Alumnus Les Hutchison talks about his global engineering career and his desire to give back to the University.

Lanarkshire-born businessman Les Hutchison is a quiet philanthropist. He has a strong belief in “giving something back,” but he does it without fanfare.

He has, however, made an exception for his recent very generous financial donation to University activity, by allowing us to feature him in this article in the hope that it will inspire others in his position to follow his example.

“My task is not only to help the University directly, but to encourage other alumni like me to come forward,” he explains.

Les, who is currently Vice Chair and a Director of the Canadian energy services company, ShawCor Ltd, left Bell College of Technology (now part of UWS) with an HNC Electrical Engineering and completed an additional Higher Supplementary Control Systems and Mathematics at the College in 1975.

“Bell has played a big part in my successful career. It not only gave me engineering expertise, but it also gave me the skills to problem-solve, and that was invaluable when I moved into a competitive business environment.”

Les has gifted more than £100,000 to the University’s Hamilton Campus, and is keen to ensure that his contribution is of direct benefit to students.

He has established the annual Hutchison Prize for Engineering which awards £5,000 to the best student in the University’s Mechatronics programme; Les is also funding new equipment for the Mechatronics course to the tune of £78,000.

Les is a strong believer in the power of education and the influence it can have on an individual’s future career and on the economic, social and cultural development of Scotland. “Education gives people new skills, and what is vital is that these skills are then used once they enter their chosen profession allowing them to achieve their full potential.”

“I wanted to give something back to engineering, and do something for the people who helped me.”

Les now lives principally in Barbados, but he retains a strong and passionate commitment to Scotland. He owns a 200-year-old house, which was built for a sea captain in Bothwell, Lanarkshire and is where he was born and brought up.

His sister, a retired senior nurse, and his daughter live nearby with their families: Les is the proud grandfather of three grandsons — a seven-year-old and five-year-old twins. His father worked for British Rail, which enabled the family to travel for free throughout Europe.

“It was great for us, and helped us get the travel bug. It’s where my sense of adventure came from,” says Les,
whose career has taken him across the globe, from the Middle East and America to Russia and China.

“China has become one of my favourite countries. I love the people, the country, the culture and, of course, the food.”

Les enjoyed his schooldays at Uddingston Grammar School. He was keen on sport, including table tennis, badminton and in particular golf, which he played at Bothwell Castle Golf Club. He was in the first team for cricket, and also the first team for football, where he was the goalkeeper. Other team members included Ian Smith, brother of Walter Smith, the former manager of Rangers Football Club in Glasgow.

“We worked really well as a team — there were no prima donnas,” he remembers. “It was a very, very good
football team, but in various competitions, we were always just beaten by Dalziel High School in Motherwell with Willie Pettigrew as their centre forward, who later played for Motherwell and Scotland. But we did beat the Scottish School Boys 3-2 once.”

Although most of his schoolmates detested maths and physics, these were the subjects Les liked most. His elder brother, who sadly died aged 27, became an electrical engineer, and a close family friend was also an electrical engineer, so Les was drawn to this profession at an early age. After secondary school, he joined British Steel as a Technical Electrical Engineer Apprentice at their Clydesdale Works in Bellshill, and the company sponsored him to
study at Bell College.

“On the course, what I remember most was a lot of hard work,” he says. “But fortunately, my passion for maths and physics stood me in good stead. I went straight through the Ordinary National Certificate and Higher National Certificate (HNC) Electrical Engineering, and then went on to take an additional Higher Supplementary Control Systems and Mathematics, all without any re-sits, thank goodness.”

Bell College had just opened, and he found it a pleasant environment to study in. When he returned in May this year to visit the University’s Hamilton Campus, he confessed to “a serious feeling of déjà vu”.

Over three decades later, the campus now boasts a brand new £2.5 million Centre for Engineering Excellence, providing students with industry-standard facilities. “It was particularly pleasing to see the new centre,” says Les. “What’s encouraging is that the University has very, very close links with industry and is very aware of the skills that industry is now looking for. I’m pleased to hear that there’s a much closer link between education and industry and would encourage this to continue. That critical alliance should be continually fostered and reviewed.”

