Colin Matthews (businessman)
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Colin Stephen Matthews CBE FREng (born 20 April 1956) is a British businessman, and the Chairman of Highways England, a position he has held since 2014; and EDF Energy.
Early life[edit]
He attended the independent Oundle School in north Northamptonshire. He is the son of Sir Peter Matthews, the former boss of Vickers, and was born in Canada.[1] He holds dual Canadian-British nationality.
In 1977 he gained a First Class MA degree in Engineering from the University of Cambridge. In 1984 he gained an MBA from INSEAD, a famous business school in France. He became a Chartered Engineer.
Career[edit]
He started out on an engineering apprenticeship at Lucas Girling, a brakes manufacturer, in Birmingham, in 1977.
General Electric[edit]
He joined GE in 1988.
British Airways[edit]
In 1997 he became Managing Director of the engineering division of British Airways. As Technical Director, he left British Airways in 2001.
BAA[edit]
In 2008 he became Chief Executive of BAA plc, renamed Heathrow Airport Holdings in 2012. He announced his resignation from Heathrow Airport Holdings on 1 April 2014[2] when he announced he would leave the company later that year. Heathrow is Europe's busiest airport.
Highways England[edit]
On 21 July 2014 he was appointed as Chairman of the Highways Agency,[3] which became Highways England in December 2014.[4] He took up his position at the Highways Agency on 1 September 2014. As of 2015, Matthews was paid a salary of between £130,000 and £134,999 by the agency for his part-time role, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.[5]
Personal life[edit]
He is married with four children. He has a French wife, Florence. In 2015 he became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He lives in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, with another house in France. He enjoys sailing in Cornwall.[6] He is a devout Christian.[7]
See also[edit]
- Jim O'Sullivan, Chief Executive of Highways England since July 2015, who also came from BAA plc, and a former Chief Engineer of Concorde.
References[edit]
- ^ "Cool fixer who must engineer BAA out of trouble at T5". Evening Standard. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ "Colin Matthews makes surprise exit from Heathrow". Telegraph.co.uk. April 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ "New chairman of Highways Agency announced - Press releases - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ "Colin Matthews CBE FREng - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ "Senior officials 'high earners' salaries as at 30 September 2015 - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. 17 December 2015. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ "INTERVIEW: Will Heathrow boss Colin Matthews succeed in giving". Evening Standard. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
- ^ Northedge, Richard (2 March 2008). "To save BAA on a wing and a prayer". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 14 March 2016.