Martin McCourt

Senior Advisor, Glen Dimplex

Martin McCourt has spent over 40 years working at the heart of British-based manufacturing, design and marketing for quality brands such as Dyson, Mars, Duracell, Toshiba and Pelikan.

Martin was the CEO of Dyson for 15 years, the ideas to market-leading consumer products maker. As CEO, he devised and implemented a strategy that transformed the company from a single product, single market producer into one where 80% of the business comes from over 60 markets around the world. In that time he increased UK skilled jobs, grew profits to over £300m and enabled James Dyson to keep on inventing. In 2011 Dyson hit £1bn revenue for the first time. Martin was directly responsible for the establishment of Dyson subsidiaries in the USA, Japan, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In total he took Dyson into over 60 markets, achieving market leadership in the majority including the USA.

In 2010 Martin was named UK Business Leader of the Year. He is chair of the Glen Dimplex Group, The Learning Curve Group and Venture Founders. He also sits on the board of Your Life and is a non-executive director at Headbox and Ideas Britain.