Lord, formerly Donald, Stokes died today at the age of 94.

As chairman and managing director of the British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) from its creation in 1968 from the merger with British Motor Holdings and the Leyland Motor Corporation until its demise in a government reorganisation in 1975, Lord Stokes played a small but important role in the life of the MINI.  It was ultimatly his decision to cease production of the original Mini Cooper and replace it with the redesigned Mini Clubman.

Stokes’s career had been made as a salesman, and in running businesses which were sufficiently compact to allow for personal control. His talent lay in improvisation and personal dynamism rather than in the establishment of management systems and careful long-term planning.  Although he worked hard, and tried to innovate, he was unable to motivate the vast organisation to produce models to compete with those of Ford and GM.  The two most high-profile models produced on his watch, the Marina and the Allegro, were never able to compete with the Cortina and Escort.

In 1975 Stokes stepped down and handed over running of BL to the government.  After 1975 he continued as president of BL for a further four years and he remained a consultant until 1981. He was chairman, KBH Communications, from 1987 to 1995.

Stokes was married in 1939 to Laura Elizabeth Courteney Lamb.  She died in 1995.  They had one son. Stokes was married to Patricia June Pascall in 2000.