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| Digby Jones (1955-) LLB (hons), D.Univ, D.Litt. CIMgt, FRI, Director-General of the CBI
He was born in Birmingham on 28 October 1955, he won a major scholarship to Bromsgrove School and gained a 2:1 honours degree in law at University College, London. |
After some time in the Royal Navy, he started his career with corporate law firm Edge & Ellison in 1978, making partner in 1984. It was in corporate finance and client development that he made his name and he was responsible for developing the firm's London presence and establishing representation in many European countries and several states in America. He was also involved in most of the major management buy-outs and merger and acquisition activity in the West Midlands in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He was made deputy senior partner in 1990 and senior partner in 1995.
In 1998 he joined KPMG as vice-chairman of corporate finance, where he acted as close adviser to many public companies across the United Kingdom and in KPMG's global markets.
He became Director-General of the CBI on 1 January 2000 to serve a five-year non-renewable term of office. In September 2003 this was extended at the request of CBI members to seven years, his term now ending on 31 December 2006. As the chief executive of the UK's 'voice of business', he regularly and repeatedly visits businesses around the UK and across the world, taking their views back to those who make the rules. He appears regularly on television and radio and in the newspapers, promoting the interests of wealth and job creation in the UK, the rest of Europe and beyond. He has taken the British business message to over 55 different countries since being appointed.
He is the senior independent director of iSOFT plc (2000), the application product manufacturer for the international healthcare market, non-executive director of Alba plc (2003), the consumer electronics manufacturer; chairman of the unlisted etrinsic plc (2003), a specialist in print and supply chain management; non-executive director of unlisted mhl support plc (2004), the provider of solutions in the health & safety arena, a director of Business in the Community (2000); a member of the Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Education Fund (2000), director of Königswinter (2003), a board member of Visit Britain (2003), a Commissioner for the Commission for Racial Equality (2003) and President of the Tourism Alliance (2001). He is also a member of the National Learning and Skills Council (2002), a vice-president of UNICEF (2002), a fellow of the RSA (2001), a fellow of the Royal Institution (2002), a Companion of the Institute of Management (2000), a full member of the Aston Reinvestment Trust (2003), making social investment for Birmingham. He is a Fellow of University College London (2004) and an honorary doctor of the University of Central England (2002), the University of BirminghamThe University of Birmingham is the oldest of three universities in the English city of Birmingham. It was founded in 1900 as a successor to Mason Science College, and is thus the earliest of the " Redbrick" universities. A major research-led institution, (2002), the University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Technology (2003) and Honorary Fellow of Cardiff UniversityCardiff University ( Welsh: Prifysgol Caerdydd is a university in Cardiff. It currently awards degrees of the federal University of Wales, of which it was a member until 2004. From 2005, students will be admitted to study for Cardiff degrees apart from in (2004).