Fred Catherwood

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fred Catherwood with his wife Elizabeth Catherwood (2012)

Sir Henry Frederick "Fred" Ross Catherwood (* the 30th January 1925 in Castledawson , County Londonderry , Northern Ireland , † the 30th November 2014 ) was a British business leaders entrepreneur and politician of the Conservative Party , which as a contractor for Christian began principles in the industry and later was a member of the European Parliament between 1979 and 1994 . He was previously chief industrial advisor to Secretary of Commerce George Brown , director general of the National Economic Development Council , owner of the John Laing construction company and chairman of the British Overseas Trade Board .

Life

Degree and business manager

Catherwood, son of a shipper , completed after visiting the renowned Shrewsbury School , a study of Historical Sciences and Law at Clare College of the University of Cambridge . He began his professional career in 1951 as an accountant at Price Waterhouse and was then secretary at Law's Stores in Gateshead , before moving to the Costain Group , a construction company founded by Richard Costain in 1865, as secretary and controller .

In 1955, at the age of thirty, he became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of British Aluminum and remained there for nine years until 1964, where he was last appointed Managing Director in 1962. As such, he led the company during the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. He established a network of business contacts and pushed through a number of radical ideas at the Confederation of British Industry ( CBI ) and the British Management Institute ( BMI ) .

Economic advisor to the Wilson and Heath administrations

Three days after the Labor Party victory in the October 15, 1964 general election , Catherwood became chief industrial advisor to George Brown, Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in Prime Minister Harold Wilson's administration . He was released from his position at British Alumenium for this role. During his 18-month working for the DEA (Department for Economic Affairs) , he dealt with the consideration of the potential of business and started doing the in Ulster based businesses Short Bros .

In April 1966 he succeeded Robert Shone as Director General of the National Economic Development Council ( NEDC ) . He succeeded in an extensive reorganization of the authority by creating departments for individual economic sectors in order to ensure faster implementation of new technologies. However, he had to make compromises due to conflicts with the then director of the CBI and later Minister of the Conservative Party , John Davies . In his 1966 book Britain With the Brakes Off , he warned that Britain would have to fight for life if investment in industry did not increase. At the same time he flew to the USA and in a speech urged British students from Harvard University to return to Great Britain after obtaining their Master of Business Administration (MBA). The students then told him that British companies were not looking to hire them.

He held the post of Director General of the NEDC even after the Conservative Party under Edward Heath in the Lower House elections on 18 June 1970 took over the government. As Britain's entry into the European Community (EC), scheduled for 1973, drew nearer in the early 1970s, he warned that it would not immediately solve the country's problems and advised Prime Minister Heath that he would have two years to resolve prevent the UK economy from falling past the point of no return .

Private Sector, Chairman of the Overseas Trade Authority and Evangelicalism

1971 Catherwood left the government service and was beaten for his services to the Knight Bachelor , so that from now on he carried the suffix "Sir". He then returned to the private sector as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the construction company John Laing . However, he gave up this role in 1974 and instead became chairman of the British Institute for Management. At the same time, from 1974 to 1979 he was CEO of Mallinson-Denny Group Ltd , a company in the timber industry .

In 1975 he was appointed chairman of the British Overseas Trade Board ( BOTB ) , where he succeeded in winning Edward, 2nd Duke of Kent as honorary vice chairman. In that role, Catherwood urged export-oriented companies to copy Japan and take a more aggressive approach in Europe, predicting an export boom fueled by sterling undervaluation and EC membership. In his opinion everyone wanted British goods "but we seem unable to supply them". His discontent grew as the sterling strengthened and the Winter of Discontent came. This so-called "winter of dissatisfaction" of 1978/1979 led to production cuts of ten percent and the layoff of 235,000 workers.

In addition to his activities as an entrepreneur and business manager, Catherwood was committed to evangelicalism throughout his life and was, among other things, President of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches , the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship , the Evangelical Alliance and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students .

Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1994

Catherwood was in the first direct European elections in 1979 as a candidate of the Conservative Party for a member of the 1st European Parliament , and was able to prevail in the Cambridgeshire constituency with a majority of 50,000 votes. He then passed the office of chairman of the British Overseas Trade Board to Patrick Pery, 6th Earl of Limerick .

