John Leighfield

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John P. Leighfield CBE, British IT industry businessman, Chairman of Research Machines.

John Leighfield was born in Oxford, England, and was a pupil at Magdalen College School. He then read Greats at Exeter College, Oxford.

Leighfield has pursued a career in IT, initially in the 1960s with the Ford Motor Company, Plessey (where he was Head of Management Services) and British Leyland (from the early 1970s). In 1987, he led an employee buy out of Istel Ltd, which he had established as a subsidiary of British Leyland. In 1989, the company was subsequently taken over by AT&T. He was the Executive Chairman of AT&T Istel until April 1993.

In November 1993, he joined Research Machines (a British educational computing company) as a non-executive director and in October 1994 became the non-executive Chairman. He has been a non-executive director of a number of other companies as well, including Halifax plc and Synstar plc (of which he is also non-executive Chairman).

Leighfield was President of the British Computer Society (1993–4) and the Computing Services and Software Association (1995–6). He is President of the Institute for the Management of Information Systems (IMIS), a UK professional association.

He has been a member of the Council of Warwick University, Chairman of the Advisory Board, and an honorary visiting professor at the Warwick Business School. He is currently Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Council.

Leighfield was awarded a CBE in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

In 2005, he was appointed as a non-executive director of Getmapping plc and Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

Leighfield lives in Oxford. He was formerly Chairman of the Governors of Magdalen College School. He is Chairman of the Oxford Philomusica Advisory Council, the Resident Professional Orchestra at the University of Oxford. In his spare time, he has an interest in maps, especially of Oxfordshire. He is married with children and grandchildren.