Lord digby jones biography

Digby Jones was born into business. Some of his earliest memories are of life in a busy corner shop where he lived with his mother and father and older sister. The shop was, he says, "within a spanner throw of the Austin" in Alvechurch just outside Birmingham. He remembers fondly pressing his nose against the shop window watching the new Minis leave the factory destined for showrooms across the UK and the world. It was here he learnt the first rudiments of business - important values that were never to leave him.

He discovered the importance of good customer care at an early age and the concept of profit and loss, the very essence of good business management became an everyday reality for the young boy. And when, in the mid-sixties, the supermarkets began to move to the area, he also learned about the vulnerability of business.

At the age of 10 his parents sold the shop and his father became a full-time student, living off a grant, before he finally qualified as

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Digby Jones Keynote Speaker

• Director General, CBI (2000-06)
• Minister of State for UK Trade & Investment (2007-08)
• Has travelled to over 60 countries since 2000 to “bang the drum for British Business”

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Digby Jones's Biography

Lord Digby Jones spent the first 20 years of his working life with Edge & Ellison, a Birmingham-based firm of lawyers, where he worked his way up from Articled Clerk to Senior Partner. During these years his responsibilities ranged from running the firm “as a business” to recruiting and managing several hundred employees. In 2000 he joined the CBI (Confederation of British Industry). During his six and a half years as Director General he became known in the public arena for his forthright attitude in his many media appearances. In 2005 he was knighted for his services to business and became Sir Digby Jones in the Queen’s New Years Honours List.

When he left the CBI in 2006, he spent the next 12 months in the private sector

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Digby Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham

British businessman and politician (born 1955)

"Digby Jones" redirects here. For the British musician and producer, see Digby Jones (musician).

Digby Marritt Jones, Baron Jones of Birmingham, (born 28 October 1955) is a British businessman and politician who served as Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from 2000 to 2006, and Minister of State for Trade from 2007 to 2008. He sat in the House of Lords as a non-aligned active crossbencher until 2020.

Career

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Education and business career

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Jones was born on 28 October 1955 in Birmingham, England. He was educated at Bromsgrove School where he was Head Boy. From 1974 until 1977, Jones read lag at University College London on a Royal Navy University Cadetship as a Sub-Lieutenant, graduating with upper second class honours.^[1] After graduation, Jones worked for 20 years at Edge & Ellison, a firm of lawyers based in Birmingham, culminat