Alan McGuinness, the Scottish PR executive who helped grow the profession in the U.K. country and handled PR for Pan-Am through the Lockerbie bombing crisis, has died at 64, according to reports.

McGuinness founded Edinburgh-based Proscot PR in Glasgow in the late 1970s with Alan Ferguson, a colleague at ad agency Rex Stewart. Prescot, an Edelman affiliate for several years, worked with clients like Energy Savings Trust, National Health Service, and British Gas.

It was through his Edelman affiliation that he came to work the Pan-Am crisis and subsequent inquiry. The Scotsman reported that McGuinness also worked with Edelman/Brussels for Levi Strauss as the company pulled out of direct manufacturing and shuttered plants across Scotland.

He handed off Proscot about a decade ago and served as chairman until 2009.

Former Proscot colleague Iain Fleming told to Scotsman: "Alan was a true pioneer who led the way in developing the PR industry in Scotland from a poor relation of the advertising agency sector to a professional, standalone industry which now provides a whole range of reputation management, corporate communications and associated services."