Alan John Wood, CBE, FREng[1] (born March 20, 1947), was brought up in Sheffield, where he was educated at King Edward VII School.
In 1965 he won an open scholarship to Manchester University and graduated in 1968 with a first class honours degree in mechanical engineering.
During his five years with this company, he spent periods in the soap & detergents and chemical businesses, but his major experience was with Van den Bergh & Jurgens, where he held project management and plant management positions before returning to university to take a second degree.
He studied in the United States at Harvard University, where he was awarded a master's degree in business administration in 1975.
Following his return to the UK, he took over responsibility for the manufacturing operations of Crittall Construction, a supplier of bespoke curtain wall projects for prestige office developments, and then became managing director of Small Electric Motors, a specialist manufacturer of servomotors and tachogenerators, before joining Siemens in 1981.