Graeme Paul Lowdon (born 23 April 1965) is a British businessman and entrepreneur. He served as

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

of the

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and

Marussia Marussia Motors (russian: Маруся ) was a Russian sports car company founded in 2007. It was the first Russian company to produce a supercar. It designed, and manufactured prototypes of both the B1 and the B2 sport cars. Marussia was led by for ...

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

teams. Originally from

Corbridge Corbridge is a village in Northumberland, England, west of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle and east of Hexham. Villages nearby include Halton, Northumberland, Halton, Acomb, Northumberland, Acomb, Aydon and Sandhoe. Etymology Corbridge was kno ...

, Lowdon grew up in

Stocksfield Stocksfield is a small, yet sprawling commuter village situated close to the River Tyne, about west of Newcastle upon Tyne in the southern part of Northumberland, England. There are several smaller communities within the parish of Stocksfie ...

. He gained both a bachelor's and master's degree in mechanical engineering at

Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

, as well as an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from Newcastle University. Initially he worked in the power industry in the north of England and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, before joining

ABB Group ABB Ltd. is a Swedish- Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to crea ...

working as part of the international sales force for their power station division. He identified that a potential client also ran an IndyCar team in the United States, and assisted in organising a sponsorship deal with the team. In 1996 Lowdon returned to the UK and created Industry On-line, providing online trading platforms for industry. He also co-founded Eiger Racing, a Formula Renault racing team. Having secured investment from 3i, he developed Industry On-line into Just2Clicks, which was floated on the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

in 2000. At the end of 2000 Lowdon joined

Manor Motorsport Manor Motorsport Ltd, currently trading as Manor Endurance Racing Ltd is a British motor racing company that was formed in 1990 by former single-seater champion John Booth. Manor has participated as a team in many motorsport disciplines since ...

in a non-executive commercial role. In 2002 he co-founded

Nomad Digital Nomad Digital is an Internet Protocol (IP) Connectivity provider to the transport sector. It deploys wireless broadband connections for trains, metros, trams and buses, including passenger Wi-Fi services and remote condition monitoring for on-b ...

, now the world's leading provider of data communications to the transportation sector, specialising in providing

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...

on trains. He helped Manor Motorsport to develop into a

team. Lowdon had strong links with Richard Branson's

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding co ...

Virgin Rail Group Virgin Rail Group was formed by the Virgin Group to bid for rail franchises in the United Kingdom during the privatisation of British Rail in the late 1990s. United Kingdom operations Origins Virgin bid for a number of franchises, inclu ...

being one of Nomad's customers. He used these links to create the

Virgin Racing Virgin Racing (subsequently Marussia Virgin Racing) was a Formula One racing team which was under management of Manor Motorsport, Wirth Research and Richard Branson's Virgin Group and competed in with a British licence and in with a Russian ...

team. On 30 October 2015, the team announced the resignation of both Lowdon and team boss John Booth from the team at the end of , citing differences with team owner Stephen Fitzpatrick. He later returned to Manor Motorsport, overseeing its FIA World Endurance Championship programme.Formula 1 is 'unfinished business for Manor - Lowdon
Formula One 22 January 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowdon, Graeme Alumni of Newcastle University Alumni of the University of Sheffield English businesspeople Formula One team owners Living people 1965 births People from Stocksfield