Sir Michael Owen Edwardes (11 October 1930 – 15 September 2019) was a British- South African business executive who held chairmanships at several companies - most notably motor manufacturer British Leyland in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Education

Edwardes was born in

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...

, and was matriculated from St. Andrew's College in 1947 before graduating from Rhodes University.

Career

Edwardes began his career in 1951 as a management trainee for battery manufacturer Chloride. In 1966, he served as the general manager of Alkaline Batteries, one of the group's operating companies at Redditch, Worcestershire, UK. He later joined the Chloride main board, became chief executive in 1971 and remained in that position until 1977. He was appointed to the UK's National Enterprise Board, a quango whose role was to provide financing to large UK state-owned enterprises (or nationalised industries), including the country's ailing motor giant, British Leyland, when it was established in 1975. In 1977, he was appointed as chief executive of British Leyland, and within two weeks he became chairman as the company's board was 'pruned' from 13 to 7 members. In 1979, he was knighted in the

Queen's Birthday Honours The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are present ...

. The next year, he attracted criticism for a speech to the CBI Conference in which he said, "If the Cabinet do not have the wit and imagination to reconcile our industrial needs with the fact of North Sea oil, they would do better to leave the bloody stuff in the ground". His tenure at British Leyland lasted until 1982, when he was replaced by

Harold Musgrove Harold John Musgrove (born Birmingham, 1930) was the chairman of British Leyland's Austin Rover division between 1982–1986 and worked in several roles for the British National Health Service from 1991–2001. British Leyland Harold Musgrove ha ...

. In 1982, on his retirement from British Leyland as CEO, Edwardes was presented with a British racing green Jaguar XJS. He later had this car shipped to South Africa, where he used it for board meetings at General Motors South Africa in 1988. In 1984, he became chairman of computer manufacturer

ICL ICL may refer to: Companies and organizations * Idaho Conservation League * Imperial College London, a UK university * Indian Confederation of Labour * Indian Cricket League * Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory of the University of Oxford * Israel Ch ...

, but resigned six months later when the company was acquired by

STC STC may refer to: Education * Saint Theresa's College (disambiguation), any of several institutions * St. Thomas' College, Matale, Sri Lanka * S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia, Sri Lanka * Scott Theological College, Kenya * Sha Tin College, H ...

. He then became chairman of

Dunlop Holdings Dunlop Ltd. (formerly Dunlop Rubber) was a British multinational company involved in the manufacture of various natural rubber goods. Its business was founded in 1889 by Harvey du Cros and he involved John Boyd Dunlop who had re-invented and ...

until its 1985 sale to BTR plc, briefly returned to Chloride as chairman in 1986, and in 1988 became non-executive chairman of

Charter Consolidated Charter International plc was a large British engineering business based in London. It was acquired by Colfax Corporation in January 2012. History The British South Africa Company was founded in 1889 by Royal Charter.Minorco The Minorco SA (Minerals and Resources Company) was a mining company based in Luxembourg. It was set up by the South African Anglo American Corporation in 1987 to hold its non-African, non-diamond mining operations. Although Minorco was quoted on ...

, a Luxembourg based mining company that narrowly failed to take over Consolidated Gold Fields in a bitter and high-profile battle.Brian Groom: ″Michael Edwardes, industrialist, 1930-2019″, in: The Financial Times, September 27, 2019
/ref> In his book ''Back from the Brink'' (1983), Edwardes discusses his experiences at British Leyland.

Personal life

In 1958 Edwardes married Mary Margaret Finlay, a psychotherapist and anti-apartheid campaigner. The couple, who had three daughters, divorced in 1984.

Book

* ''Back from the Brink'', HarperCollins 1983,

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwardes, Michael 1930 births 2019 deaths South African knights Knights Bachelor Businesspeople awarded knighthoods South African non-fiction writers South African businesspeople Alumni of St. Andrew's College, Grahamstown Rhodes University alumni British Leyland people International Computers Limited people People from Gqeberha