Sir David Arnold Stuart Plastow, (9 May 1932 – 5 June 2019) was a British businessman who was chairman of the UK's
Medical Research Council 1990–1998.
He became an automobile executive who filled a series of high level appointments in the UK. Between 1958
and 1980 he worked for
Rolls-Royce Motors
Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. ...
(including its predecessor and successor companies). He was Chairman of the company between 1972 and 1980. He subsequently developed a variety of industry directorships and other appointments.
Career
Plastow was born in
Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...
. He joined
Vauxhall Motors Limited
Vauxhall Motors LimitedCompany No. 00135767. Incorporated 12 May 1914, name changed from Vauxhall Motors Limited to General Motors UK Limited on 16 April 2008, reverted to Vauxhall Motors Limited on 18 September 2017. () is a British car compa ...
in 1950 as an apprentice, and within seven years had worked his way up to the position of sales manager.
[ In 1958 he switched to Rolls-Royce where he worked on the commercial side of the company for the Scotland and North of England] region of what was then the automobile division of a company concentrating on aero-engine production.[
In 1968, now the senior sales director, he joined the board with responsibility for the overall distribution of automobiles.][ Three years later, in 1971, Rolls-Royce Limited went into liquidation and was for a period nationalised. The financial problems were blamed on the aero-engine division, however, and at the start of 1971 Plastow, from the automobile division, replaced Geoffrey Fawn as managing director of the Rolls-Royce Motor Car Division,] while Fawn retained a senior position within the Aero Engine Division. When Rolls-Royce Motors
Rolls-Royce Motors was a British luxury car manufacturer, created in 1973 during the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce automotive business from the nationalised Rolls-Royce Limited. It produced luxury cars under the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands. ...
was established as a separate entity in 1972, Plastow became its chairman. He became a director of Vickers plc in 1975, and remained a Vickers director after the Rolls- Royce business was acquired by Vickers in 1980. From 1990 to 1998 he was the chairman of the Medical Research Council.[
]
Views
Following the 1973 oil price shock political pressure developed in the western world, especially in the US, for cars to become smaller. Detroit was already responding to the economic pressures by developing a wider range of smaller models
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
but also launched a powerful and sustained lobbying campaign directed at Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
. Plastow joined in: in 1978 David Plastow, chief Executive of a company dependent on larger models, in an address to an international audience at Detroit, described as "...dangerous nonsense ... he idea of.. legislators or bureaucrats in either country ecidingthat it is good to level down to a basic type of car....Man continually seeks a better way of life. He is constantly climbing out of one situation upwards into the next, and the symbol of his success during most of this century has often been the type of car he drives".
Personal life
Educated first at Clee Grammar School for Boys in Lincolnshire, and then at Culford School
Culford School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school for pupils age 1-18 in the village of Culford, miles north of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England. The headmaster is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Con ...
between 1946 and 1950, Plastow married Barbara Ann May in 1954. The marriage produced two recorded children. In addition to his professional life, Plastow found time to be an enthusiastic football supporter. In 1977, he told a journalist that his favourite footballer was Franz Beckenbauer whom he had first seen in action in 1966 at a World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
tournament in London.[
Plastow died on 5 June 2019, aged 87.
]
Honours
* Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
* 1986 Knighted Queen's Birthday Honours''London Gazette'' (supplement), No. 50470, 25 March 1986
Retrieved 29 May 2014.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plastow, David
1932 births
2019 deaths
Knights Bachelor
People in the automobile industry
Rolls-Royce people
British businesspeople
Businesspeople awarded knighthoods
People educated at Culford School
People from Grimsby
20th-century British businesspeople