well as the logistics.