Victor Gauntlett

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Malcolm Victor Gauntlett (born May 20, 1942 , † March 31, 2003 ) was a British businessman in the oil and automotive industries from Surrey . He was both the founder of the UK's largest petroleum distributor and a partner and managing director of the Aston Martin automotive group .

Life

Victor Gauntlett was born in Surrey and joined the Royal Air Force as an officer after completing his training at St. Marylebone Grammar School , where he was trained as a pilot . Gauntlett married Joan Brazier in 1966. He and his wife, Joan, had a daughter and three sons: Sarah, Michael, Mark and Richard. In 2003 Gauntlett passed away on March 31st in Hays, Middlesex .

Petroleum industry

After retiring from the Royal Air Force, Gauntlett started at British Petroleum in 1963 and moved to Compagnie Francaise des Petroles, the parent company of Total SA , in 1967

In 1972 he founded the independent Hays Petroleum Services, which acted under the company Pace Petroleum. As early as 1980, the company developed into one of the largest independent oil suppliers in Great Britain . In 1986 he sold the company to an investor from Kuwait .

Gauntlett founded another oil company in 1987 - Proteus Petroleum. He sold this to Texaco in 1998 , but remained its chairman until 2000.

Aston Martin

Origin of the Aston Martin cars
Aston Martin Virage Saloon (1989-1996)

In April 1980, Gauntlett invested £ 500,000 in Aston Martin Lagonda , a 10% stake in the company. At that time, Aston Martin was in a difficult phase because there was a lack of new models in addition to money. In 1981, Gauntlett and CH Industrial Ltd. wholly owned by the previous owner - an Anglo-American consortium led by Alan Curtis and Peter Sprague , which bought the company in June 1975 for £ 1 million. Gauntlett himself became CEO of Aston Martin.

With Gauntlett as Managing Director, Aston Martin laid the foundations for the future of the company. This is how the development and production of the Aston Martin Virage took place - Aston Martin's first new model after a twenty year break. In addition, thanks to Gauntlett, Aston Martin returned to Le Mans in 1989 with its own team .

To secure the company financially for the future, Gauntlett sold Aston Martin to Ford in 1987 . It is thanks to Gauntlett's transformation of the company that the acquisition of Aston Martin was of interest to Ford at all. Gauntlett's involvement with Aston Martin did not end there, however; he remained Aston Martin's chairman until 1991. In 1991, Gauntlett handed over the management of Aston Martin to Ford in the person of Walter Hayes as the new chairman.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Giles Chapman: Victor Gauntlett-Larger-than-life chairman of Aston Martin. Independant, April 9, 2003, accessed August 2, 2019 .
  2. ^ Keeping the best of British running. In: The Sydney Morning Herald. April 14, 2003, accessed August 5, 2019 .
  3. ^ COMPANY NEWS; British Concerns Buy Aston Martin. In: The New York Times. January 6, 1981, accessed August 5, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Victor Gauntlett. In: The Telegraph. April 2, 2003, accessed August 5, 2019 .
  5. ^ J. Philip Rathgen: Victor Gauntlett died. In: Classic Driver. April 2, 2003, accessed August 5, 2019 .
  6. ↑ From the archives: Aston Martin's World Championship. In: Motorsport magazine. June 1989, accessed August 5, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Gauntlett, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gauntlett, Malcolm Victor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British entrepreneur and manager
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1942
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 2003