Simpson joined
The Rover Group from its subsidiary
Leyland-DAF in 1988 and took over as
managing director in January 1989. Simpson reorganised the company, replacing the three boards of Austin Rover, Land Rover and the Rover Group with one single board. In September 1991 Simpson also assumed the role of Rover chairman when the previous chairman, Sir
Graham Day, was appointed as BAe's interim chairman. Day promoted Simpson to deputy chief executive of British Aerospace in December 1991 to "toughen up" the company's management. He remained executive chairman of Rover but was replaced as managing director. In November 1993 he was announced as CEO of
Lucas Industries, which under his leadership was
merged with US company Varity, which subsequently led to the company being split up and sold off . At this time Simpson was admired for his role in turning the struggling Rover business around. Before he assumed his Lucas role he was part of the sale of Rover to BMW. He had been part of negotiations which would have seen Honda increase their 20% share in Rover to 47.5% with the aim for a stock market flotation. However BMW offered £800 million for the Rover Group which would free BAe from Rover's "quite large appetite for cash", average daily debt of £200 million and £700 million of other commitments. Simpson travelled to Japan to ask if Honda could match the offer, which they refused to do. On 18 March 1996 Simpson was confirmed as managing director of
GEC as replacement to
Lord Weinstock. In reporting the appointment
The Independent said, "Some analysts believe that Mr Simpson's inside knowledge of BAe, a long-rumoured GEC bid target, was a key to his appointment. GEC favours forging a national 'champion' defence group with BAe to compete with the giant US organisations." In 1999 he sold GEC's defence business,
Marconi Electronic Systems, to BAe for £7.7 billion and repositioned the company as a major player in the telecommunications industry as
Marconi plc. Marconi borrowed heavily to finance expansion into this market and was especially vulnerable to the burst of the
dot-com bubble. After a "botched" profits warning in July 2001 Simpson's deputy chief executive, John Mayo, resigned. A second profits warning in September 2001 saw Simpson and chairman Sir
Roger Hurn resign. The effect of this collapse was felt long after Simpson's resignation. Despite a major restructuring the company continued to struggle until 2005 when the loss of a major
BT contract forced the company to seek a buyer. Marconi was purchased by
Ericsson in 2005: several businesses not acquired by Ericsson formed
Telent plc. He was created a
Life peer as
Baron Simpson of Dunkeld, of
Dunkeld in
Perth and Kinross on 5 November 1997. Having been on leave of absence from the House of Lords since 2004, he resigned from the House on 30 July 2015. == References ==