Cox takes chair at Design Council

Science and Innovation minister Lord David Sainsbury has appointed Institute of Directors’ outgoing director-general George Cox as Design Council chairman.

Cox, who leaves the IoD in August after five years, will take over from Professor Sir Christopher Frayling in October. An aeronautical engineer by background, Cox says design is ‘vital to the UK’s economic success in an increasingly competitive world’.

‘Good design has to encompass style, flair, visual appeal, practicality of production, the capacity for further development and, above all, the meeting of real market requirement,’ he says.

Design Council chief executive David Kester describes Cox as ‘a serious heavyweight’ in terms of his industrial and political standing.