Business secretary Vince Cable pays tribute to Rose, a ‘champion of UK manufacturing’

Sir John Rose, one of the UK’s leading and longest-serving industrialists, is to step down as chief executive of aircraft engine group Rolls-Royce after 14 years at the helm.

The 57-year-old will be replaced by John Rishton, a former British Airways finance director and currently boss at Dutch retail group Royal Ahold. Rishton is already a non-executive director at Rolls-Royce.

Rose, who will leave Rolls-Royce in March, is likely to be inundated with offers to sit on the boards of some of Britain’s top companies as a non executive.

He is credited with turning Rolls-Royce into a world leader in aerospace engine technology and is understood to have turned down an offer to become the government’s trade minister recently - a post which HSBC boss Stephen Green accepted instead.

In a highly unusual move, business secretary Vince Cable paid tribute to Rose: “As a champion of UK advanced manufacturing, I want to thank him for the huge contribution he’s made to strategic thinking both within business and government on growing global market share.”

The business secretary’s words contrasted sharply with his description of bankers as “spivs and gamblers” in his controversial speech at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool.

Rose’s departure is the latest in a series of big name moves at blue chip companies. As well as Barclays changing its management team, HSBC last week appointed a new chief executive and chairman. Tomorrow Bob Dudley formally takes over as chief executive of BP from Tony Hayward.

Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist from BGC Partners, said: “Contemplating Rolls-Royce without John Rose is like imagining strawberries without cream, such is the esteem in which Rose is held internally within the company, by so many international customers, by suppliers, by those within the defence and aerospace industry and by politicians as well.”

Rolls-Royce chairman Sir Simon Robertson also paid tribute to Sir John, who has spent 26 years in total at the company and recently set a target for the company to double revenues over the next decade. “John has led a transformation in Rolls-Royce which has few parallels. As he would be the first to point out, this has been a team effort, but it has been his leadership, strategic vision and tenacity which has made this extraordinary achievement possible.”

Rose, who is married with three children and was knighted in 2003, said: “It has been my great good fortune to work for Rolls-Royce. The people in this extraordinary company have my deepest admiration and it has been a tremendous privilege to work with them.”

Unusually for such a high-profile City figure, Rose never courted publicity and rarely gave interviews to the media. But in February when Rolls announced its full-year profits, Rose voiced the fears of many industrialists and engineers when he told the Guardian that not enough British students were studying relevant subjects for these professions at universities.

He also welcomed greater intervention on behalf of British business by the government after years of leaving industry to the free market. “For decades one thought the government does not have a role and the markets are the best way to make decisions. But if the markets are distorted because every other government has a view, then you probably need your own view.”

Business: Manufacturing sector | guardian.co.uk