Pilot in fatal plane crash identified
Nanometrics CEO remembered as humble visionary
Neil Spriggs, the chief executive at a world-leading company in seismic equipment, wasn't a man who sought the limelight, but his death in a small-plane crash Wednesday near the Carp Airport has cost his company and professional community a visionary.
That's how Spriggs was remembered Thursday by longtime colleague and fellow executive Ian Talbot. Spriggs was the CEO at Nanometrics, a privately-owned company headquartered in Kanata that employs about 170 people, and creates instruments to measure earthquakes.
“He wanted to help scientists understand how to make the Earth a better, safer place. He wanted to help push the boundaries of science,” said Talbot, chief financial officer at Nanometrics.
But as big as his thinking was, Spriggs had humility and humanity in spades, Talbot said.
You wouldn't see him on the CEO speaking circuit. He'd do a business deal by handshake. If someone at the company lost a family member, he'd go to them with his condolences.
“People just trusted him,” Talbot said.
Spriggs had a degree in oceanography, and more than 25 years of experience in seismology (which involves the study of earthquakes and seismic waves). He joined Nanometrics as a part owner in 1992, and became its CEO in 2015.
In the community of people who use Nanometrics equipment around the world — governments, universities, seismologists, geophysicists — Spriggs was wellknown and highly respected, Talbot said. He wasn't an academic, but that didn't stop some of his customers from calling Spriggs “professor,” so vast was his knowledge about the subject matter of his work.
He's given his life to this company … and he was looking forward to his retirement.
But he also had an appetite for learning that wasn't circumscribed by his profession.
“Whether it was flying or sailing or seismometers, he had a very curious mind,” Talbot said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Spriggs was piloting the Blackshape BS100 single-engine airplane registered in his name when it crashed off the runway at the Carp Airport. Police said he was found dead at the scene. The Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident.
Spriggs had been preparing to retire for the last few years, building a succession plan and starting to hand more authority to others, Talbot said. “He was looking forward to retirement … which is really the thing that makes it so tough for all of us, is that he's given his life to this company and to this mission and he was looking forward to his retirement.”