Sheriff attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania after high school, obtaining both a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Surgery in Engineering before going on to work at Chrysler. He then obtained his Master of Surgery in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management while contributing to “The Machine that Changed the World” (Financial Times “Book of the Year” in 1990).
Following his graduation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sheriff worked for McKinsey and Company as a strategic management consultant. In 1995 he joined Fiat Auto in Italy and soon after became Executive Director of Product Development for all Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo cars and commercial vehicles. Sheriff was promoted to the position of Vice President of Marketing for Fiat in 2002, shortly before moving to in Britain as Managing Director in January 2003.
McLaren hired Sheriff to build McLaren into a road car brand and Sheriff was responsible for managing all aspects of the company’s road car business.
After the launch of the SLR, Sheriff built McLaren into a standalone luxury sports car company with three core products: P11 (MP4-12C and 650S), P12 (P1) and P13 (Sports Series). Under his leadership, also built a dedicated production facility and a global distribution network with 51 dealers in 26 countries.
Launch of the MP4-12C and P1
During Sheriff’s tenure, McLaren successfully launched two road car models and began the development of a third. The first car, the MP4-12C, was launched to critical acclaim and had1700 orders before it went on display at dealerships.
In its first full year in production, sold 1,587 MP4-12C’s with a turnover of £267 million and near breakeven profitability.
At the end of 2012, McLaren launched the MP4-12C Spider and Sheriff announced McLaren would be releasing the P1, a $1 million hybrid supercar, in 2013. The car was launched the car at the Paris motorshow in September 2012 and sold out its limited 375 car production run. Two other cars were conceived under Sheriff’s leadership, but launched after his departure: 650S (an evolution of the MP4-12C) in 2014 and Sports Series (P13) due to be launched in 2015.
Sheriff resigned as Managing Director of McLaren in 2013 and is now advising and investing in a number of projects in the international automotive industry.
The MP4-12C obtained several honors, including “GT Carolina of the Year” and “Cabrio of the Year” from Top Gear, and the P1 won the “Hypercar of the Year” also from Top Gear. In addition, was awarded the Walpole award for the “Best British Luxury Brand” in 2011. While at Fiat Auto, cars Sheriff conceived won “Carolina of the Year” (Alfa Romeo 147 and Fiat Panda).