After his election, he became chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on External Economic Relations on July 20, 1979 and held this post until July 23, 1984. He ran twice for the position of chairman of the European Democratic Group , but only finished third .

On April 11, 1983, he succeeded the Danish MP Kent Kirk as Vice-Chairman of the European Democratic Group and held this position until April 5, 1987.

He was fined £ 30,000 for illegal fishing in British waters. In the 1984 European elections , his constituency in Cambridge and North Bedfordshire was reorganized and he was re-elected. In the following years he campaigned for a single European currency together with a single market . The growing divergence between Margaret Thatcher and numerous MEPs from the Conservative Party became particularly apparent after the Prime Minister's speech in Bruges on September 20, 1988, which Catherwood described as "contrary to the views of the party, senior ministers and the European Democratic Group" . He then weakened the European Parliament's response to Margaret Thatcher's rejection of the United States of Europe .

After the European elections in 1989 , Catherwood was elected Vice-President of the European Parliament on July 25, 1989 and held this office until January 13, 1992. From January 15, 1992 to July 18, 1994, he served as Vice-Chair of the Committee on foreign affairs and security.

He secured British membership in the European Monetary System (EMS) as a clear sign that currency devaluations are no longer an option in negotiations. However, he corrected this view after the currency and exchange rate crisis of Black Wednesday in September 1992, in which he said that Prime Minister John Major was right to insist on the right to withdraw from the European Monetary System. He had previously advocated the Maastricht Treaty , signed on February 7, 1992, and blamed the West for offering Russia only £ 1.5 billion to activate its economy, while NATO gave £ 150 billion for new ones directed at Russia Weapons systems would have issued.

Catherwood decided not to run again in the European elections in 1994 and resigned from the European Parliament after 15 years of membership.

His marriage to Elizabeth Lloyd Jones in 1954 resulted in two sons and a daughter.

Economic views

His primary concern was to increase efficiency and the pace of technological change, since Britain, on the other hand, would risk a steady decline in competitiveness, which would have to be paid for by regular and devastating devaluations of the sterling . As director general of the NEDC, he sought to stimulate industry but was angry at the failure of British companies to invest, compete for import knowledge, and capitalize on new markets, and described his role as: “What society of one Tycoon expects is not that he is amiable, amusing or full of vigor, but that he should act efficiently or drive rather than cross ”('What society demands of the tycoon is not that he should be lovable or amusing or full of panache, but that he should perform efficiently and should drive rather than cruise ').

Regarding the structure of industry, he stated in the 1960s that there were “no economic arguments” for conglomerates. Catherwood's views on the need for dynamism and efficiency in business were overshadowed by his insistence that there should be moral principles attached to it. In his book The Christian in Industrial Society (1964) he wrote: “Luxurious expenditure is both depraving and a social evil”. Speaking to a Church of Scotland meeting , he said that world-travel businesspeople face a culture of bribery, ridiculous taxes and spending and other enticements, so he warned: “The threat to democracy today does not come from communism , but from humanism ”('The danger to democracy today does not come from communism but from humanism').

In 1984 he said, “Most of our current economic problems come from the industrial dinosaurs whose heads cannot control their bodies. Big is bad, and small is meaningful ”('Most of our current industrial problems come from the dinosaurs of industry, whose heads cannot control their bodies. Big is bad, and small is sensible').

Publications

  • The Christian in Industrial Society , 1964
  • Britain With the Brakes Off , 1966
  • The Christian Citizen , 1969
  • A Better Way , 1976
  • First Things First , 1979
  • God's Time God's Money , 1987
  • Pro Europe? , 1991
  • David: Poet, Warrior, King , 1993
  • At the Cutting Edge , autobiography, 1995
  • Jobs & Justice, Homes & Hope , 1997
  • It Can Be Done , 2000;
  • The Creation of Wealth: Recovering a Christian Understanding of Money, Work, and Ethics , 2002
in German language

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Catherwood, Fred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Catherwood, Sir Henry Frederick Ross (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician, MEP and business manager
DATE OF BIRTH January 30, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Castledawson , County Londonderry , Northern Ireland
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 2014