Martin Whitmarsh is a British businessman and, since March 2015, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ben Ainslie Racing America"s Cup team
Education
Whitmarsh graduated from Portsmouth Polytechnic (now the University of Portsmouth) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1980, and started work at British Aerospace (now British Aerospace Systems) as a structural analysis engineer at its Hamble-le-Rice facility.
Career
Whitmarsh was the Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Racing, a subsidiary company of the McLaren Group and Chief Operating Officer of that group, as well as being the team principal of McLaren Mercedes, following Ron Dennis"s retirement on 1 March 2009. Whitmarsh was also the chairman of the Formula One Teams Association and therefore had the responsibility of representing the F1 teams" interests, until the organisation was disbanded in 2014. In 2014, Whitmarsh was removed from his job of Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Group, Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Racing and also removed from team principal of McLaren Mercedes.
Ron Dennis replaced his two Chief Executive Officer jobs and Eric Boullier replaced him as team principal of the F1 team
He was promoted to an advanced composite structures research and development role and transferred to BAe"s Weybridge facility. In 1988 he was promoted to the rank of Manufacturing Director and was put in charge of Hawk and Harrier airframe production.
He left to join McLaren as Head of Operations in 1989. In 1997, Whitmarsh was promoted to Managing Director, where he was responsible for managing the F1 operation and its partners and sponsors.
This allowed Team Principal Ron Dennis to concentrate on other aspects of the McLaren Group.
In April 2004, he was again promoted, this time to the position of Chief Executive Officer of the company"s F1 operation. McLaren
On 1 March 2009 Ron Dennis stepped down as head of McLaren Racing to take a role in McLaren Automotive as he planned to expand the company"s operation in car manufacturing. Whitmarsh became team principal as a result.
Having started 2009 with an uncompetitive car, McLaren improved as the year progressed, scoring more points than any other team in the second half of the season, to beat Ferrari to third in Constructors" championship by a single point.
Following an uncompetitive 2013 season, Whitmarsh was ousted from his position as Chief Executive Officer of McLaren Racing and McLaren Group, replaced by his predecessor Ron Dennis in January 2014. He formally parted ways with McLaren in August 2014 after 24 years with the organisation.
He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Portsmouth in 2009.