Sir George Cox
Chairman, Design Council, U.K.
Sir George Cox is Chairman of the Design Council, before which he was Director General of the Institute of Directors from 1999 to 2004.
Originally qualifying as an aerospace engineer and spending his early years in factory management, Sir George has spent most of his career in information technology. For part of this he headed up the consulting and research company, Butler Cox which he led through its formation, development and eventual flotation on the London Stock Market, and for part he was Chief Executive of the services businesses of technology giant Unisys for the whole of Europe.
He has also served as the Senior Independent Director of LIFFE (the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange) and as a member of the Management Board of the Inland Revenue.
He is currently a member of the Supervisory Board of Euronext, the Senior Independent Director of Bradford & Bingley plc and a non-executive director of Shorts. He also Chairs the Board of the international humanitarian charity Merlin, is a Trustee of VSO and the President of the Royal College of Speech Therapists.
Sir George is a member of Council of Warwick University and sits on the Advisory Board of Warwick Business School. He is also a Visiting Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London.
A past international rowing coach, he was Chairman of Selectors for the GB men’s rowing team for the 1979 World Championships and the 1980 Olympics.
Day 2: December 13th, 2007
Plenary Session 5
National Design Policy
10:15 a.m. -11:45 a.m.
What can India learn from the Cox Report?
When the current British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the Chanceller of Exchequer, he commissioned Sir Geor Cox to write a report on “Review of Creativity in Business: building on the UK's strengths “
Today, as the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown continues to consult Sir Cox for implementation of the Cox report.
Katherine Binn, interviewed Sir Cox in London, on behalf of the Design with India initiative, to understand what Indian government could learn from the British experience of implementing the Cox report.
This initiative is inspired by the discussions on the online forum