Malcolm John Charles Harbour, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, is a British politician who was a Conservative Member of the for the West Midlands between 1999 and July 2014.
Education
Harbour was educated at Bedford School (1960-1964), Trinity College, Cambridge (1964-1967) where he graduated in engineering, and at the Aston University (1967-1970) where he gained a Diploma in Management Studies. In July 2008 he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by Aston University for services to science, technology and the European Union.
Career
Harbour spent 32 years in the motor industry, as an engineer, a senior commercial executive, a consultant and a researcher In 1992 became a founder Director of the International Carolina Distribution Programme and, in 1998 initiated the 3DayCar Programme, studying the reconfiguration of the automotive supply chain. He began his motor industry career in the Business Service Management Longbridge Plant as an Austin Engineering apprentice in 1967.
After working as a design and development engineer, he spent eight years planning and managing new product programmes in the Rover Triumph Division.
In 1980 he became Strategic Planning Director for Austin Rover, in 1982 Marketing Director, in 1984 United Kingdom Sales Director and 1986 Overseas Sales Director. In 1989, he jointly found the specialist consultants Harbour Wade Brown.
He missed out again in 1994, before finally, in 1999, being placed high on the Conservative list for the new multi-member West Midlands region constituency, ensuring his election in the 1999 election. He was re-elected in June 2004 and 2009.
He is one of three Conservative members representing the West Midlands Region of the United Kingdom. Harbour takes a special interest in the European Union Single Market, industry, science and technology policy.
He is Chairman of the European Manufacturing Forum, the Ceramics Industry Forum and the Conservative Technology Forum. He is a Governor of the European Internet Foundation. He has been the lead Member of the European Parliament (rapporteur) for major legislation on Telecoms, the Single Market and Motor Vehicle standards.
Since 2005, he has served on the CARS 21 High Level Group, a Europe-wide initiative to boost the automotive industry.
He was named as a top 50 European of 2006 for his key role in broking agreement on the Services Directive. In September 2010, he was voted Internal Market Member of the European Parliament of the Year.
Harbour was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to the British economy.
Membership
He is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and the Chairman of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. Harbour became an active member of the Conservative Party in 1972. He is Chairman of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and is a Member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group.
He is Vice-Chairman of the Parliament"s Science and Technology Options Assessment Panel (STOA) and a Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Delegation to Japan.
In May 2006, he was named the United Kingdom"s most Small Business Friendly United Kingdom Parliamentarian by members of the Forum of Private Business.