Individuals embraced

Sir Alan Rudge has been called one of the top technical minds in the country. He took an unconventional path to the top doing a City and Guilds telecoms technicians course and then a diploma in electrical engineering at a polytechnic. He worked in the USA, taught at a UK university and then ran the Electrical Research Association. He was headhunted to run R&D at BT: his first act was to hand the R&D budget back to the operating units and make his laboratories bid for projects from the rest of BT. So successful was this approach that he doubled the number in BT R&D. He served on the board of GE (UK) and was chairman of the consultancy WS Atkins