While Les found British Steel “a fantastic employer,” he could see the demise of the steelworks begin, and the quality of projects he was working on deteriorated.

He was successful in moving to a number of other major engineering companies in Lanarkshire, and began building up a wealth of experience through posts that included: Project Manager with Motherwell Bridge;
followed by Works Manager (Electrical), then Production Director at Anderson Strathclyde. After experience in these posts, he decided to establish his own consultancy company, working with Lanarkshire companies to ensure they would survive when the Ravenscraig Steelworks finally closed in 1992. However, he sorely missed being at the front end of decision-making, and was eventually headhunted back into industry.

Over the early stages of his career, Les had built up a strong reputation for turning struggling companies around, and this led to him being headhunted by ShawCor Ltd in 1998.

Since joining the company, he has held a number of senior management positions, but his biggest highlight, was working as Vice President of the Shaw Pipeline Services Division.

When he was first appointed, the company was losing millions of dollars, but he managed to transform its fortunes to become the group’s biggest earner. When Les joined the company 14 years ago, ShawCor’s Group
revenue was Canadian $600m (£381m). Its turnover is now Canadian $1.3 billion (£826m). ShawCor Ltd is a global energy services company, specialising in technology-based products and services for the pipeline and pipe
services petrochemical industry. The company operates through seven divisions, employs over 5,000 employees and operates more than 70 manufacturing and service facilities in 20 countries worldwide. The company is
recognised as a world leader in most of the areas it operates in.

Throughout his career, Les has always maintained his strong links with Scotland. While he was based in Houston, Texas, he was appointed a GlobalScot by the then First Minister Jack McConnell. The GlobalScot initiative aims to boost Scotland’s standing in the international business community, encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in school
children and growing businesses, through a worldwide network of outstanding Scots, who can offer advice, contacts and support.

Houston proved to be one of the most active GlobalScot groups in the world, with Les working alongside colleagues such as his friend Derek Blackwood, President of Wood Group USA. Their work included inspiring
Scottish schoolchildren by bringing them over to the USA to spend time at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the government agency responsible for scientific and technological research in space.
Les also became a core founder of the Saltire Foundation — the Scottish Enterprise initiative to create more Scottish entrepreneurs by giving international business training experience to undergraduate and postgraduate students in education.

“For me, the proudest thing is giving back,” he says. It is a philosophy shared by his wife, Virginia Shaw, Chair of ShawCor Ltd, who is also a committed philanthropist. Formerly a Director of Ten Thousand Villages USA and Canada for nine years, Virginia supported the non-profit fair trade organisation, which sells handicrafts made by disadvantaged artisans in developing countries worldwide.

But Les still allows some time for hobbies. He remains a keen golfer, and is a member of two golf clubs – one in Barbados and one in Canada. In Scotland, he is a member of Loch Lomond Golf Club, and Bothwell Castle,
where he played as a schoolboy. Another passion is playing six string acoustic guitars — he now owns five of rock legend Eric Clapton’s guitars. He is also a keen collector of old motorcycles.

He has some simple words of advice for UWS students and graduates, who he hopes will be encouraged to follow his success in his business career.

“Work hard. I have never found a substitute. And think in a global context. Scotland has five million people. You get five million people in one city in the United States,” he says.

“Scotland can no longer be the low-cost provider of products. There are strong lowcost worldwide competitors to Scotland now, such as China and Korea. What that means is for Scotland to be successful and competitive
on a world stage, it must have a much stronger educational and entrepreneurial base. Education in my opinion is absolutely vital for the future growth and health of Scotland.”

Thanks to Les Hutchison’s generosity, education at UWS continues to be at the cutting edge of technology. “I am happy that I have been able to make a significant contribution back to the University and its students. I sincerely hope this will encourage other successful alumni to follow my example.”

Article originally published in WEST magazine (Words Olga Wojtas & Photography Neil Thomas Douglas) in 2012.