Sir Ian Wood, the Aberdeen-based businessman who took his family's fishing boat repair yard and turned it into a global oil and gas engineering powerhouse, has died at the age of 84, his family announced.

Starting with a modest fishing business, Wood took over in 1967 and built Wood Group into a company once valued at over £5bn, servicing the North Sea oil industry and beyond. He retired as CEO in 2006, then pivoted to philanthropy via The Wood Foundation, tackling inequality in Scotland and sub-Saharan Africa. His family remembered his "kindness, generosity, determination and unwavering commitment to his family."

Sir Ian was one of Scotland's wealthiest individuals, with a personal fortune estimated at £1.8bn. He was knighted in 1994 for services to oil and gas and later received the Order of the Thistle, Scotland's highest chivalric order. First Minister John Swinney called him "one of Scotland's most influential business leaders and philanthropists," praising his role in making Scotland a global energy hub.

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander described him as "one of Scotland's finest sons," while Offshore Energies UK CEO David Whitehouse credited him as a "defining figure" of the North Sea industry, noting his 2013 Wood Review led to the creation of the North Sea Transition Authority.

Born in Aberdeen in 1942, Wood graduated with a first-class psychology degree from the University of Aberdeen before joining the family business. He also once played rugby against the All Blacks in 1972. He is survived by his wife Helen, three sons, and seven grandchildren.