Major management structure changes made at J&D Pierce

Andrew Caldwell, who has been with the business for 29 years, has decided to retire at Christmas. Andy worked his way through from surveyor, estimating manager, to his current role as board director.

Alan Hawkins will be appointed to the role of director as Andy’s replacement. He has been in the structural steel industry his entire career and worked through various roles. Alan currently heads the firm’s estimating department.

Derek Pierce is to step down as managing director and take the role of chairman. Derek, who has led the business from the front for over 20 years, will have full involvement on a day-to-day basis giving guidance and advice to the new management team on leading the business forward and elevating to the next level.

To allow the duties of this role to be undertaken and fulfil the demands of the position, the firm has decided to appoint Dave Ryan and Jamie Pierce as joint managing directors, each being responsible for specific areas of the business.

Dave Ryan started his career on the tools as a fabricator and worked his way into estimating. He joined the business 14 years ago in the estimating department, working his way to division manager for its Strubeam business.

Jamie Pierce started his career with the business 15 years ago as an apprentice fabricator/welder. He moved onto site operations, undertaking onsite variations, he then moved onto site engineering before moving to a site management role.

After eight years of being site-based, he was appointed as operations manager within the group headquarters in Ayrshire. He was then promoted to operations director two years ago.

The changes will take effect from January 2026.