David Steel (businessman)
Sir David Edward Charles Steel was a British businessman, chairman of BP from 1975 to 1981 and of the Wellcome Trust.
Steel was the son of Sir Joseph Lincoln Spedding Steel and his second wife, Barbara Isobel Thorburn Goldschmidt. His father was private secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty throughout the First World War, and later general manager of the British Aluminium Company. Steel was educated at Rugby School, and University College, Oxford, where he received a bachelor's degree in law.
Steel was a tank commander in the Second World War, and was awarded a DSO and an MC.
At the end of 1974, he succeeded Sir Eric Drake as chairman of BP.
