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Dr. Pearse Lyons

Dr. Pearse Lyons profile image

Dr. Pearse Lyons

Alltech Founder

Aug. 3, 1944—March 8, 2018

 

In the late 1970s, Dr. Pearse Lyons immigrated to the United States with his young family — Deirdre, Aoife and Mark — and a dream. His vision — to sustain the planet and all things living on it by applying his yeast fermentation expertise to agricultural challenges — came to life with $10,000.

Today, that vision is put to work by Alltech’s global team of more than 5,000 people around the world, serving more than 40,000 customers in 140 countries with a diverse portfolio of products and services that improves the health and performance of animals and plants, resulting in better nutrition for all and a decreased environmental impact.

Dr. Lyons was first and foremost an entrepreneur and a tireless innovator, with a keen scientific mind. His scientific expertise, combined with an acute business sense, helped revolutionize the animal feed industry through the introduction of natural ingredients to animal feed.

He was widely regarded as an inspirational leader and communicator. He lived with passion and purpose — rising before dawn to begin communicating with colleagues around the world, issuing daily “One Minute Charge” motivational messages and traveling incessantly so he could meet his team members and customers in person.

He built Alltech into the fastest-growing company in the global animal health and nutrition industry through innovative technology and strong branding. Today, Alltech is the only privately held and family-owned business among the top animal health companies in the world.

The company’s reach has also grown far beyond yeast-based additives for animal feed to include award-winning beers and spirits, a crop science business and even promising research into human health challenges, such as diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Lyons was very proud of the company’s privately owned status and was resolute on keeping it. He was a man who liked to move quickly on opportunities, and he relished the agility and speed that being accountable only to himself afforded him.

 

Early life

Born on Aug. 3, 1944, to Thomas Kevin and Margaret (née Dunne) Lyons and raised in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland, he was one of six children. On his mother’s side, he came from five generations of coopers who supplied barrels to distilleries in Ireland, although both his parents were teetotalers.

His mother owned a small grocery shop, which Dr. Lyons later acknowledged to be the inspiration behind his entrepreneurial drive. His first job at the age of 14 was at Harp Lager in Dundalk, where he helped out in the laboratory.

Dr. Lyons received his bachelor’s degree from University College Dublin in Ireland, graduating with first-class honors. He continued into postgraduate study at the British School of Malting and Brewing in Birmingham, where he gained master’s and doctoral degrees in brewing science from the University of Birmingham. In fact, he was the first Irishman to receive a formal degree in brewing and distilling from the university.

He interned at the Guinness and Harp Lager breweries and later worked as a biochemist for Irish Distillers, makers of Jameson whiskey. He was instrumental in designing the Midleton distillery for Jameson, an opportunity that he considered to be a highlight of his early career.

 

Building a business with family at its heart

Pearse met Deirdre (née Byrne) when she was 17, and they married in 1972. Their daughter, Aoife Louise, was born in 1973 and son, Mark, in 1976.

In 1977, Dr. Lyons moved to the United States on a visa he was awarded as a gifted scientist. He had been working with Biocon, a United Kingdom-based company that supplied brewers and distillers with yeasts, enzymes and flavoring agents, over the past three years to build its Irish and U.K. markets. His new task was to build its U.S. market and train ethanol distillers in Kentucky.

In 1980, Dr. Lyons decided to “take control of his own destiny.” He launched his own business, Alltech, which built its success upon the application of yeast technologies to animal health and nutrition.

Alltech was set up with an initial investment of $10,000 and enough money set aside to pay the mortgage and buy groceries for the family for a year. In its first year, the company turned over $1 million dollars.

The very name “Alltech” ensured his family was built into the business from day one. Alltech’s name is based on the initials of daughter Aoife Louise Lyons, and Alltech’s signature logo color was son Mark’s choice at the time. Deirdre, co-founder of Alltech, is director of corporate image and design. She designs and outfits the company’s more than 80 offices around the world and oversees Alltech’s philanthropic involvement.

