DENVER, Colo. -- Tomkins plc has announced that Richard Bell will retire on Dec. 31, after 43 years of service. Bell is presently the chairman of Gates Corp. and chief operating officer, Industrial & Automotive of Tomkins plc.

Bell started his career as a laboratory assistant in the compound mixing laboratory in a U.S. Rubber Co. facility in Castle Mills, Edinburgh, Scotland in 1965. He progressed through various laboratory positions and then became a factory compounder, having completed studies in chemistry and rubber technology at Napier University in Edinburgh. He progressed to product development manager and eventually technical director of the company’s European belt business.

Bell moved into general management when he became managing director of the Gates and Unitta joint venture in Japan in 1979. He progressed through senior positions in Australia, Germany and Belgium before moving to the United States in 1996 as president of Gates North America Power Transmission. In 1997, he became president of the Gates Worldwide Power Transmission business and took on the additional role of president of Gates in 2002. In 2007, he assumed his current positions.

Following Bell’s retirement, Jim Nicol, chief executive officer of Tomkins plc, will assume the role of chairman of Gates Corp. and Alan Power will take on the role of executive vice president, Industrial and Automotive, in which capacity he will be responsible for all of the Group’s Industrial and Automotive businesses other than Gates Corp.

For more information about Gates Corp., visit: http://www.gates.com.