Remembering Peter 'Pete' Ellis - 1961 - 2026

28th August 2026

It was with great sadness that I learned of the sudden passing of my former colleague and long-time friend, Peter ‘Pete’ Ellis, who died in Dubai on 13 August 2026, aged 65.

Pete was a true veteran of the access platform industry and someone whose career became intertwined with my own for many years.

I first met Pete in the late 1980s, and our paths really began to cross through the access industry in the early 1990s. One particular memory takes me back to 1992, when we both travelled to Genie Industries in Redmond, Washington USA, just outside Seattle, to attend the Genie Series 100 training course.

At that time the powered access industry was a very different and much smaller world than it is today. Those of us involved in it travelled extensively, built relationships that lasted for decades and watched the industry develop into the global business it has since become.

From 1996 until 2006, Pete and I worked together, a period that produced many memories. Over those ten years we travelled to exhibitions, industry events and meetings around the world and, inevitably, had more than a few adventures along the way.

After his many 'hugely' successful years with Planet Platforms Limited based in Wakefield, Pete went on to continue his career elsewhere within the access industry. He moved to Power Towers, remaining with that business through its acquisition by JLG in 2015. Having moved to Dubai in 2014, he became General Manager of Power Towers Middle East and played an important role in establishing and growing the product throughout the region.

In 2021, Pete joined Dingli as General Manager for the Middle East, covering the GCC and North Africa. He was also an active supporter of the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), becoming Chairman of its Middle East Regional Council in 2019.

Dubai had become Pete's home, and he spent the final 12 years of his life there, continuing to do what he had done for so much of his working life, representing the access industry, developing businesses and building relationships with people across the world.

For those of us who knew Pete from the earlier days of the industry, however, the job titles and achievements tell only part of the story.

When you have known someone for nearly four decades, worked alongside them for ten years and travelled around the world together, you accumulate an enormous bank of memories. Pete was part of an era in my own working life that I will always remember with great affection.

The access industry has lost one of its genuine veterans, and many of us have lost an old colleague and friend.

Ottie Whittle 

Rest in peace, Pete. It was quite a journey.