John Cahill, former BAe chief, dies at 65

John Cahill, former chief executive of BTR and executive chairman of British Aerospace died on Saturday at his home in Rhode Island, US. He was 65 and had been suffering from cancer.

He hit the headlines with stories about the $4.7m he received in BAe share options when he left the company in 1994 and the accompanying outcry overshadowed an outstanding career.

In three years as chief executive of BTR Mr Cahill lifted sales from pounds 3.9bn to pounds 6.7bn and pre-tax profits from pounds 491m to pounds 945m over the same period. At BAe he was widely credited with steering the group from near- bankruptcy towards ren- ewed financial health. BAe's share price, which had fallen to 100p immediately after his appointment in 1992, climbed to over 500p by the time he left in April 1994.

He oversaw the sale of Rover to BMW and was the driving force behind the pounds 1bn write-off relating to BAe's regional jets business - a corporate record.