Alan Mills (BSc Civil Engineering 1983) graduated from NTU 30 years ago but returned Friday 14 November 2014 during a business trip to the UK, to give a talk to Civil Engineering students about his experience in the construction industry in which they all benefitted from his interesting perspectives and career advice. In the Summer of 2010, Alan relocated to Houston, Texas with his family to be closer to his largest customers and maximise the potential of the company’s flagship software product, Zenator.
Before coming to Trent Polytechnic, as it was then called, Alan had entered the energy industry in 1975, gaining valuable experience and an introduction to commissioning with Brown & Root on major North Sea projects in Holland, Norway and Scotland. After graduating from Aston Business School (MA Business Administration 1993) Alan joined the project management team of Atlantic Richfield Indonesia in Jakarta, where he introduced business process reengineering, reducing project cycle times from 42 to 27 months.
Prior to this Alan was a consultant to a firm of Norwegian drilling and exploration contractors (1997-1999), and was Business Manager for the eastern region at Brown & Root-AOC in Aberdeen and Gt Yarmouth (1996-1997). Alan is now President and CEO of Falcon Global (set up in 2000) and Global Falcon Americas (set up in 2006) and is the driving force behind the creation of the highly successful, world-class Asset Verification Management software solutions branded as Zenator and PathMaker.
Alan has been a Chartered Engineer and Member of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology (IMarEST) since 1985. He is currently serving as Chairman of the Gulf Coast Branch in Houston, representing around 400 marine professionals. In 2001 he helped to form the East of England branch and served as its first Chairman to 2003. Alan was awarded the President’s Commendation for outstanding contributions to the IMarEST in 2006. In 2005, in recognition of the company’s outstanding export achievements, Falcon Global was East of England Winner of UK Trade & Investment’s International Trade Awards.