Digby Jones speaker
Digby Jones speaker

Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham

Member of the House of Lords, former minister for trade and industry

Speaker Themes

  • British business
  • Managing people
  • Trade
  • Protectionism
  • Brexit

Travels from

UK

BIOGRAPHY

Lord Digby Jones of Birmingham is a former corporate lawyer, business leader, and current member of the House of Lords known for his straight-talking approach in promoting British business around the globe.

Lord Jones cut his business teeth in the world of corporate law, working his way up the ranks of Edge & Ellison, a firm based in his native Birmingham, to the point where he was in charge of recruiting and managing hundreds of employees. He specialised in management buy-outs, mergers, and acquisitions. This business acumen led Lord Jones to be appointed Regional Director of the West-Midlands branch of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), and he went on to become the CBI’s Director-General, a position he served in for 6 years.

Knighted in 2005, becoming Sir Digby Jones, the epithet would last a mere two years when, in 2007, he accepted a lifetime peerage to the House of Lords as well as the position of United Kingdom Minister for Trade and Investment, becoming instead Lord Jones of Birmingham. Although Jones is no longer a minister, he remains an active crossbencher in the House of Lords, and also holds multiple positions in British business. He is a Chairman for both Triumph Motorcycles and the Grove Corporation, and is a Corporate Ambassador for Jaguar and JCB.

Lord Jones is a well-known media figure. He appeared regularly in interviews in his role as Director General of the CBI, and in 2014 he presented a three part BBC documentary series called The New Troubleshooter. He is also the author of Fixing Britain: the Business of Re-shaping our Nation(2011), which outlines what he believes are necessary reforms to allow Britain to compete in the global market.

LORD JONES’S TALKS

Unafraid to speak his mind, Lord Jones brings his candid attitude and wealth of experience to bear on a number of topics. From trade, investment, management, social affairs and Brexit, there are few topics in business that Lord Jones cannot tackle.

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