Berlin • Hongkong • Washington
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NON EXECUTIVE CHAIRMANSHIPS
| 2002 - Date | Spirent PLC - Chairman |
| 2005 - Date | ISOFT PLC - Chairman |
| 2003 - Date | Acra Contols Ltd - Chairman |
| 2004 - 2005 | Inbis PLC - Chairman |
| 2004 - Date | University for Industry (Learn-Direct) - Chairman |
OTHER NON EXECUTIVE APPOINTMENTS
| 2002 - Date | The German/British Forum - Director |
| 1992 - Date | Royal United Services Institute - Vice President |
| 2000 - Date | CBI - Member of President’s and Chairman’s Committees, Chairman of European Group |
| 2003 - Date | Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering |
| 2003 - Date | Patron Combined Services Winter Sports Association |
| 2005 - Date | Director of Assystem-Brime, Paris |
CAREER SUMMARY
| 1984 - 2002 | BAE Systems |
| 1998 - 2002 | Chief Executive |
| 1992 - 1998 | Group MD & Chairman, British Aerospace Defence Businesses |
| 1990 - 1992 | Managing Director, Military Aircraft Division |
| 1987 - 1990 | Director in Charge, Saudi Arabia |
| 1985 - 1987 | Executive Project Director, Al-Yamamah Programme |
| 1984 - 1985 | Middle East Sales Manager, British Aerospace Military Aircraft |
| 1982 - 1984 | Ministry of Defence Project Officer P110 and Tornado, Defence Sales Organisation |
| 1975 - 1982 | Panavia Aircraft Gmbh Various Sales Appointments |
| 1970 - 1975 | British Aircraft Corporation Undergraduate Apprenticeship |
PERSONAL
| Full Name: | John Pix Weston |
| Date of Birth: | 16 August 1951 |
| Status: | Married - 2 children |
| Languages: | Fluent German |
SPIRENT PLC
| 2002 - Date | Chairman |
John became Chairman of Spirent in November. Spirent PLC is involved in the manufacture of tele-communications test equipment. Turnover is around £650mio per year and they employ around 5,000 employees. The company also has some small aerospace, controls and other electronic businesses. Some two-thirds of the company’s activities are in the US. The board is international in composition. As many companies in this sector the market has been challenging of late, but the company has some very good technology niches.
Since becoming chairman the company has sold a business, debt has been reduced, the banking covenants have been re-negotiated, and a strategic review of the business has been conducted. Management of the high tech sector in the US has been re-focused to managing in a downturn, whilst maintaining R&D in the products which will drive the upturn.
The injection moulding business has been sold and the proceeds are beginning to be invested in acquisitions to expand the core telecommunications business.
The share price has increased by 400% during this period.
ISOFT PLC
| 2005 - Date | Chairman |
John became chairman of ISOFT PLC in October 2005. It was formed in 1998, following a management buyout from KPMG, and was first listed in July 2000. It is strong in the UK market, has made significant inroads on the continent and won important contracts in Hong Kong and Singapore. In the year to April 2005 they generated sales of £250mio and profits of £44.5mio. After a difficult year and profit warnings in January and April, John took over as CEO in July. The banking agreements have been re-negotiated, the contracts with Accenture and CSC for software for the national Programme for IT have been revised and a major restructuring programme has been initiated.
ACRA CONTROLS LTD, DUBLIN
| 2003 - Date | Chairman |
John became Chairman of Acra in May 2003. The company manufactures digital data collection devices for test instrumentation systems, mainly in the aerospace sector. The company has annual sales of €10mio, and is growing strongly with an international customer base, particularly in Europe and the Far East, but also breaking new ground in the USA. Customers include Airbus, BAE SYSTEMS, Northrop, Boeing and Eurocopter.
Inbis PLC
| 2004 - 2005 | Chairman |
John became Chairman of Inbis PLC in January 2004. Inbis is a design engineering consultancy operating mainly in aerospace and the nuclear field. Turnover is around £60mio per year. The business was owned by Barclays Private Equity, 3i, and the management. In April 2005 a successful exit was achieved with a sale to Assystem-Brime. The achieved sale was at around 3 times the valuation at the end of 2003.
University for Industry
| 2003 - Date | Deputy Chairman/Chairman from June 2004 |
Join joined the board of the University for industry (perhaps better known under its brand name of Learn-Direct) in 2003, becoming Deputy Chairman at the end of 2003, and Chairman at the end of June 2004. The Ufi is a government initiative for providing on-line learning particularly targeted at adults who have not reached a level 2 qualification and SMEs. It offers around 400,000 courses and has more than one million students who have enrolled to do at least one course. The organisation has a budget of over £200mio per annum. The sponsoring government department is the DfES and it is set up as a charitable trust.
