A Short Bio of John Saville

John was born in Stepney, London on April 28, 1947, first and only child of Bill & Emily Saville.

He moved, at the age of 10 days, to his parents home in Chadwell Heath, then in Essex, now in Greater London where he spent all of his childhood until going to University.

His first school was Chadwell Primary and then, having passed the 11+ in 1958, he went to Wanstead County High School, then a co-educational Grammar School, now Wanstead High School. On October 17, 1999 he returned to the school for its 75th Anniversary.

From September 1965 to June 1968 he studied within the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Reading, residing in Whiteknights Hall and graduated with  a BSc in Cybernetics. He retained links with the department and for a decade or more given a prize for the best Final Year project.

Whilst at Reading he became a Christian and also met Sue Ridout whom he married on August 2nd 1969.

They lived in Great Baddow, near Chelmsford in Essex and attended St Paul's Church, Great Baddow. They adopted 2 sons, Jeremy and Martyn and divorced in May 2002.

After graduating from Reading  in 1968 John joined The Marconi Company (part of GEC) and worked on data transmission over mobile radios and vehicle location systems for police and bus companies.

He left in August 1972 and joined Ford Motor Company Ltd "to get 2 years software experience". He left them in August 2002!

During his time working in IT in Ford he spent quite a bit of time in Germany, and flew there most weeks. During his time at Ford he was a member of many different teams, the departments he ran, Ford's Employee Involvement program, etc. A selection of photos can be found on the "At Ford" page

From August 1998 to December 2000 he was based in Dearborn, Michigan, USA where he met Judy Basile whom he married in May 2002.

As his last assignment for Ford from January1, 2001 to June 30, 2002 he worked as Chief Information Officer at the  Jaguar Racing Formula 1 team based at Tilbrook, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire.

John retired from Ford on August 31, 2002 after completing 30 years on August 14.

During his retirement he has become more involved in his professional institutions, particularly the IEE, where he is a member of the Automotive & Road Transport Systems Professional Network Executive Team.

His main responsibility is as Deputy Chief Judge for Formula Student. He heads up a team of judges which give IEE Awards for best use of Electronics and acts as a Presentation Judge there and it's US equivalent, Formula SAE.

He has also given talks on "IT @ F1 Speed" to a number of IEE branches.

Click or a full resume (CV)