Sir Owen Whitley Green (14 May 1925 – 1 June 2017) was chief executive and later chairman of the British industrial conglomerate

BTR plc BTR plc was a British Multinational Corporation, multinational industrial Conglomerate (company), conglomerate company. It was headquartered in London, England. The company was originally founded in 1924 as the British Goodrich Rubber Co. Ltd ...

Early life

Green was born in

Stockton on Tees Stockton-on-Tees is a market town in County Durham, England, with a population of 84,815 at the 2021 UK census. It gives its name to and is the largest settlement in the wider Borough of Stockton-on-Tees. It is part of Teesside and the Tees V ...

on 14 May 1925. He served with the

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...

from 1942 to 1946. In 1948 he married Doreen Spark (died 2006), with whom he had a son and two daughters. He qualified as an accountant in 1950.

Career

Green joined BTR as finance director in 1956. In 1967 he became managing director and chief executive, and from 1984 to 1993 he was chairman. His acquisitions made BTR one of the leading industrial conglomerates of the 1980s. The 1983 bid for the Thomas Trilling conglomerate and the 1985 acquisition of Dunlop Holdings were particularly high-profile and acrimonious. He worked closely with

Alan Jackson Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American country music singer-songwriter. He is known for performing a style widely regarded as "neotraditional country", as well as writing many of his own songs. Jackson has recorded 21 studi ...

who was the CEO of BTR while Green was chairman. From 1988 to 1993 Green was also director of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' and a trustee of the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history scientific collection, collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, Fungus, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleo ...

. Green died on 1 June 2017.

Honours and awards

* In 1982, he was voted businessman of the year. * In 1984, Green received a

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in the 1984 Birthday Honours and awarded the gold medal of the

British Institute of Management The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is a professional institution for management based in the United Kingdom. It was founded as the British Institute of Management (BIM) in 1947 or 1948, merged with the Institution of Industrial Managers (I ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Green, Owen 1925 births 2017 deaths People from Stockton-on-Tees British chief executives British industrialists Businesspeople awarded knighthoods Knights Bachelor Royal Naval Reserve personnel 20th-century industrialists Military personnel from County Durham Royal Navy sailors