BIOGRAPHY
Christopher Macgowan is Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club Foundation Network and is a visiting professor at the University of Buckingham’s Business School’s Centre for Automotive Management. He is Vice Chairman of the DfT’s Motorists’ Forum which helps government and industry work together and keeps the interests of the motorist firmly on the agenda. He is a member of the Royal Automobile Club Foundation Public Policy Committee.
Christopher Macgowan is the former Chief Executive of both The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) and The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF). Christopher is a Freeman of the City of London; a vice president of the Automotive Fellowship International and the former Interim Chief Executive of BEN – the automotive industry charity. He is a trustee of the National Motor Museum; a member of the Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and a non-exec director of The Caravan Club. He is also a trustee of Farleigh Hospice in Chelmsford, Essex and remains a trustee of BEN. He is an external assessor at Loughborough University. In 2008 he was appointed Officer to The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Christopher worked for British Leyland early in his career and lived in Canada for a number of years. He joined Massey Ferguson in 1973 and more recently was with Ransomes plc.
What drives him is his determination to maintain and enhance the reputation of the United Kingdom as a globally attractive operating centre. The UK has for many years enjoyed a high level of inward investment by global automotive manufacturers and successfully hosts factories owned by many of the big brands. In fact, there are more major brands manufactured in the UK than in any other European member state. He also is committed to improving the transport infrastrucure to make the UK attractive to inward investors and ease the pain on UK’s motorists.
He has a well known passion for information technology and how it can drive down costs and enhance communication across many platforms in any business enterprise. Books are now read solely on his Elonex e-book!