John Allen Clark

Sir John Allen Clark (14 February 1926 – 3 December 2001) was managing director of the British Plessey Company, an electronics and telecommunications group built up by his father, Allen George Clark. His career with Plessey was dominated by a battle with Arnold Weinstock of GEC for control of the company together with English Electric from the 1960s. This culminated in the late 1980s with the takeover and break-up of Plessey. Early life Clark was born in Paddington, London and educated at Harrow School. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) during the Second World War. Clark later began a business apprenticeship with Metropolitan-Vickers and the Ford Motor Company. He then spent a year with American battery and electrical manufacturer P. R. Mallory and Co Inc before joining the Plessey board in 1953. Career with Plessey In 1957 he became general manager of Plessey Components. In 1961 Plessey acquired two large British telephone equipment companies, Ericsson Telephones Ltd. and the Automatic Telephone and Electric Company (AT&E). This doubled the size of the company. Clark was closely involved having been appointed joint managing director by his father in 1961. After Sir Allen Clark's death in 1962 the company underwent a struggle for power between Clark and his brother Michael along with some other board members, but a vote of no confidence failed. Clark took over the chairmanship of AT&E and British Ericsson, and in 1964 called in McKinsey's, the management consultancy company, to advise on reorganization. Plessey was then reorganized into product groups and in 1967 Clark was appointed deputy chairman. In 1967 the General Electric Company (GEC) merged with Associated Electrical Industries (AEI). There was concern that Plessey might be the next target for GEC and an approach was made to English Electric's chairman Lord Nelson. However, Nelson agreed a merger with GEC and this was backed by government's Industrial Reorganisation Corporation.