William Forster Dufton (“Forster”) first worked on container cranes in 1970 with his uncle, George Forster Charlton, the founder of GFC in 1970 and has been associated with the company ever since. He resumed working with GFC full time in 1993 in various capacities including Senior Vice President of Operations. In 2009, he became a co-owner of the company. Forster has extensive experience with gantry crane maintenance operations, including major crane repairs, painting, and crane inspections, such as the supervision of non-destructive testing. In addition, he is an expert at project management and has been involved with the supervision of gantry crane manufacture overseas, crane loading, sea transportation, unloading, installation commissioning. and acceptance on behalf of the client/crane owner. Forster has designed and implemented crane preventative maintenance programs and company procedure manuals.
Forster comes from a long line of marine, civil and mechanical engineers. He received his Diploma in Civil Engineering from Leeds College of Technology (UK) and a Post Graduate Diploma in Structural/Civil Engineering from Sheffield Polytechnic. He is a professional engineer and licensed to practice in the UK, Europe and Alberta Canada.