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Sir Ivan Arthur Rice Stedeford, GBE (28 January 1897–9 February 1975) was a British industrialist and philanthropist. January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...
Image File history File links Stedeford. ...
Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these...
January 28 is the 28th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...
February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Business magnate. ...
A philanthropist is someone who devotes his/her time, money, or effort towards helping others. ...
Stedeford was Chairman and Managing Director of Tube Investments (T.I.) and one of Britain's leading 20th-century industrialists. A chairman is the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. ...
Managing director is the term used for the chief executive of many limited companies in the United Kingdom and some other English speaking countries. ...
Tube Investments is a British engineering company specialising in the manufacture and manipulation of tubing. ...
Education
Stedeford was the son of the Reverend Charles Stedeford, who served as President of the United Methodist Conference in 1928. The Methodist movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity. ...
Stedeford began his education at Shebbear College in North Devon. The family frequently moved as Charles Stedeford's ministry took him to different parts of the country and Stedeford finished his education at the King Edward VI Aston in Birmingham. Devon is a large county in South West England, bordering on Cornwall to the west, Dorset and Somerset to the east. ...
Picture of the Old Building at King Edward VI Aston. ...
The city from above Centenary Square. ...
Early career Stedeford left school in 1913 to become an engineering apprentice at Wolseley Motors Ltd. If youre looking for the TV show, see The Apprentice. ...
In 1917, he decided to play a more active role in the First World War and was commissioned in the Royal Naval Air Service, tasked as a balloon forward air observer, a somewhat static and highly dangerous assignment, even by the standards of other First World War military duties. Combatants Allies: Serbia, Russia, France, Romania, Belgium, British Empire, United States, Italy, and others Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total of dead: 8 million Military dead: 4 million Civilian deaths: 3 million Total dead: 7 million The First...
The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of World War I. When the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was founded on April 13, 1912 it was intended to encompass all military flying. ...
At the end of the war, he returned to Birmingham and went into partnership to form a motor dealership called Reeve and Stedeford. It had premises in Broad Street, which was then the main route to Edgbaston, where the wealthiest citizens had their homes. It specialised in limousines and sports cars, rapidly becoming successful. Edgbaston constituency shown within Birmingham Edgbaston is an area in Birmingham, England, UK. It is also a formal district, managed by its own district committee. ...
Industrialist In 1928, Stedeford was persuaded to join Tubes Ltd, the precursor of the small Midlands company Tube Investments Ltd, as sales director. His progress in T.I. was rapid. In three years he became joint Managing Director of Tubes Ltd., and two years later (1933) was elected to the T.I. board. He was elected Group Managing Director of T.I. in 1935 and in 1944 added the Chairmanship. He held the combined posts for the next 19 years, during which time T.I. developed from a small local engineering company into one of the biggest companies in the world.
He was invited to sit on the Boards of the National Provincial Bank (subsequently National Westminster Bank), as Deputy Chairman; the Atlas Assurance Company; the Rank Organisation; and the District Bank. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Old NatWest logo NatWest (formerly the National Westminster Bank) is the United Kingdoms third biggest bank. ...
The Rank Organisation, a British entertainment company formed in 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. ...
During his time running T.I., the company diversified from its reliance on steel tubes into the manufacture of bicycles (Raleigh), domestic products and appliances, aluminium products, precision engineering equipment, motor control equipment and switching equipment (Simplex-GE), gas cookers and water heaters, among many other products. Ge or GE may stand for: Ge, a letter of Cyrillic alphabet Gaia, (Ge) short form Ge is also an American Indian tribe from Eastern and Southern Amazon General Electric (GE). ...
One interesting but short-lived operation was the development of the Swallow Doretti sports car. Only about 275 vehicles were made before complaints were received from T.I. clients in the car manufacturing business. Although it was a superior product to its competition, T.I. felt it might be politic not to aggravate some of the larger clients of its steel and aluminium business. Despite recognising the Doretti's qualities, Stedeford showed his legendary toughness and shut the operation down, transferring the employees to other parts of the T.I. group.
Internationally, operations were started in Asia, the Americas and Europe. One of these, TI of India Ltd — a joint venture with the Murugappa Group — led to a highly successful partnership and to one of the largest industrial groups in India.
A major hospital serving the Ambattur region near Madras in southern India, The Sir Ivan Stedeford Hospital, was a direct result of this close partnership. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Madras refers to: the Indian city of Chennai, formerly known as Madras, the former Indian state, now known as Tamil Nadu (Plural of Madra): Ancient people of Iranian affinites, who lived in northwest Panjab in the Uttarapatha division of ancient India. ...
In 1954, he was created a Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE). Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these...
The Aluminium War By 1958, Tube Investments had become a huge company with interests worldwide - in 1960 it had profits of £27 million. In 1958 Stedeford conducted the first hostile takeover of a public company in the United Kingdom, in the Aluminium War, when Tube Investments, allied with Reynolds Metals of the United States and advised by Siegmund Warburg, won the battle for British Aluminium, headed by Lord Portal. Hostile takeover can refer to: For the business usage see takeover. ...
