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,
John Stephenson (coachbuilder) Transportation. John Stephenson emigrated to the United States from Ireland with his parents, James and Grace Stephenson, when he was two years old. After attending public schools in New York City, he completed his education at the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. At the age of 19, he became an apprentice to Abram Brower, the pioneer of the Broadway stage lines. Stephenson died at his summer home in New Rochelle, New York in 1893. In May 1831, Stephenson started his own business, the John Stephenson Company, on 667 Broadway where he built omnibus cars for Brower until a fire destroyed