Bill Cameron

He was appointed chairman of Alexander Dennis in 2004 shortly after the company was formed when TransBus was bought out of administration by a consortium of Scottish business leaders. Alexander Dennis produces a range of bus parts and vehicles, both single and double-deck, for the UK, Far East and North America.

Cameron had previously been chief executive of Walter Alexander before it was sold to Mayflower and became part of TransBus. From 1993 until 2000, he transformed Walter Alexander, taking it from a company with a staff of 600 and sales of £25m to a company employing 1100 people and sales of around £300m today as Alexander Dennis.

Only three weeks ago Alexander Dennis announced that it had signed a deal with US firm ElDorado to construct its buses and is opening a 50,000 sqft support base in Las Vegas.

At the factory today there is no evidence of the trauma caused by the unrest in the turbulent 16 months before Cameron came on board as chairman after the collapse of TransBus, which he left after disagreement over company philosophy.

The future of hundreds of jobs in Camelon and Larbert was on the line when parent company the Mayflower Corporation crashed with debts of £200m. But a £90m investment deal was put together by merchant bankers Noble Grossart and Scots millionaires Sir David Murray and Stagecoach siblings Brian Souter and Ann Gloag, who approached Cameron to be a consulant.

Cameron was passionate about protecting the jobs of the workers. He said at the time it would have been a disaster for Falkirk if it went under. After Falkirk Council, Alexander Dennis is the biggest employer in the town.

Within a year, Mr Cameron and his team made remarkable progress in rebuilding the business and pushing forward with plans to produce new-generation buses to become an international presence.

Bill Simpson, the corporate affairs director at Alexander Dennis, paid tribute to his friend and colleague. "Bill had the natural gift that in business and life is all-important. He could talk to anyone and everyone from the shopfloor to the First Minister. Bill earned a lot of respect from the workforce for what he helped do at Alexander Dennis and make it the success everyone knew it could be. We aren't talking huge numbers back in 2004, but to break into the black after our first year was a real achievement and an extremely huge step, so that today we have sales in excess of £300m and contracts across the world and a strong workforce, was something that Bill was particularly proud of."

His son, Euan, 35, a director of Alexander Dennis, said Cameron was a devoted father and grandfather who, despite being made an OBE for services for industry and manufacturing, was reluctant to have taken the credit for the company's success.

He said: "Dad never saw it that he was the one responsible for the success at Alexander. He was very much a hands-on person and he'd literally roll his sleeves up and get on with the work on the shopfloor with the boys. Dad always said it was a team achievement, and although he was proud of what had been done with the company, it was his family that gave him the most enjoyment and pride. He doted on his grandchildren, Fiona and Gregor. He always told us that work was important but family always came first. That was why he made sure that nobody in Falkirk was going to lose their jobs when things were bad."

A keen golfer with a handicap of 18 and supporter of Rangers and Falkirk football clubs, Cameron was born in Leadhills, Lanarkshire, to William and Sarah Cameron, on December 17, 1938.

After leaving Biggar High School he took an apprenticeship with Smith Engineering in Wishaw before moving to Honeywell in Motherwell then Hoover as the company's European chairman.

He died at home in Edinburgh and is survived by his wife Carol, his son and daughter Hazel, and two grandchildren. BY Nick Jury