Dr Alan Begg is the Chief Executive of the Automotive Academy, the UK's groundbreaking partnership between Government and industry aimed at resolving the skills shortage in the automotive sector. He took up this post in July 2004.

Alan has a degree and a PhD from Cambridge University in materials Science. He spent 2 years at TI Research Laboratories before moving to the BP Research Centre at Sunbury on Thames in 1981. There he led the Advanced Engineering Materials research group, developing materials and processes for BP's use in oilfield operations. At the time, BP was looking to diversify. Advanced materials was a target business. The group developed novel carbon, ceramic and metal matrix composites (MMC) for BP to sell to the aerospace and defence markets.

In 1988, he set up BP Metal Composites in Farnborough to manufacture MMC by a novel process developed by his research group. This company (since sold by BP and now trading as AMC) supplies MMC for a wide range of critical structural applications.

Alan moved into the automotive industry in 1993, when he took up the post of Managing Director of T&N Technology at Cawston House, near Rugby. This 300 strong R&D centre had strong activities in manufacturing and design as well as materials.

When T&N was acquired by their American rival, Federal-Mogul, Alan moved to their Detroit headquarters to be Vice President of Technology for the combined companies with overall responsibility for technology in the £4Bn operations.

He returned to the UK to take up the post of Director of Technology for Morgan Crucible, a leading producer of magnetic, ceramic and carbon materials in 2001. He took Morgan's through a successful application for a Queen's Award for Industry for their development of bio-soluble high temperature fibres.

Throughout his career, Alan has had close contact with academia, serving on industrial advisory committees at Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College, Birmingham and others. His links with Government are equally strong. He has worked on the Technology Foresight Programme from the start, been a Board member of three Faraday Partnerships, and is a member of the MoD's Defence Scientific Advisory Council, chairing their Technology Board.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Mining and Minerals.