Industry lobby group says goodbye to Peter Hughes who recast Scottish engineering

By DOMINIC JEFF
Published on 01/10/2012 00:00

TRADE body Scottish Engineering will come under new leadership next year after revealing long-standing chief executive Peter Hughes is to step down.

The support group for the engineering industry in Scotland said yesterday that former Bausch & Lomb director Bryan Buchan will take over the top job on 1 January.

Hughes has led the organisation since 1998, during which time he has helmed a number of taskforces and working groups that have reported to the Scottish Government on industrial matters.

A metallurgist, Hughes started his career with Clyde Alloy and later led a management buy-out at the National Steel Foundry that resulted in the
formation of Glencast in 1983.

He said: “We are delighted that Scottish Engineering has been able to find an excellent candidate to take over the reins.”

Hughes said his successor had “a wealth of experience” in all
aspects of manufacturing and had been “particularly successful in leading a lean business team”.
Buchan was until recently director of operations at medical devices firm Bausch & Lomb, a company he had been with for 16 years.

In 2005, while managing director at the company’s plant in Livingston, he won the Scottish Engineering Award.

He said: “I recognise the importance of the engineering manufacturing sector to the economy of Scotland and the UK and see part of my role as ensuring that the industry continues to flourish. It is quite awe inspiring to realise the important historic role that engineering has played in Scotland’s development, and I intend to play my part in ensuring it has a strong and viable
future.”

Under Hughes’ leadership, Scottish Engineering has campaigned to encourage young people to take up careers in Scotland’s manufacturing engineering sector.