Jeffrey Steiner
CEO of the Fairchild Corporation, Jeffrey Steiner,
graduated with a degree in Textile Engineering
from Bradford Institute of Technology in 1957.
Jeffrey reached the top of a multi million dollar
global empire by astutely predicting the next ‘big thing’ and moving to make sure he was in
the right place at the right time to capitalise on
the advent of computers, the oil boom and the
aggressive Wall Street takeovers of the 1980s.
He was born in Austria to a Jewish father but he
grew up in Istanbul, where his mother came from,
after the family escaped the Nazis.
He came to Bradford to study Textile Engineering
with the intention of working in the family textile
firm back in Turkey, but after completing his
degree in 1957 he moved to America, working
as a trainee salesman for Texas Instruments.
However his obvious talent for business led to
rapid promotions and at 25 he held an executive
position in the group and was President of
subsidiaries in Mexico, Switzerland and France.
In 1967 he moved to Paris, initially setting up
a small textile business which he sold, and then
running a number of engineering companies
whose trade with the Middle East led to him
trading in oil very lucratively.
However in the
1980s, when falling oil prices restricted the profits
of his construction interests in the Middle East,
he moved to New York. He became a leading
exponent of arbitrage and funded the activities of
corporate raider, Carl Icahn.
Jeffrey became Chairman and CEO of Banner
and over the years, using his entrepreneurial skills
and investment banking acumen, he acquired,
restructured and disposed of subsidiaries on
a massive scale. In 1989 he rescued Fairchild
Industries from a hostile takeover and by 1990
the merged company became the Fairchild
Corporation. The group includes businesses
engaged in the design and sale of protective
clothing, helmets and technical accessories for
motorcyclists in Europe and the United States;
and in aerospace distribution businesses which
stock and distribute a wide variety of parts to
aircraft operators and aerospace customers
providing aircraft parts and services to customers
worldwide.
Jeffrey served as company President from July
1991 until September 1998 and was Chairman of the Board until May 2008, when he stepped down
though he remains as Chief Executive Officer of
the company.
Photograph supplied by Fairchild Corporation