I originally qualified in dairy and food technology and spent the first part of my career in management posts in canning companies in Scotland and Northern Ireland before moving on to lecture in related process engineering and manufacturing. My next positions were in training advisory and management consultancy in first the food then the polymer industries. I next managed a major open learning project and this led directly into the formation, in 1986, of my company,  The Kelvin Consultants Ltd.  I am very proud that this year, 2011, is its silver jubilee.

My particular motivation is the analysis of systems performance, behaviour and failure and this has led directly into the development of Kelvin TOP-SET® incident investigation methodology.  Initially this was adopted in quite a big way by Shell in Aberdeen and then by ICI before being adopted by companies in mostly high hazard industries all around the world.

I am now the Group Managing Director and principal shareholder of The Kelvin Consultants Group which includes:

• Kelvin TOP-SET® Ltd our Scottish based operating company.
• Kelvin TOP-SET® Inc our USA company
• TOP-SET® Governors BV our Dutch software company where we hold 50% of the equity and I am joint MD with my friend Serge Diekstra

Shortly, we intend to open a further company in Rio de Janeiro  to handle our South American expansion. This compliments our other licensing and reseller arrangements in countries from Norway to Australia.

I suppose most people would consider me as an entrepreneur. However, business success, I have found, requires teamwork and at TOP-SET® we have a great team of dedicated people, but none of this would have been possible without the hard work put in by my wife Lorna who is Director of Operations and a major shareholder. I do like her quotation, and I don't know where it came from: "It only took 20 years to make an overnight success".