Click the image above to see in more detail.
2004: William Edgar
William Edgar (1938-)
119th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Edgar was born in 1938.
He started work with Colvilles Steel Makers, as an office boy at their Hallside Steel Works near Glasgow. In 1955, he started work as an apprentice fitter/turner/draftsman at Hallside Steel Works. Colvilles supported him as he attended five years of evening classes, culminating in an HNC in Mechanical Engineering and an HNC Endorsement in Electrical Engineering. They also sponsored him through university, enabling him to study Mechanical Engineering at the Royal College of Science and Technology.
After gaining an MSc in Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Birmingham, Edgar went to work as a Development Engineer at Ravenscraig Strip Mill in Lancashire, then a state of the art steel mill designed and constructed by Davy United.
The following year, in 1963, Edgar went to British Aircraft Corporation at Warton, Lancashire, as an Aeromechanical Engineer. He remained with the company for four years, working on high altitude military aircraft design.
He moved to Weir Pumps, Glasgow in 1967, initially as Chief Development Engineer and then as General Manufacturing Manager at the Cathcart Plant. After seven years he joined Vickers Marine Engineering Division, and two years later was appointed Executive Chairman of Cochrane Shipbuilders.
In 1990, he became Chief Executive of the National Engineering Laboratory. At the time, this was an Executive Agency of the Department of Trade and Industry. Edgar's remit was to prepare the establishment for privatization, which was successfully completed with the sale of NEL in 1995.
Following the sale of the NEL, he joined the John Wood Group as Group Director responsible for Engineering and Production Facilities Division. He retired from this position in 2004, just prior to becoming President of the IMechE.
Edgar was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1999, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003.
Image Details
| Biography |
|---|
