John Towers (businessman) John Towers (businessman) John Towers CBE (born 30 March 1948) is an English businessman, who was the owner and managing director of MG Rover Group from 2000 until the company entered administration in 2005. This followed a succession of senior appointments within Rover, which he had joined from Massey Ferguson in 1988. Towers started his career in 1966 as a student apprentice with Perkins Engines of Peterborough, which by that time had become a subsidiary of Massey Ferguson. He rose within Perkins to become Director of Engineering before leaving in 1988 to join the Rover Group. Together with Peter Beale,
Operation Phoenix (railway) looking for someone to blame. In 1949 a review of the Victorian Railways was commissioned by transport minister Kent Hughes, and was carried out by British Railways Chief Executive John Elliot. The report found much to admire in the management and staff, but criticised the run-down locomotives, rolling stock, and track and predicted a "final breakdown of rail transport" in ten years if nothing was done. The ideas of the report were not new, the Victorian Railways had been making plans for modernisation of their operations, but did not have the money or political will to implement them. Operation Phoenix