BAE SYSTEMS
| 1998 - 2002 | Chief Executive |
During his tenure as Chief Executive, British Aerospace was transformed into the new BAE SYSTEMS company. This took it from an organisation with sales of around £7.5 billion and 55,000 employees, located mainly in the UK, to an international group which handles sales of £12.5 billion, and 120,000 employees. The group ranges from its participation in the civil aircraft market through the 20% stake held in the Airbus consortium, to a range of defence interests including fighter aircraft, guided weapons, naval systems, software and electronic businesses.
BAE SYSTEMS is probably one of the most complex companies in the FTSE 100. It ranges from high-technology systems integration development programmes, such as fighter aircraft and nuclear submarines, to a range of high-technology manufacturing activities, from heavy engineering to electronics manufacture,. It also encompasses major construction programmes, and an extensive international service business. The shareholder base spans the UK, the US, Europe, the Middle East and the far East. The non-UK shareholder base increased from around 25% to nearly 50% during this period, particularly noteworthy was the increase in the US. Shareholder communications were conducted by the Chief Executive and the Finance Director, both of whom developed an excellent reputation with the investor community.
The key achievements of this period were:
| 1992 - 1998 | Group MD & Chairman, British Aerospace Defence Businesses |
As the line manager responsible for all the British Aerospace defence activities, John was responsible for the P&L of a portfolio of businesses making up 75% of the parent company's operations. These included Military Aircraft, Guided Weapons, Ordnance, Electronics and Systems. This was a difficult period for the defence business, following on from the end of the Cold War, and major restructuring was necessary in all areas, in businesses which had previously enjoyed a "job for life" culture. Despite the challenging market conditions, substantial sales growth was achieved, against the background of 30% reductions in the cost base, and an increase of 70% in profitability. This enabled the sector to make the contribution to corporate profitability necessary for the recovery of the corporation from the civil aircraft difficulties of the early 1990s.
As chairman of each of the operating companies, the businesses had to be driven through the strategic planning, business review and board meeting processes. The military aircraft business represents a unique level of complexity, developing very stretching high-technology systems, on an international collaborative basis. The Eurofighter Typhoon programme for example requires the prime contractor to operate as an international team, managing an integration programme with activities spanning some 300 companies spread over four countries. Every one of these pushing back the frontiers of technology in their respective areas, and any one of which encountering a significant problem could hold up in the entire programme with all the consequential cost flowing from it.
The guided weapons business was also very challenging strategically. Following several years of retrenchment, the business was experiencing acute competition in its home market from American companies, with their research and development bills paid by the US government. However, the dependence of the military aircraft business on guided weapons limited the options for sale or closure. The eventual solution required the completion of a complex deal with MATRA in France and the winning of two crucial large UK and French programmes.
The challenges of the ordnance business could not be solved by acquisition or international joint venturing, and had to be addressed by stringent cost-cutting and restructuring.
Through a series of acquisitions of software and systems companies, it was possible to open up some major new lines of business for the company in the naval systems arena.
In 1993 John was appointed to the main board, and was given responsibilities for engineering and information technology throughout the group.
Key achievements from the period included:
| 1990 - 1992 | Managing Director, Military Aircraft Division |
He took over the Military Aircraft Division immediately following the end of the Cold War. The division then employed 27, 000 employees, and had handled sales of £3.5 billion. In order to maintain profitability, a major rationalisation programme was required. This had to be carried through in a way which enabled the key programmes to continue to deliver, and when extensive export contracts were still required. This involved significant change programme activity whilst going through a painful restructuring process.
| 1987 - 1990 | Director in Charge, Saudi Arabia |
| 1985 - 1987 | Executive Project Director, Al-Yamamah Programme |
Initially as project director and subsequently in charge of all the Saudi Arabian operations, he was heavily involved in the multi-billion pound programme for the supply of aircraft, guided weapons and ships to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This involved in country support programmes with a workforce rising to 5,500, several billion pounds worth of construction programmes in country, management of the finance of the programme which was funded through an oil barter arrangement, and the more conventional challenges of a major capital equipment export programme. The government to government nature of the front-end contract also had some interesting management challenges with respect to the way in which the company had to work with HMG. This programme was a major factor in enabling the company to withstand the financial shocks of the withdrawal from regional aircraft and went on to provide around £30 billion of revenues to the company.
| 1970 - 1985 | Various Sales and Marketing Appointments |
John joined the British Aircraft Corporation in January 1970, as an undergraduate apprentice. Following graduation he worked as a dynamics engineer, a sales engineer specialising in electronic systems, various marketing roles, including 7 years in Germany on an international programme, and a period on secondment to the UK MoD.
QUALIFICATIONS
AWARDS
EDUCATION