Former JLR chief’s MBE honour
A LONG-SERVING Coventry business leader has received his MBE at Buckingham Palace after being recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.
Les Ratcliffe was the former head of community relations at Jaguar Land Rover until he retired last month.
During an 18-year period with the Coventry car maker Mr Ratcliffe made a huge impact on Coventry and further afield.
A former member of the Parachute Regiment, he established the company’s award-winning Inspiring Tomorrow’s Engineers school STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) programme.
More than 2.9 million schoolchildren across the UK have participated in the programme since 1999 and two million more young people will take part globally by 2020, including at new education centres in Brazil and Slovakia.
Mr Ratcliffe and his team also developed the Inspiring Tomorrow’s Workforce traineeship for unemployed young people in 2014, to help young people gain employment in the automotive industry.
In addition he was the driving force behind programmes to employ wounded ex-servicemen and women and early military service leavers.
Mr Ratcliffe is also known for his roles as chairman of the Coventry and Warwickshire Champions and NSPCC business groups.
He was part of the team which helped the company win Business In The Community’s Responsible Business of the Year 2013 and was made the Prince of Wales’ Business in the Community Ambassador for the West Midlands 2008. In 2011 he was granted the City of Coventry Award of Merit for outstanding personal contribution to Jaguar Land Rover while promoting community relations in the city.
Mr Ratcliffe said: “It was a huge honour to be awarded an MBE. My 43 years’ service has been an extraordinary journey, starting with Jaguar after serving in the Parachute Regiment.
“I have always been passionate about the opportunity to put Jaguar Land Rover at the heart of the communities we do business in.
“Our programme focused on inspiring young people from all areas of the community and supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
“I feel privileged to have been part of Jaguar Land Rover’s commitment to future talent and helping our sites to build meaningful, long-term relationships in the community.”