For the past six years he has helped guide the Glasgow-based multi-utility through its expansion and diversification into water, gas and telecommunications.

Yet, just 12 years ago, Stuart made a decision that was to change his life and set his career on a new course - as a company doctor.

As he explained to Stuart Paul, he had little choice at the time.

IN 1986, I was appointed group managing director of Metal Box plc, one of the largest packaging groups in the world with more than 40 manufacturing facilities in the UK, and overseas operations in 30 countries.

This followed five years of extremely hard work in retrieving the business from the financial and operational difficulties it had faced in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had joined in 1981 as finance director and later took on a broader role.

Although profits and the share price had steadily increased throughout the recovery period, the leading institutional shareholder, who held more than 20% of the equity and had made a very handsome profit, was no longer happy with the prospective rate of growth in his investment.

At this stage, I had reached a level of success in my own business career which I had not expected and the company was now thriving and in excellent shape. However, the strategic outlook called for even larger packaging companies capable of serving global customers.

After much work, the best route was seen to be a merger with the next largest European packaging company, Carnaud, based in France. The outcome of the merger would be that our packaging interests would be sold to Carnaud and Metal Box would be reduced to 25% of its original size and operate in the security printing and building products market.

The really tough decision was to depart from a situation of comfort and independence, both as an individual and a company, because the essence of the deal was that the chief executive of Carnaud would head the new much-enlarged packaging group.

This would introduce a totally new culture to the packaging operation and leave me personally with a much smaller group to manage.

When it was made public, the merger decision was not universally popular. Hindsight has shown, however, that it was the right strategic decision - we had to create a European company capable of operating on a worldwide basis. It was a reasoned rather than intuitive decision - it had to be, given the scale and complexity of the issues involved.

From a personal point of view the decision undoubtedly created a temporary plateau for my career. Subsequently, I began to gain a reputation as a company doctor and latterly I have had the good fortune to share in the growth of ScottishPower.