Derek Alun-Jones

Sir John Derek Alun-Jones was a British businessman and chairman of Ferranti at the time of its merger with US company International [Signal and Control].
He was educated at Lancing College and St [Edmund Hall, Oxford], where he read Law. He began his career with Philips Industrial in 1957, and became managing director of Expandite in 1966. He moved to Burmah Oil in 1971, and became a director of Burmah Oil Trading before moving to Ferranti in 1975.
Alun-Jones was director of Royal Insurance Holdings from 1981. Alun-Jones was appointed chairman of Ferranti in 1982 and oversaw the £420 million merger with the Pennsylvania based company International Signal & Control in 1987. However, it soon became apparent that a subsidiary of ISC had been involved in a huge fraud which had inflated the value of ISC at the time of the merger. Ferranti went into receivership in 1993.
He remained a director of several companies after leaving Ferranti and was chairman of the governors of Lancing College from 1986 to 1999. He was knighted in 1987.