Alan Davidson, pioneer of employee ownership in the built environment dies

It was with great sadness that we heard this week that Alan Davidson, founder of London based architectural visualisation studio and EOA member, Hayes Davidson has passed away.  Alan was diagnosed with MND in 2012 and bore the disease with great courage, continuing to work as a director and trustee of Hayes Davidson, as well as leading the Alan Davidson Foundation, which supports MND care and research, and art and architectural scholarships.

The EOA had the pleasure of helping Alan understand how to secure the future of Hayes Davidson through employee ownership as he planned for the future of the business, knowing that his own life would be cruelly cut short.  This included us introducing Alan to various EOA members to hear about their own models of employee ownership and supporting Alan’s attendance at the EOA Conference in 2013.

We were delighted when Hayes Davidson became one of the first companies in the architecture and construction sectors to become employee-owned under new legislation brought in by the government in July 2014. At that time, Hayes Davidson changed from a Partnership to a 100% employee owned company with all employees becoming Partners, and an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) holding the shares for the benefit of all the Partners.

At the time of the transition, Alan commented, “I am delighted for everyone at Hayes Davidson. This change reinforces the truly collaborative nature of a professional architectural visualisation studio. Employee ownership reflects many of the important values already held at Hayes Davidson; of partnership, transparency and mutual support. A plan over a year in the making, we are indebted to friends and advisors in the EO and architecture sectors who have helped us make this transition.”

Alan was both a pioneer of architectural visualisation and of the adoption of employee ownership in the built environment and will be missed by his friends at the EOA.