Roger George Putnam CBE has spent over 40 years representing British companies in global markets and has long relationships with motorsports, F1, World Sportscar Championship and the World Rally Championships.
Educated at The Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, Elstree, Putnam went on to join Lotus with various roles including Public Relations Officer, Global Sales and Marketing Manager and Director of Sales & Marketing. Before being headhunted by Sir John Egan to join Jaguar Worldwide Marketing and UK Operations Director. From Jaguar, Putnam moved on to be the Chairman of Ford of Britain.
From 2005 until 2006, he was President of Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
He was also a member of the Government's Energy Review Partnership and Automotive Innovation and Growth Team which reports to the Chancellor on the country's future energy strategy and the AIGT to the Prime Minister on alternative fuels and transport. [1]
He was appointed a CBE for services to the British Motor Industry in the 2007 Birthday Honours.
Putnam was responsible for Jaguar's racing programme in the '80's which included two wins at Le Mans and two at Daytona.
Putnam is now the Chairman of ITM Power having joined the company as a non-executive Director in 2007. [2]
He is also a visiting Professor of Automotive Business, City of London University
Roger is married to Trish and together they have two children.
General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is the largest automobile manufacturer based in the United States and one of the largest worldwide. It was the largest automaker worldwide for 77 consecutive years, from 1931 when it overtook Ford Motor Company, until 2008, when it was overtaken by Toyota.
Jaguar is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars until its operations were fully merged with those of Land Rover to form Jaguar Land Rover on 1 January 2013.
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue. It is also the industry with the highest spending on research & development.
The Daimler Company Limited, prior to 1910 The Daimler Motor Company Limited, was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H. J. Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The company bought the right to the use of the Daimler name simultaneously from Gottlieb Daimler and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cannstatt, Germany. After early financial difficulty and a reorganisation of the company in 1904, the Daimler Motor Company was purchased by Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA) in 1910, which also made cars under its own name before the Second World War. In 1933, BSA bought the Lanchester Motor Company and made it a subsidiary of Daimler Company.
Suzuki Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines. In 2016, Suzuki was the eleventh biggest automaker by production worldwide. Suzuki has over 45,000 employees and has 35 production facilities in 23 countries, and 133 distributors in 192 countries. The worldwide sales volume of automobiles is the world's tenth largest, while domestic sales volume is the third largest in the country.
Lewis William Killcross Booth CBE is a British accountant and business executive. He is currently on the board of directors for Rolls Royce, for Mondelez International, Inc, and Gentherm Inc. He previously had a 34-year career at Ford Motor Company where he rose to the rank of Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer, responsible for Ford's financial operations, including the Controller's Office, Treasury and Investor Relations, a position he held from November 2008 until April 2012.
Malcolm John Charles Harbour, CBE, is a British Conservative Party politician who was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands between 1999 and July 2014. He is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and the chairman of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection.
Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive manufacturing company, headquartered in the city of Mumbai, India which is part of Tata Group. The company produces passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, luxury cars, sports cars, construction equipment.
Robert Anthony Lutz is a Swiss American automotive executive. He served as a top leader of all of the United States Big Three automobile manufacturers, having been in succession executive vice president of Ford Motor Company, president and then vice chairman of Chrysler Corporation, and vice chairman of General Motors.
Jonathan Browning was the president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. He stepped down in December 2013 stating personal reasons.
The automotive industry in China has been the largest in the world measured by automobile unit production since 2008. Since 2009, annual production of automobiles in China exceeds both that of the European Union and that of the United States and Japan combined.
Sir Ian Gerald McAllister is a Scottish businessman. Formerly Chairman of Ford Motor Company UK, he was Chairman of Network Rail from 2002 to 2009.
The Auto Alliance (AAM) is a defunct trade group of automobile manufacturers that operated in the United States. It was the leading advocacy group for the auto industry, representing 77% of all car and light truck sales in the United States. The Auto Alliance was active in the areas of environment, energy and motor vehicle safety. In 2019, the Alliance was merged with the Association of Global Automakers to form the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. John Bozzella of Global Automakers became the new CEO.
William Munger Heynes CBE, born in Leamington Spa, was an English automotive engineer.
Geoffrey Paul Polites was an Australian automotive executive. He was notable for being the chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover and the president of Ford Australia.
Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is the holding company of Jaguar Land Rover Limited, and is a British multinational automobile manufacturer which produces luxury vehicles and sport utility vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover is a subsidiary of Tata Motors Limited and has its head office in Whitley, Coventry, UK. The principal activity of Jaguar Land Rover Limited is the design, development, manufacture and sale of vehicles bearing the Jaguar and Land Rover marques.
Richard Parry-Jones was a British engineer. He was the Group Vice-President of Global Product Development, Chief Technical Officer, and Head of Global R&D Operations at Ford Motor Company. He retired in December 2007.
Phil Popham is a British Business man who has mainly been employed in the automotive industry. He had a long career at Jaguar Land Rover, and latterly was the chief executive officer of Lotus Cars. He has also been CEO of Sunseeker during his career.
Andrew Charles Palmer is an English automotive executive and engineer. He has been described as the 'Godfather of EVs' due to his work launching the Nissan Leaf in 2010 whilst COO at the Japanese company. Palmer is also known for launching Aston Martin's first SUV, the DBX, and first mid-engined sports car, Valkyrie, during his tenure as CEO from 2014 to 2020. Palmer is currently CEO and Executive Vice-chairman of electric bus and van company, Switch. In addition, Palmer is founder and CEO of Palmer Automotive Ltd, chairman of Optare plc, a non-executive director of Ashok Leyland Ltd, and Chairman of InoBat, a Slovakian developer of electric vehicle 'intelligent' batteries.
Sir Ralf Dieter Speth is a German automotive executive and additional director of Indian company Tata Sons since october 2016. From february 2010 to september 2020, he was the chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover. He has also had roles with BMW, Linde and Ford's Premier Automotive Group.