Prodrive is a world leading motorsport and technology business. While we are perhaps best known for motorsport, today it is just one part of an organisation, which has diversifed to become a technology business working in a range of sectors with operations in Banbury and Milton Keynes in the UK and employing more than 500 staff. Find out more about our company, our culture and our motorsport achievements.
MOTORSPORT HERITAGE
David Richards founded Prodrive in 1984. A former World Rally Championship winning co-driver, he is one of the most respected figures in world motorsport.
David has been instrumental in establishing Prodrive as a world-leading motorsport and technology business. He has also led both the Benetton and BAR F1 teams as team principal and in the latter led the team to second place in the F1 Constructors’ World Championship in 2004.
Today, he is actively involved in all aspects of the group and works closely with the board to develop the business strategy, supporting the executive team in its new business activity.
DAVID RICHARDS - CHAIRMAN
John Gaw joined Prodrive in 2011 to oversee the development of Aston Martin Racing, our sports car racing business. John brought with him a wealth of experience in building successful customer service operations, through board level roles at Pepsi and Camelot. In December 2013 he also assumed responsibility for all our motorsport operations in racing and rallying.
John is also an experienced racing driver and has combined these two core skills to rapidly grow Aston Martin Racing into the largest works and customer sports car operation in the world. He also oversees our customer rally programmes with MINI and VW and is seeking to expand Prodrive's motorsport activities into new arenas.
JOHN GAW - MANAGING DIRECTOR, MOTORSPORT
Dominic​ Cartwright joined Prodrive in 2013 as managing director of our composites business in Milton Keynes and helped dramatically grow the company.
As a result of this success he took on the additional responsibility for Prodrive Advanced Technology in October 2014. He has a very strong background in the aerospace sector having previously held senior roles at Goodrich Corporation, Smiths Aerospace and TRW Aerospace Systems. Most recently he was managing director of Banbury-based CTG, part of UTC Aerospace Systems.
DOMINIC CARTWRIGHT - MANAGING DIRECTOR, ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
TIM COLCHESTER - FINANCE DIRECTOR
Tim Colchester is a qualified chartered accountant. He joined Prodrive in October 2013 and has overall responsibility for the financial management of the business and the management of our finance teams and processes.
He has an extensive and varied background in the automotive and other sectors. Tim has worked with Jaguar Land Rover in their group engineering team on the financial coordination and delivery of product development programmes. He also worked at Dennis Eagle, and for the seven years prior to joining Prodrive was finance director on the board of PKL Group, a privately-owned business, whose activities include the hire of major equipment packages to global events.
​Sue Scarf is an experienced HR director who has led Prodrive’s human resources department for more than 18 years. During this time she has driven continuous change and performance improvements to develop a unique culture that achieves outstanding people performance.
Prodrive attracts the very best people in the industry and through our best practice HR strategy, including management training and staff development programmes, ensures they continue to develop their skills. Meanwhile, our apprentice and graduate training schemes ensure we are investing in new talent for the future.
SUE SCARF - HR DIRECTOR
Brand& is Prodrive's bespoke branded clothing and accessories division. Carl Ball joined Prodrive 16 years ago to oversee one of the world’s largest motorsport merchandise programmes.
He brought with him many years’ experience in the clothing retail sector and has used this to build a unique business providing bespoke clothing and accessory collections to a wide range of blue chip clients.
Today Brand& runs major programmes for brands such as McLaren F1, Jaguar, Land Rover, Infinity and Aston Martin. Carl now has ambitions to double the size of the company by developing business in a range of new sectors including airlines and other sporting arenas.
CARL BALL - MANAGING DIRECTOR, BRAND&
OUR CULTURE
OUR PEOPLE
Prodrive employs more than 500 staff at our headquarters in Banbury and our composite manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes. While our world class facilities are important, it is our people that are ultimately what makes the company so special and whose creativity and dedication help ensure that we bring success to our customers.
OUR CULTURE professionalism & performance
OUR VALUES can do
creative
rigorous
relentless
integrity
OUR ESSENCE neverstop
Prodrive is one of the world’s largest and most successful motorsport and technology businesses. We employ more than 500 staff at our headquarters in Banbury and our composites manufacturing facility in Milton Keynes. While the company is perhaps best known for motorsport, today it is just one part of an organisation, which in the last decade has diversified to become a technology business working in a range of sectors and providing a range of services.
Within the Prodrive Group, there are three distinct but interconnected business areas:
MOTORSPORT: race and rally programmes for vehicle manufacturers and global brands
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY: innovative technology and composites for the automotive, aerospace, defence and marine sectors
BESPOKE COLLECTIONS: clothing and accessories for leading brands
MOTORSPORT
Prodrive has been competing in the major global motorsport series since it was founded in 1984 and has won six World Rally titles; fourBritish Touring Car Championships; four Le Mans titles; the Le Mans Series; FIA WEC GTE Am Teams' and Drivers' title, numerous national rally championship titles, as well as managing the BAR F1 team for three seasons taking it to second place in the F1 constructors' world championship. Today we run programmes for Aston Martin in the FIA World Endurance Championship and global sports car series and for MINI in the World Rally Championship, as well as a new programme for VW in the Chinese Rally Championship. Today more than 200 Aston Martin race, MINI and VW rally cars are competing globally – all supported by Prodrive. In 2013 we made our first venture into Global Rallycross and our MINI RX won on its debut in the Global Rallycross Championship GRC.
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
With the innovative technology and techniques used in motorsport, it was a natural progression that Prodrive would offer its engineering skills to the mainstream automotive market and beyond. Today this division represents more than half of the company’s sales with more than 100 engineers working on projects for leading vehicles manufacturers, as well as businesses in the aerospace, defence and marine sectors.
We have developed a particular specialism in electro-hydraulic and electro-mechanical actuation systems, the latest electric and flywheel hybrid systems; DC-DC converters for electric cars; as well as the design and manufacture of limited edition performance and luxury cars.
Our composites business is now one of the largest of its kind in the UK. Housed in its own 32,000 sq ft facility in Milton Keynes with nearly 200 staff, we produce advanced lightweight composites for customers in the aerospace, automotive, defence, marine and other specialist sectors. We are currently manufacturing everything from bodywork, aerodynamic devices and interior trim for sports cars; to first class cabin interiors for commercial airliners, radars for navy ships and components for orbiting satellites.
This is supported by our in-house specialist manufacturing facility, which includes our own fully automated five axis machining, fabrication, electrical and electronic system design.
BESPOKE CLOTHING & ACCESSORY COLLECTIONS
Brand& is our business which creates bespoke clothing and accessory ranges for leading brands. Our clients range from FIFA to the Vodafone McLaren F1 team and Aston Martin. In each case we design every item in the range, have it manufactured by our own suppliers and can then manage the distribution of the products globally.
OVERVIEW
OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM
neverstop
copyright Prodrive 2014