John Egan (industrialist)

Sir John Egan (born 1939) is a British industrialist, associated with businesses in the automotive, airports, construction and water industries. He was chief executive and chairman of Jaguar Cars from 1980 to 1990 and chairman of Jaguar plc from 1985 to 1990, he and then served as chief executive of BAA from 1990 to 1999. He is also notable for chairing the construction industry task force that produced the 1998 Egan Report (Rethinking Construction) and the follow-up report, Accelerating Change, in 2002. In 2004, after completing two years as president of the Confederation of British Industry, he was appointed chairman of Severn Trent. He was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 1986.

Career

John Egan was born in Coventry, the son of a garage owner and went to Bablake School.^[1] He studied petroleum engineering at Imperial College London and subsequently joined Shell in the Middle East. After further studies, this time at London Business School, he moved to AC Delco and then British Leyland where he played a part in boosting the fortunes of its Unipart business.

After a four-year spell with Massey Ferguson, Egan was appointed chairman of Jaguar Cars in 1980 successfully turning round what had been a struggling business. A carmaker worth around £300m when he took over was sold a decade later for £1.6bn to Ford.^[2] After ten years with the manufacturer, he left Jaguar and became chairman of BAA.

Egan then assumed a variety of non-executive business roles and served as president of the CBI from 2002 to 2004, when he then took on the chairmanship of Midlands water service provider Severn Trent.

Roles

His other major roles include:

• non-executive chairman of motor distributor Inchcape plc
• non-executive chairman of Harrison Lovegrove
• chairman, Asite Ltd (2001–2004)
• president, Confederation of British Industry (2002–2004)
• chairman Central London Partnership
• chairman, London Tourist Board September 1993 - December 1997
• president, London Tourist Board
• deputy chairman of London First
• vice-president, Marketing Council
• member of Council, Institute of Directors
• president Institute of Management
• Chancellor, Coventry University

Honours

Honours include:

• Honorary Graduate, Doctor of Laws, University of Bath, 1988^[3]
• Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts, 1995
• Honorary doctorate, Brunel University, 1997^[4]
• Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Warwickshire

References