Member Article

Leading north east design engineer and philanthropist dies

One of the north east’s most successful businessmen, Dr Alan Reece, has died at the age of 85. Widely recognised as an inspired mechanical designer and philanthropist he created a number of successful engineering companies on Tyneside.

Brought up in London he came to the north east at the age of 17 where he studied Mechanical Engineering and Agricultural Engineering at Newcastle University and gained his Ph.D in Soil Mechanics of Earthmoving in 1964.

His passion for engineering began in 1947 as a graduate apprentice at Vickers Armstong in Newcastle. He went on to work at the Ford Tractor Plant in Dagenham and International Harvester in Doncaster before managing to combine his love for engineering, agriculture and the great outdoors as a teacher of Agricultural Engineering at Newcastle University. He developed his scholastic career successfully becoming an academic leader in the field of soil mechanics.

At the age of 55, when most entrepreneurs might be thinking of retiring, Alan was embarking on a second career, as a businessman, with the launch of Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD) which was one of the very first university break-out businesses.

Developing his company on the basis of two principles – the employment of talented individuals and a belief in top quality engineering – SMD became a world leader in innovative subsea vehicles.

Turning his attention to the defence sector he acquired Pearson Engineering (PE) in the 1980s to create a design and manufacturing capability for the defence business which was rapidly expanding. PE focused on the design and development of a range of counter mine and counter IED equipment that increases the capability of armoured fighting vehicles. Replicating the success created with his previous company, PE became one of the region’s greatest manufacturing success stories winning the 2012 Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation for its SPARK mine rollers which have been used in Iraq and Afghanistan and responsible for saving hundreds of soldiers from death and injury. PE was also a winner of the Newcastle Journal Fastest Growing Business Award last year.

Remaining enthused with the engineering sector he created The Reece Group in 2011 as a holding company for Pearson Engineering Limited, Pearson Engineering Services, Velocity UK and Responsive Engineering Group. The Reece Group has a turnover in excess of £211m and more than 450 employees. His son, John Reece, is chairman of the group.

Alan’s obsession with engineering and his considerable success in business allowed him to build a substantial charitable fund, The Reece Foundation, which has given millions of pounds of donations over the last few years to support engineering education in the north east region and beyond. In 2011 he was named by the Sunday Times as the third biggest philanthropist in the UK.

He leaves his partner Margaret, two sons, John and Simon, a daughter, Anne and seven grandchildren.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mandy Peel .