William Paton

After graduation I moved away from physics and spent the next 18 months in the oil industry – early North Sea seismic exploration with SSL – and the steel industry – Colvilles, Ravenscraig where new production technology was being set up to supply the Linwood car plant.       All this stirred my interest in industrial technology and made me realise how little I really knew.

In 1965 I joined the National Engineering Laboratory at East Kilbride and spent a very fulfilling 25 years there in various capacities. Initially I did R&D in the area of advanced materials, particularly composites where I did a bit of the publication / conference thing.    Chance intervened with the discovery of high performance carbon fibres at RAE Farnborough  in 1970 and I was involved with them and UKAEA Harwell  in developing the UK advantage in this technology for several years.    This was the apotheosis of my technical/scientific phase but by then I had realised that I was not a natural career scientist and I then moved in different directions.      Worth noting that probably my greatest contribution to civilisation- and not many people know this- occurred during this phase with the innovation of the carbon fibre golf shaft – world first for NEL and Scotland !

For the next ~ 10 years I gravitated into management and became increasingly involved in technology evaluation and strategy at UK and European level – sitting on several DTI committees and European Commission technology panels – eg BRITE , COST.  I was also on the assessment panel for the Queens Award for Technology and spent 2 years in Dept Energy on the development of offshore technology for the North Sea. I was appointed Deputy Director of NEL in 1987.         

The last phase of my career was triggered by Thatcher politics – in 1990 NEL privatisation commenced  and changed my orientation completely- I became Director of the new Company under Siemens ownership in 1995 and shortly afterwards was appointed CEO of the Siemens subsidiary .        The Group  included  NEL ,but had broader interests in electronics, telecommunications ,defence technologies and facility management.   I retired in 2001 but remained a non- executive Director until 2007.     I am still the Chairman of the Pension Scheme – my most challenging responsibility ever!

 Life away from work:

Married Elspeth, a schoolteacher, in 1964 – two sons, Christopher(1969) and Ewan(1970). Lived in  Eaglesham/Newton Mearns until 1998 – Winchester until 2008 – now based in St Andrews.             Favourite pastimes – spending time with family especially grandchildren in Chicago and Bristol; golf and bridge (with and without wife), travelling, reading and swimming.