AEA Technology

AEA Technology

Type	Public LSE: AAT
Founded	1996
Headquarters	Harwell, Oxfordshire
Website	www.aeat.co.uk

AEA Technology plc was formed in 1996 as the privatised offshoot of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority. It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index. Originally it consisted of divisions with expertise in a wide variety of areas, mostly the products of nuclear-related research. These included nuclear safety, nuclear engineering, environmental protection, battery technology and non-destructive testing. It mainly acted as a contractor organisation for UKAEA and other governmental and private customers.

AEA Technology is now focusing on its Energy & Environment business. The company has divested all of the nuclear-related elements of the business and other non-core businesses such as its Rail business (now called DeltaRail Group Ltd) through two portfolio sales to secondary private equity investment firms in September 2005 and in September 2006 respectively.^[1] In addition to environmental consultancy the company also works in the Knowledge Transfer ^[2] and Programme Management areas. The business is organised around a mesh style "communities" structure which includes Knowledge Leadership (key technical consultant), Project Management, IT,^[3] Marketing and Sales.

The company's main UK operations are located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire (head office), London, Risley and Glengarnock (Scotland). In August 2006 AEA established a Romania Subisdary in Bucharest (AEA Mediu) and this was shut down in April 2009.^[4]

AEA Technology were voted best Consultancy for Climate Change and Renewables in the EDIE Awards 2007.^[5]

Andrew McCree quit as Chief Executive Officer in November 2011 ^[6] and was replaced by John Lowry as Interim CEO.^[7] Lowry has previously been involved in the UK's National Health Service as a restructuring advisor.^[8]

AEA Technology has made a number of redundancies throughout 2010; the then CEO, McCree, was quoted as saying "[the company took] 10 per cent off the UK cost base in the year, involving 60 redundancies".^[9] AEA has also seen a continuing slump in its share price: from 277p in November 2003 to around 0.4p in January 2012. Shares lost up to one third of their value during 2010 and were even temporarily suspended on the stock exchange.^[10]

Notable recent projects

• Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
• London Green500 - AEA are the lead contractor on the Mayor of London's Carbon Reduction scheme for big businesses in London ^[11]
• ecopath - A flexible 3 year full outsource programme of all environmental issues.^[12]

Radiation incident

AEA Technology was fined £250,000 for transporting a 2.5 tonne ⁶⁰Co gamma radiation source from Cookridge Hospital, Leeds, UK, to Sellafield with defective shielding on the 11 March 2002.^[13]

The company is no longer involved in the transportation of nuclear material.

External links

• AEA Technology website

References

1. ^ AEA Technology: asset sale
2. ^ AEA Knowledge Transfer
3. ^ AEA IT
4. ^ AEA Mediu website
5. ^ EDIE survey
6. ^ McCree quits as CEO
7. ^ Lowry appointed Interim CEO
8. ^ LinkedIn profile of John Lowry
9. ^ AEA Technology redundancies
10. ^ Share Suspension on Stock Exchange
11. ^ Green500 meet the team page
12. ^ ecopath home page
13. ^ The Times - Blunder left trail of lethal radiation