Robin Southwell, OBE, is a British businessman. He is the UK head of the aerospace company EADS (now
Airbus
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace manufacturer, aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft througho ...
). He was born on 10 April 1960, the son of Peter and Susan Southwell, and lives in
Cobham, Surrey
Cobham () is a large village in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, centred south-west of London and northeast of Guildford on the River Mole. It has a commercial/services High Street, a significant number of primary and private s ...
. He was educated at Finchley Manor Hill Comprehensive school in
Barnet
Barnet may refer to:
People
*Barnet (surname)
* Barnet (given name)
Places United Kingdom
*Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below.
*East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...
and studied economics and history at the
University of Hull
The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1927 as University College Hull. The main university campus is located in Hull and is home to the Hull ...
.
[Who's Who 2011, page 2158]
Career
He worked for British Aerospace (now
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
) from 1981 to 2000. From 2001 to 2002 he was CEO of
W S Atkins. He joined EADS in January 2003, initially as CEO of
Airtanker Ltd. In July 2005 he was appointed CEO of EADS UK.
Other appointments
Other appointments include:
* Chairman of Quest Aviation Services, Concord Ltd and Airbase Group Ltd
* President of
ADS" \n\nads.txt (Authorized Digital Sellers) is an initiative from IAB Technology Laboratory. It specifies a text file that companies can host on their web servers, listing the other companies authorized to sell their products or services. This is des ...
* Trustee of the
RAF Museum
The Royal Air Force Museum is a museum dedicated to the Royal Air Force in the United Kingdom. The museum is a non-departmental public body of the Ministry of Defence and is a registered charity.
The museum is split into two separate sites:
* R ...
* Non-executive director of
Farnborough International Ltd
* Governor of Parkside School
* UK Business Ambassador (appointed by Prime Minister
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
)
Personal life
In 1988 he married Sally Deakin and they have one son and one daughter.
Controversy
On 10 May 2014,
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
newspaper published a report detailing the circumstances surrounding the demise of the company Corporate Jet Services. This company collapsed in 2007, owing its main creditor,
HBOS
HBOS plc was a banking and insurance company in the United Kingdom, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Lloyds Banking Group, having been taken over in January 2009. It was the holding company for Bank of Scotland plc, which operated the Bank ...
, about £100m. Robin Southwell said via his lawyers that he "was appointed by HBOS to assist a company in difficulty and was only ever a non-executive director that acted on the bank's instructions".
References
Living people
Alumni of the University of Hull
1960 births
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