Members

The Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP

Co-chairman

Vince Cable was born in 1943. He was educated at Nunthorpe Grammar School in York and read Natural Science and Economics at Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union, after which he studied for a PhD at Glasgow University.

Vince worked as Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenyan Government between 1966 and 1968. From 1968 to 1974 he lectured in Economics at Glasgow University. He worked as a First Secretary in the Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1974-1976). He was then Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, which included a period working as a Special Adviser to the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, John Smith MP. From 1983 to 1990, Vince worked as Special Adviser on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Sonny Ramphal.

From 1990, Vince Cable worked for Shell International and in 1995 became the company’s Chief Economist. He was appointed head of the economics programme at Chatham House and since becoming an MP in 1997, was appointed a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford and was a visiting research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics.

He joined the Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet in October 1999 as spokesman on Trade and Industry after a spell as a junior Treasury spokesman. Until he was appointed to the Coalition Government as Business Secretary in May 2010, he had been the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor from November 2003 and from March 2006 Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He is married to Rachel with three children by his late wife, Olympia.

Professor Richard Parry Jones CBE

Co-chairman

RPJ, as he’s better known, is one of the most influential auto engineers of his generation.

He rose to become group vice president product development and chief technical officer of Ford Motor Company, overseeing engineering and technical developments across the globe for six years between August 2001 and 31 December 2007.

During his career at Ford he led the development of the Ka, Fiesta, Puma, Focus and Mondeo, models that defined new engineering standards in the highly-competitive European marketplace.

Most recently RPJ has chaired the cross-industry new Automotive Innovation and Growth Team (NAIGT), which was established to analyse the strategic issues facing the UK automotive industry.

He is also Pro-Chancellor and visiting professor in automotive engineering at Loughborough University.

Professor Gordon Murray

CEO and technical director of Gordon Murray Design

Gordon Murray is best known for bringing innovative engineering and design solutions to the highly competitive arenas of automotive engineering – motorsport and sportscar design.

For Brabham and McLaren, Murray designed world championship winning F1 cars throughout the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He then brought his talents to bear on McLaren’s road car offshoot, designing the F1 supercar and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. In many eyes, the F1 is still acclaimed as the most accomplished supercar ever, in large thanks to Murray’s engineering skills.

Today his new company Gordon Murray Design is pioneering a new environment-friendly small road car, the T25, and a unique manufacturing method, both of which promise technical and production breakthroughs.

The electric version of the space efficient road car, the T27, has already won government funding to secure its production future.