Antony Sheriff

Sheriff attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, obtaining both a B.A. in economics and a B.S. in engineering before going on to work at Chrysler. He then obtained his M.S. in management from the MIT 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 M.I.T., 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.^[1][2]

Sheriff was promoted to the position of Vice President of Marketing for Fiat in 2002, shortly before moving to McLaren Automotive in Britain as managing director in January 2003.^[3]

McLaren hired Sheriff to launch the SLR for Mercedes Benz and subsequently build a stand-alone McLaren road car brand. Sheriff was responsible for managing all aspects of the company's road car business.^[4] He launched the SLR into production in 2003 in partnership with Mercedes-Benz and turned McLaren Automotive into a profitable company after developing and launching further SLR models including the SLR Roadster and SLR Stirling Moss.^[5] At that time the SLR became the highest volume carbon based car ever produced.

After the launch of the SLR, Sheriff built McLaren Automotive into a standalone luxury sports car company developing three core products: P11 (MP4-12C / 650S), P12 (P1) and P13 (Sports Series). Under his leadership, McLaren Automotive developed its own carbon fibre chassis, high-performance V8 petrol engine and revolutionary suspension system. The company also built a dedicated production facility and a global distribution network with 51 dealers in 26 countries.^[6]

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 had 1700 orders before it went on display at dealerships.^[7] In its first full year in production, McLaren Automotive sold 1,587 MP4-12C’s with a turnover of £267 million and near-break even profitability. The MP4-12C subsequently became the world's best selling carbon fibre based car.

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 at the Paris Motor Show in September 2012 and sold out its limited 375 car production run within 12 months and became the world's first hybrid supercar in customer hands. In January 2017 it was reported that theP1 was changing hands for double its original price.^[8]

Two other cars were conceived under Sheriff’s leadership, but launched after his departure: The 650S (an evolution of the MP4-12C) launched in 2014 and the P13 Sports Series launched in 2015.

Sheriff resigned as Managing Director of McLaren in 2013, but remains closely tied to automotive, advising and investing in a number of projects in the international automotive industry.

The MP4-12C won several honors, including “GT Car of the Year” and “Cabrio of the Year” from Top Gear, Middle East "Car of the Year" and the P1 won the “Hypercar of the Year”, also from Top Gear.^[9][10] In addition, McLaren Automotive was awarded the Walpole award for the “Best British Luxury Brand” in 2011.