A public company is a company owned by the public rather than by a relatively few individuals. ...
Reynolds Metals Company (RMC) was the second largest Aluminum company in the United States. ...
RAF Air Chief Marshal Charles Portal (left) and Polish Commander in Chief Władysław Sikorski (right) visit an airbase of the 300th Polish Bomber Squadron in England. ...
Ranged against Stedeford were the vast majority of the blue chip investment houses of the City of London. The battle for British Aluminium was won in the end by Tube Investments/Reynolds Metals' superior bid; the totally inept way Portal and his backers (Hambros Bank, Cazenove's among nearly 30 others) handled the press, and Portal's high-handedness with his own investors (secretly trying to sell British Aluminium at a fraction of the price Stedeford had offered), made this a defining moment in the City's history. Coat of arms The City of London is a small area in Greater London. ...
Hambros Bank, was a British bank based in London. ...
Cazenove is a British stockbrokers, founded in 1823, with a long, illustrious history. ...
At one critical meeting between T.I. and British Aluminium late on a Friday, Portal stood up and declared, "My bankers will take over from here". Stedeford shot back, "If you leave Lord Portal, I leave!" Portal sat back down. On another occasion, while rebuffing the T.I. bid, he bizarrely referred to "people unaware of the mysteries of negotiations between great companies..."
Harold Macmillan's Government was encouraged to become involved on British Aluminium's side (he knew both Portal and Stedeford well), but declined, realizing that change was needed and that any intervention on the side of British Aluminium would be politically disastrous, in light of Portal's total disregard of his investors' best interests. The Right Honourable Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC (10 February 1894–29 December 1986), nicknamed Supermac and Mac the Knife, was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. ...
The Aluminium War rewrote the way the City conducted its business in relation to shareholders and investors, resulting in a more open and competitive landscape. It was the first stage in a process that led to the Big Bang reform of 1986, allowing the City to dominate the international finance markets. International finance is the branch of economics that studies the dynamics of exchange rates, foreign investment, and how these affect international trade. ...
Public service He was a Governor of the BBC, having been a member of the Beveridge Committee on its structure. He was also a member of the boards of the Bank of England and the UK Atomic Energy Authority. He was on the council of the Department of Scientific Research and a member of the board of the Commonwealth Development Finance Company. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world. ...
The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom, sometimes known as The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady. The nearest London Underground station is Bank station. ...
The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority was established in 1954 as a statutory corporation to oversee and pioneer the development of nuclear energy within the United Kingdom. ...
He was invited in 1960 by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, to become the Chairman of an Advisory Group on the state of British transport, which became known as the Stedeford Committee. Also on the Committee was Dr Richard Beeching, and the two men clashed on a number of issues connected with Beeching's proposals to drastically prune the rail infrastructure of Great Britain. In spite of questions being asked in Parliament, Sir Ivan's report was not published at the time. A set of proposals for the future of the railways that came to be known as the "Beeching Plan" was adopted by the Government, resulting in the closure of a third of the rail network and the scrapping of a third of a million freight wagons, much as Stedeford had forseen and fought against. Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ...
Richard Beeching Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching (21 April 1913 - 23 March 1985) (more commonly known as Dr Beeching), was a British physicist and engineer, and chairman of British Railways. ...
States currently utilizing parliamentary systems are denoted in orange and red—the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. ...
Stedeford's knighthood was advanced to Knight Grand Cross (GBE) in 1961 for public service. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these...
Character "Sir Ivan always carried his responsibility with a lack of fuss and drama. A tall, slim man, with a rich sense of humour and a scholarly turn of mind he possessed remarkable reserves of energy. He was an engaging conversationalist and writer and a doughty debater.
Though he always looked upon the welfare of all employees as a major charge there was no paternalism in his attitude. He expected every employee to make his or her own effort. When this was done, they were given every encouragement to develop to the full extent of their ability. This encouragement took the form of many schemes sponsored by him, such as comprehensive training up to free university for the outstandingly talented. T.I.'s residential training centre was the first of its kind in the country. He also sponsored pensions and free life assurance for all employees, at a time when such benefits were rare." (The Times obituary – 11 February 1975) The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom since 1785, and under its current name since 1788. ...
February 11 is the 42nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ...
Retirement He retired from active management of T.I. in 1963, assuming the title of Life President, having run the company for over 25 years, and having built it into a global industrial powerhouse.
Stedeford married Gwendoline Aston in 1923, and they had three daughters. He enjoyed country pursuits, especially fox hunting. He was an Honorable Kentucky Colonel. Kentucky Colonel is a honorary title bestowed upon individuals by approval of the Governor of Kentucky. ...
He died near Stratford-upon-Avon, aged 78. Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon is a town in Warwickshire, England. ...
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