 

Brewing and distilling

Also in 1980, Dr. Lyons established The Alcohol School in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the few schools at that time for the distilling industry and ran it for 25 years. He also published and co-authored “The Alcohol Textbook,” a text that evolved over four editions and soon became a key source for the beverage, fuel and industrial alcohol industries.

In 1999, when the former Lexington Brewing Company in downtown Lexington was closing its doors, Dr. Lyons purchased it to resurrect the brewing and distilling tradition of Lexington that dates back to 1794. The first beer from Dr. Lyons’ new brewery, Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co., was Kentucky® Ale, a blend of two classic beer styles: an Irish red ale and an English pale ale. Another breakthrough came several years later when Kentucky Ale was placed into freshly emptied bourbon barrels from nearby distilleries to soak up the fresh bourbon and oak flavors. This brew was known as Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale® and soon became the brewery’s flagship brew after its introduction to the market in 2006. It is regarded as one of the forerunners of the bourbon-barrel aging trend in craft beer.

 

Honors and awards

Dr. Lyons was widely recognized for his contributions to science and industry and was awarded honorary doctorates from many colleges and universities around the world. He was named Business Person of the Year by Business & Finance magazine and received the prestigious Ireland-U.S. Council Award for Outstanding Achievement. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny recognized him with the St. Patrick’s Day Science Medal in recognition of creating a global business based on scientific research. He was also selected to receive the Commander’s Award for Public Service, a rarely presented official U.S. Army medal, and has been honored with the prestigious Henry Clay Medallion for Distinguished Service, past recipients of which include Sandra Day O’Connor, Ted Turner and Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein.

Dr. Lyons spearheaded Alltech’s commitment to international equestrian sport by sponsoring the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games™ 2010 in Lexington, Kentucky, which led to his receipt of the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s first-ever Legacy Award in 2011.

 

Giving inspiration

The Lyons family has long had a passion for education, which has been evident in their personal investments and the investments of Alltech. As Dr. Lyons would often say, “Science doesn’t have to be boring.”

He and Deirdre funded and oversaw the construction of more than a dozen state-of-the-art science laboratories at primary schools in Kentucky and Ireland. The labs were completed as a personal tribute to Dr. Lyons’ late brother, Father Kevin Lyons, a priest who was dedicated to improving the lives of children. The Lyonses hoped to inspire children to greater curiosity about the world around them, and many of the schools with new labs have gone on to achieve Blue Ribbon School of Excellence status.

The Lyonses believe in cultivating lifelong learning, and Dr. Lyons, in particular, was interested in encouraging budding scientists and entrepreneurs. The Alltech Young Scientist program, the largest global agriscience competition of its kind, has engaged more than 100,000 university students.

The Lyonses also ensured that Alltech opened its doors to students for on-the-job discovery, with more than 450 undergraduates completing an internship program at the Alltech Center for Animal Nutrigenomics and Applied Animal Nutrition in Kentucky and approximately 440 Ph.D., master’s degree and graduate students being supported through Alltech’s bioscience centers.

Also, at the university level, Dr. Lyons initiated an Alltech Innovation Competition, which awarded entrepreneurs with $10,000, the same amount with which he founded Alltech.

Believing that the arts are essential to creative thinking and innovation, Dr. and Mrs. Lyons led Alltech’s sponsorship of the Alltech Vocal Scholarship Competition, which is considered one of the largest vocal scholarship programs in the world and has positioned the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre program as a Richard Tucker Foundation top-20 opera program. More than $700,000 in scholarships have been awarded annually to promising young vocalists.

Dr. Lyons was particularly well-known for leading Alltech’s international conference, branded in recent years as the Alltech ONE Conference. Held for more than three decades, the event has become Lexington, Kentucky’s largest annual room booking, attracting thousands of people from more than 70 countries.

Dr. Lyons believed in living each day to the fullest and making a difference in the lives of others. His legacy lives on through the Pearse Lyons ACE Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the philanthropic endeavors of Alltech and the Lyons family. These include programs that support underserved families and vulnerable populations, disaster relief efforts, educational programming and other community improvement efforts.

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