Robin Herd

Robert John "Robin" Herd (23 March 1939 – 4 June 2019 ) was an English engineer, designer and businessman.

Herd studied at St Peter's College, Oxford, having turned down an offer to play cricket for Worcestershire at the age of 18. He initially entered Oxford with a scholarship to study mathematics, however he switched subjects and graduated with a double first in physics and engineering, before joining the Royal Aircraft Establishment in 1961 as a design engineer on the Concorde supersonic aircraft project, focussing on computational fluid dynamics. The team completed 207 Formula One Grand Prix races between 1970 and 1992, winning three with four pole positions. In addition they enjoyed a great deal of success in Formula Two, and in the 1980s they made a successful foray into Indy car racing, with March cars winning the Indianapolis 500 for five successive years from 1983 to 1987.

Herd was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1986 New Year Honours, as managing director of March. He died from cancer in 2019, aged 80.