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George Steele
• G. L. Steele, who took over on Monday from R. H. Kitson as transport officer of the Southern Electricity Board, might almost qualify for the title of Mr Nationalization, Between 1965 and 1970, he served as regional transport officer and then transport utilization officer with the Scottish Gas Board. After this time with the "High-Speed" men he moved to the National Coal Board as transport manager in the Scottish Northern area. Now he has joined the third of the State power companies; and before all this he worked with another fuel company, the then Regent Oil Company.
An essential qualification for the top transport post in a public utility is, undoubtedly, tact. The transport man has to work so closely with user departments and win the confidence and co-operation of other departmental heads in an organization where transport is not the' primary function. Frequently he has, in the nicest possible way, to persuade the user department that it is not making the best use of its transport. George Steele has the ability to do this or he would not have been so successful in this kind of operation.
Not all of G. L.'s life has been spent in big business. For a few years he operated his own 12-vehicle tipping fleet in his native Fife. Those days, he says, were the completion of an education which started in Dunfermline High School. As a tipper boss he had early mornings, late nights. He had to drive, load, maintain, keep records and accounts — and in addition he built a bungalow for his wife and two children.
"There is no world like the world of tipper men," he says. "They're a straight talking, no nonsense bunch." Later this month he will be back among them at the Tipping Convention at Blackpool.
One quality above all others is possibly G. L.'s greatest asset: he can get people to take on the most demanding tasks without a murmur of dissent. Witness of this are his seven successful years as clerk of the course at the Dunfermline LDoY contest.
He has boundless energy and was a founder and past chairman of the Forth division of ITA, a distinction he also holds in connection with Dunfermline Car Club. He also rallies and go-carts with his son Michael. who incidentally intends to follow in his father's footsteps in transport on graduation from Dundee University later this year.
For the next 12 months George Steele will be working himself into his new post and establishing a new home. "This time someone else will do the building," he said. I.S.