John Towers

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 30 March 1948) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

businessman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

, who was the owner and

managing director 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 especially ...

MG Rover Group MG Rover Group was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Con ...

from 2000 until the company entered administration in 2005. This followed a succession of senior appointments within Rover, which he had joined from

Massey Ferguson Massey Ferguson Limited is an American agricultural machinery manufacturer. The company was established in 1953 through the merger of farm equipment makers Massey-Harris of Canada and the Ferguson Company of the United Kingdom. It was based in ...

in 1988. Towers started his career in 1966 as a student apprentice with Perkins Engines of

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

, which by that time had become a subsidiary of Massey Ferguson. He rose within Perkins to become Director of Engineering before leaving in 1988 to join the

Rover Group The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986 (formerly British Leyland), which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business (comprisi ...

. Together with Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards, Towers formed Phoenix Venture Holdings (PVH) which bought Rover Group for £10 in April 2000. In addition they also bought the

Studley Castle Studley Castle is a 19th-century country house at Studley, Warwickshire, England. The Grade II* listed building is now occupied as a Warner Leisure Hotel but was once owned by the Lyttelton family before being bequeathed by Philip Lyttleton to ...

, a conference hotel. They subsequently purchased Midland Powertrain,

MG Rover MG Rover Group was the last domestically owned mass-production car manufacturer in the British motor industry. The company was formed when BMW sold the car-making and engine manufacturing assets of the original Rover Group to the Phoenix Cons ...

's engine plant from BMW for £20. Finally, for £50 along with an undisclosed sum from the Royal Bank of Scotland, they purchased Rover Capital, (now MG Rover Capital) a book of Rover car loans. Kevin Howe was appointed MG Rover's Managing Director in July 2000. In April 2005, MG Rover went into administration, following the collapse of takeover talks with

Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. Founded in 1955, it is currently the largest of the " Big Four" state-owned car manu ...

(SAIC). Towers was heavily criticised for his role in the company's demise, and the Phoenix Consortium's conduct relating to Rover Group was initially referred to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), although after initial investigations the SFO concluded that no further action would be taken. Following publication of a government report into the failure of MG Rover, Towers – along with the other directors of Phoenix – have been disqualified from holding any company office in the United Kingdom or have undertaken not to do so. Towers ran MG Rover until 2005, when it collapsed with the loss of 6,500 jobs. PVH was found to have given management "unreasonably large" payouts, a government-commissioned report found, which were "out of all proportion". Towers awarded himself £8.958m whilst nearly all employees lost their jobs.bbc.co.uk: "Rover bosses attacked over payout" 11 Sep 2009
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Nanjing Automobile Nanjing Automobile is a state-owned enterprise with a history that dates from 1947,

subsequently brought MG out of administration, but have since moved production to China.

References

British businesspeople Living people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Rover Company 1948 births {{UK-business-bio-1940s-stub