Sir Moir Lockhead appointed new SOE patron20 June 2013

The Society of Operations Engineers (SOE) has announced that former FirstGroup chief executive Sir Moir Lockhead OBE will be the organisation's next patron.

Sir Moir will take on the role when current SOE patron and co-founder of the Ratcliff Group, John Ratcliff CBE, retires later this summer.

Sir Moir was previously awarded an honorary fellowship of SOE for his services to transport, and will now be responsible for representing the membership organisation, promoting the advancement of engineering and supporting engineering professionals.

Sir Moir will join incoming SOE chief executive Peter Walsh, who joins the society at the beginning of July.

"We are honoured Sir Moir has agreed to take on the patronage of SOE," comments outgoing SOE chief executive Nick Jones.

"With an illustrious career in transport to his name, I have no doubt that he will help to shape the future of the society and further our pursuit of excellence in engineering."

Sir Moir left school at 15 to become an apprentice mechanic, before moving on to Grampian Regional Transport in 1985 where he was general manager.

He then went on to lead the successful employee buy-out of the company. Since then, as founding director and CEO of FirstGroup, he has seen the company grow to be the largest provider of rail and bus services in the UK, USA and Canada.

On accepting the SOE position, Sir Moir said: "It is an honour and a privilege to become patron of the SOE, especially having spent all of my working life in transport starting as an apprentice more than 50 years ago."

And he added: "It is hard to believe how much things have changed for our new engineers as technology continues to progress with more and more stringent safety requirements. The SOE has a crucial role to play."

Author
John Challen

Related Companies
Society of Operations Engineers

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