McLaren Automotive, a leading creator of luxury sports cars and supercars, said that its chief executive officer Mike Flewitt was honoured with the prestigious award for inspirational leadership, as McLaren was also voted Britain’s most admired car company.

Lord Heseltine, founder and owner of Haymarket Media Group, presented Flewitt and McLaren Automotive with the ‘Management Today’ awards at a gala dinner in London, UK, which also saw the company placed sixth overall on the list of the UK’s most admired companies.

Established in 1990, Management Today’s Britain’s Most Admired Companies (BMAC) remains one of the most in-depth and best-established corporate reputation surveys in the UK.

Flewitt and McLaren Automotive won amidst fierce competition from up to 250 companies, said a statement from McLaren.

Previous recipients of the award including last year’s winner Tony Pidgley of Berkley Homes and Seb James of Dixons Carphone, the year before, it said.

The awards are a key part of Management Today’s BMAC survey, a peer-review study of corporate reputation as seen by a company’s closest critics – its competitors and financial influencers. This year’s survey involved interviews with 234 board representatives, analysts and city commentators.

Having started his career in the automotive sector in 1983 as a production operator for Ford Motor Company in his native Liverpool, Flewitt joined McLaren Automotive in 2012 as chief operating officer before rapidly being appointed as chief executive officer the following year.

Since then, the company now honoured as Britain’s most admired car brand, has rapidly established itself as a producer of iconic sportscars and supercars around the world, with production having recently doubled and is now the largest part of the McLaren Group contributing well over 80 per cent of the Group’s turnover.

Last month Flewitt welcomed The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge along with the Crown Prince of Bahrain to open the company’s second-ever production facility, the McLaren Composites Production Centre in the Sheffield region which will create over 200 new jobs by the time the facility is fully operational. It will help take the total workforce to an expected 2,500 by the end of 2025, said a company statement.

He also oversaw the launch of the company’s ambitious Track25 business plan this summer which will see the company launch 18 new models or derivates by 2025 with 100 per cent of all sportscars and supercars hybrid by then.

Flewitt said: “It’s a great honour for myself and everyone at the company to receive these awards which recognise both inspirational leadership and the fact that we have established ourselves as Britain’s most admired automotive company.”

“Both awards are ultimately down to an incredibly dedicated workforce led by management who inspire and empower our people to do their best work every day. I’m delighted, therefore, to collect these awards on behalf of our entire workforce and thank them all for commitment which, in turn, continues to inspire me,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service