Joseph Dwyer (engineer)

Joeseph Dwyer was born in Liverpool in 1939. He joined the construction firm of George Wimpey in 1955 at the age of 16. During the 1980s Dwyer survived a helicopter accident whilst travelling to one of the firm's open-cast coal mining operations. For a time he was feared dead as his accident was confused with another on the same day that killed a family travelling to Alton Towers. He clashed occasionally with Alastair Morton, chairman of client Eurotunnel, but later denied there was any animosity between the two. Dwyer served as chairman and chief executive officer of Wimpey. He became convinced that contracting was a "mug's game" with high risk and low reward and sought to reposition the firm as a more profitable housebuilder. Dwyer was seen as the mastermind behind Wimpey's £700 million asset swap with Tarmac: Tarmac received Wimpey's construction and materials operations in exchange for its housebuilding division. Wimpey subsequently became a major housebuilding firm and saw pre-tax profits grow from £15 million to £451 million. Dwyer left Wimpey in 1999; the same year that Tarmac demerged its construction operations to form Carillion. == Later career ==

After his departure from Wimpey Dwyer was appointed chairman of the Liverpool Vision urban regeneration company. This company was established to provide an economic stimulus for the regeneration of the city which had declined in population from one million people to around 400,000 and gained a reputation for high unemployment and crime rates. Dwyer was responsible for bringing Tesco CEO Terry Leahy onto the board and led a £2 billion programme of capital investment. Under his leadership Liverpool Vision refurbished Lime Street station, regenerated King's Dock and established a training scheme to accommodate 2,000 apprentices a year. Dwyer was responsible for the cancellation of the Fourth Grace landmark building scheme, designed by Will Alsop, on cost grounds. This decision led to the resignation of Labour politician Joe Anderson from the board of Liverpool Vision. Dwyer was also responsible for the decision not to proceed with the construction of a new stadium for Everton Football Club at King's Dock. Dwyer was also involved in several professional societies and served as president of the Chartered Institute of Building. == References ==