John Leighfield

Last updated

John Percival Leighfield CBE (born 1938) is a British IT industry businessman and was previously chairman of RM plc from 1993 until 2011. [1] [2]

Currently[ when? ] John Leighfield is a Director of Getmapping, a UK supplier of aerial photography, mapping products and data hosting solutions. [3] He is also Chairman of Governors of the WMG Academy Trust (which operates two University technical colleges).

John Leighfield was born in Oxford, England, and was a pupil at Magdalen College School. He then read Greats at Exeter College, Oxford. He has an MA from Oxford, Honorary Doctorates from the University of Central England in Birmingham (DUniv), from De Montfort University (DTech), from Wolverhampton University (DTech) and from the University of Warwick (DLL). He is a Fellow of the RSA, RGS, CMI, IET, and BCS.

Leighfield has pursued a career in IT, initially in the 1960s with the Ford Motor Company, where he did pioneering work on computer systems in finance and manufacturing, 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 RM (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 University of Warwick, chairman of the advisory board, and an honorary visiting professor at the Warwick Business School. He was pro-chancellor and chairman of the council at the University of Warwick from 2002 to 2011.

In the Queen's Birthday Honours 1998 Leighfield was appointed as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. In 2006, Leighfield was awarded the Mountbatten Medal.

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.

On 15 January 2016 Leighfield gave an in-depth interview to Alan Cane, Former Editor of the Financial Times, on his life and career for Archives of IT.

Related Research Articles

Mike David Fischer CBE is the co-founder of the computer company RM plc.

Michael Rowan Hamilton John O'Regan OBE is a British businessman and the co-founder of RM plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme</span> British politician and diplomat (born 1946)

Michael Hastings Jay, Baron Jay of Ewelme, is a British politician and former diplomat. He sits as a Crossbench member of the House of Lords, and previously served as Ambassador to France and Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Bain (academic)</span> British-Canadian academic

George Sayers Bain is a Canadian-British academic and public commissioner. His academic research focuses on industrial relations, and he has also served as president and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast (1998–2004), principal of the London Business School (1989–97), and chair of Warwick Business School (1983–89). He served as a commissioner on many public inquiries, including chairing the United Kingdom's Low Pay Commission, which introduced the National Minimum Wage in 1999, and the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund (1998–2002), an organisation offering support to victims of the Troubles.

Sir Michael Owen Edwardes 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Clement-Jones, Baron Clement-Jones</span> British politician (born 1949)

Timothy Francis Clement-Jones, Baron Clement-Jones, is a Liberal Democrat peer and spokesman for the digital economy in the House of Lords.

Sir William Martin Castell is a British businessman who was chairman of the Wellcome Trust, a director of General Electric and a former director of BP. He was CEO of Amersham plc from 1989 until it was acquired by GE in April 2004 and then became CEO of GE Healthcare and a vice-chairman of GE.

Giles Ian Henderson, CBE is a solicitor who was Master of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Mark Edward Tucker is an English businessman, best known for his various roles at Prudential plc, where he was the CEO until September 2009. He currently serves as group chairman of HSBC Holdings plc.

Martyn Thomas CBE FREng FIET FRSA is a British independent consultant and software engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Brighouse</span> British educator (1940–2023)

Sir Timothy Robert Peter Brighouse was a British educator. He was the Schools Commissioner for London between 2002 and 2007, where he led the London Challenge.

ISTEL, formerly BL Systems, and latterly AT&T Istel, was a British information technology company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Parker (businessman)</span> Businessman from the United Kingdom, born 1942

Sir Thomas John Parker is a British businessman. He is chairman of Laing O'Rourke and former chairman of Pennon Group, a director of Carnival Corporation & plc and lead non-executive director at the Cabinet Office. He has been a director or chairman of numerous other public companies including Airbus, Anglo American plc, Babcock International, British Gas, DP World, Lattice Group, National Grid plc and Ombu Group. He is a past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, patron at the Centre for Process Innovation and a Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford.

Sir John Leopold Egan 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, 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 and the follow-up report, Accelerating Change, in 2002. During 2004, undertook the Egan Review of Skills for Sustainable Communities for the Blair Government. In 2004, after completing two years as president of the Confederation of British Industry, he was appointed chairman of Severn Trent.

The Queen's Award for Enterprise Promotion is one of the Queen's Awards for Enterprise, and is awarded annually to people who play an outstanding role in promoting the growth of business enterprise and/or entrepreneurial skills in other people. It is bestowed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Recipients receive an engraved crystal glass commemorative item, a Grant of Appointment and are invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace.

For example, people who:

John David Abell, known as David Abell, is a British businessman and sharedealer. In the late 1960s and 1970s he was an executive at British Leyland. He was owner and chairman of Suter Plc. from 1978 to 1996, and from 1997 he has been chairman of Jourdan Plc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Stevenson (Lord Lieutenant)</span>

Sir Timothy Edwin Paul Stevenson was Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, England between 2008 and 2021. A qualified barrister, he is also a businessman and former Chairman of Johnson Matthey plc.

Thomas Tudor Loveday was an English academic who was Principal of Southampton University College (1920–22) and later Vice Chancellor of the University of Bristol (1922-1944).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Ilube</span> British entrepreneur

Thomas Segun Ilube is a British entrepreneur and educational philanthropist and chair of the Rugby Football Union making him the first black chair of a major sport in England. He was ranked first in the Powerlist 2017, an annual listing of the UK's 100 most powerful people with African or Afro-Caribbean heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Read</span> British businessman

Sir Martin Peter Read, is a British businessman who has been Chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body since January 2015, and Chairman of Wincanton plc since 2018.

References

  1. ↑ "Research Machines Directors short biographies". RM plc.
  2. ↑ "Mr John Leighfield". Virtual Society?. UK: University of Oxford. 1998. Archived from the original on 13 September 2005.
  3. ↑ "Getmapping".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.