John Hoskyns

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For the 17th century miniature painter, see John Hoskins

Sir John Leigh Austin Hungerford Hoskyns (born August 1927) is best known as a Policy Advisor to Margaret Thatcher while head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit from May 1979 and April 1982. Prior to this he acted as a Policy Adviser to her and the Shadow Cabinet from 1975-79, during which time he produced the important "Stepping Stones" report of November 1977.

He was educated at Winchester College before serving as a regular soldier in the Rifle Brigade (1945-57). He then started a business career at IBM UK Ltd (1957-64), before founding the Hoskyns Group Ltd where he was Chairman and Managing Director (1964-75). He was Director-General of the Institute of Directors (1984-89), and served on the boards of a number of public companies.

Without any political experience, he dedicated a year to analysing what he considered to be wrong with the UK, putting this down in a diagram that showed how all these problems were interlinked. When Margaret Thatcher saw this diagram, having studied chemistry, she remarked it looked like a chemical plant.

He was knighted in 1982 and published a memoir, "Just in time, inside the Thatcher revolution" in 2000.