Sir John Griffin is a distinguished British businessman and philanthropist who founded Addison Lee in 1975 with just one car and nearly 40 years later sold the company to The Carlyle Group for £350 million. He was born above a shop during World War II and sent to Ireland for the first nine years of his life to avoid the bombings. After returning to London, he was taken seriously ill with tuberculosis prior to his O-levels and left school without qualifications. John took on a number of jobs and began working as a minicab driver to support his father’s struggling business. He went on to launch Addison Lee, which grew to ten times the size of its nearest rival and was the largest firm of its kind in Europe. John is proud that no driver was ever found guilty of an offence against a passenger. In 2014, he set up a Foundation to focus on his charitable and philanthropic interests. The Foundation has donated £12 million to building The Griffin Institute at Northwick Park Hospital. It expects to recognised as the UK’s leading provider of robotic training for doctors and surgeons. John is committed to supporting and inspiring the next generation of British business leaders, joining Finito from launch.
