David John Pearson

David John Pearson (born 18 May 1946) is a computer scientist and businessman. He was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire and was educated at Park High School and Imperial College, London, where he graduated in theoretical physics, and went on to do research in finite element analysis and mathematical modelling.

Pearson started his career at International Computers Limited as a designer/programmer in 1968. He was involved in the early development work of the VME/B operating system for ICL’s 2900 Series. He was the original architect of the CADES software engineering system that was the foundation of VME/B development activities for over 20 years, and led its development team until 1977.

At the end of 1977, Pearson moved to Bell-Northern Research Laboratories in Ottawa, Canada, as Director of Advanced Development. Whilst at BNR his primary focus was on new design and development technologies for Northern Telecom digital communications products. During this time he also served as a member of the National Science and Engineering Council for Canada.

In 1981, with a small number of BNR colleagues, Pearson left to form Orcatech Inc., a company specialising in the design and development of high resolution intelligent graphics workstations for the computer-aided engineering market. After developing a portfolio of successful workstation products, Pearson took the company public on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1983, at that time one of the youngest companies ever to go public on the TSX. A year later, Pearson took time out of his career, moved to Banff in the Canadian Rockies and spent the next two years skiing and hiking with his wife.

In 1986 he moved back to the UK and spent some time working with the venture capital community in company turn-around situations. A year later, Pearson became the first chief executive of the Strathclyde Institute, a research and consultancy think tank focussing on advanced manufacturing systems and based in Glasgow, Scotland. During his six years as chief executive, the Institute worked with some of the world’s leading companies in the areas of comuter engineering, jet engine manufacture, automotive assembly, food and beverage processing, and pharmaceuticals. Concurrently, Pearson was also a visiting professor in management at Strathclyde University in Glasgow.

In 1993 Pearson became a senior director of Scottish Enterprise, the national body responsible for the economic development of Scotland. While there he specialised in economic growth strategies for the west of Scotland.

After three years with Scottish Enterprise, Pearson took over as chief executive of Norfolk and Waveney Enterprise Partnership, the then economic development agency for much of East Anglia. Whilst at the helm, he transformed an ineffectual, failing organisation into one of the country’s top performers in its field. He also served as a member of the University of East Anglia Senate.

His final career move, at the beginning of 2000, was as chief operating officer of the Industrial Society, later to become The Work Foundation. His task at the old, venerable, loss-making Industrial Society was to refresh the organisation’s mission and to substantially improve the condition of its balance sheet. He did this by selling the large training organisation to Capita Group for 23 million pounds and embarking on a new consultancy-oriented company strategy designed to improve the quality of working life in Britain.

David Pearson retired in 2003, aged 56, and moved with his wife and cats to live on the ocean in British Columbia, where he spends his time on his boat and with his beloved Ferrari motor car.

References

• D.J.Pearson "CADES - Computer-aided development and evaluation system" Computer Weekly, 1973
• D.J. Pearson and B.C. Warboys "Structural Modelling - A Philosophy" OSTC/IN/40 July 1970
• D.J. Pearson "The use and abuse of a software engineering system" National Computer Conference, 1979
• Don Leavitt "Development method review held useful" Computerworld, June 1979
• Martin Campbell-Kelly "ICL: A business and technical history" Clarendon Press, Oxford,1989
• A. Newmann "Business United: A profile of David Pearson" Business Plus, April 1997
• David Thomas "Knights of the New Technology" Key Porter Books, 1983

External links

• www.theworkfoundation.com
• www.Scottish-enterprise.com

Persondata
Name	Pearson, David John
Alternative names
Short description	Computer scientist and businessperson
Date of birth	18 May 1946
Place of birth	Birkenhead, Cheshire, England
Date of death
Place of death