My father, Peter Regnier, who has died aged 77 following a fall, was one of few people to have served on both the board of a plc and a trade union council.
He was finance director of British Leyland (and then of Austin Rover Group, following restructuring of the company) from 1979 until his removal seven years later, an event that made the headlines. The car manufacturer was in effect state-owned, having been bailed out by the UK taxpayer several times. Tensions between government and executives reached a head in 1986 when the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, appointed a new chairman; several senior directors, including Peter, were sacked.
It amused him that a piece covering the story on the BBC’s The Money Programme used an actor to play him walking away from the Longbridge factory, but only showed his legs on screen. The report was so positive that Peter received several job offers when the programme aired.
After six years at the power equipment company Chloride Group, latterly as chief executive, he was hired in 1993 by the Transport and General Workers’ Union, as director of finance and administration. For 11 years, he worked alongside the general secretary, Bill Morris (now Lord Morris of Handsworth), to modernise the union. He was elected to the general executive council, and helped negotiate a series of mergers that led to the creation of Unite.
Peter was born in Cambridge to Ethel (nee Banks) and George Regnier, a barrister’s clerk at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The family, including his older sister Margery, lived in Essex but Peter travelled three hours a day to attend Bancroft’s school in Woodford Green, east London. He left with “mediocre” A-levels and never looked back.
He joined Ford as an apprentice accountant and felt he had found his ideal profession in a company that was pioneering the techniques he learned. In 1969, he moved to Birmingham to join the newly created British Leyland as a manager in the financial analysis team.
His first marriage, to Barbara, my mother, whom he met at British Leyland and married in 1973, ended in divorce in 1994; a second marriage, in 2002, to Jennifer also came to an end and by 2006 Peter had returned to his home county of Essex. He got involved with the Olympic Delivery Authority, helping develop the competition sites for the 2012 London Games – one of his proudest achievements; he said he had never known such commitment and cooperation from the thousands of people involved.
Health conditions limited his activity later in life, but he enjoyed doing accounts for local businesses and clubs, charging nothing for the satisfaction of seeing numbers balanced and reconciled.
He is survived by two children, Lynda and me, and by his grandchildren, Edith, Iris, Thomas and Poppy.
