Industry News
Sam Toy: Chairman and Managing Director, Ford of Britain, 1980–1986
27th March 2008
The former chairman and managing director of Ford of Britain, Sam Toy, died on March 24th at the age of 84, the company has reported He was chairman and managing director of Ford of Britain from September 1980 until the summer of 1986.
Cornish-born Sam Toy was a grammar school scholar who completed his wartime service as an R.A.F. pilot, before graduating from Cambridge University. He joined Ford in 1948 as a graduate trainee, and progressed through posts in the export sales division prior to becoming manager, sales operations, car and truck exports in 1958.
In 1963 he managed UK car sales operations, becoming director, truck sales in 1968, and then moving up to director of sales in 1969.
Sam Toy joined the board of Ford of Britain in 1974, working with the then Chairman, Sir Terence Beckett. He succeeded Sir Terence Beckett in September 1980.
He retired from Ford in the summer of 1986, spending the first year of his retirement as the President of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Sam Toy was an honorary fellow of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and in 1993 he was awarded an OBE for services to the environment in Scotland.
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