Sir Ivan Arthur Rice Stedeford GBE, (28 January 1897 – 9 February 1975) was a British industrialist and philanthropist.

In 1917, he decided to play a more active role in the First World War and was commissioned in the Royal Naval Air Service, tasked as a balloon forward air observer, a somewhat static and highly dangerous assignment, even by the standards of other First World War military duties.

At the end of the war, he returned to Birmingham and went into partnership to form a motor dealership called Reeve and Stedeford.

Despite recognising the Doretti's qualities, Stedeford showed his legendary toughness and shut the operation down, transferring the employees to other parts of the T.I.

In 1958 Stedeford conducted the first hostile takeover of a public company in the United Kingdom, in the Aluminium War, when Tube Investments, allied with Reynolds Metals of the United States and advised by Siegmund George Warburg, won the battle for British Aluminium, headed by Lord Portal.

Ranged against Stedeford were the vast majority of the blue chip investment houses of the City of London.

The battle for British Aluminium was won in the end by Tube Investments/Reynolds Metals' superior bid; the totally inept way Portal and his backers (Hambros Bank and Cazenove among nearly 30 others) handled the press, and Portal's high-handedness with his own investors (secretly trying to sell British Aluminium at a fraction of the price Stedeford had offered), made this a defining moment in the City's history.

The Aluminium War rewrote the way the City conducted its business in relation to shareholders and investors, resulting in a more open and competitive landscape.

It was the first stage in a process that led to the Big Bang reform of 1986, allowing the City to dominate the international finance markets.

He was invited in 1960 by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, to become the Chairman of an Advisory Group on the state of British transport, which became known as the Stedeford Committee.

A tall, slim man, with a rich sense of humour and a scholarly turn of mind he possessed remarkable reserves of energy.

This encouragement took the form of many schemes sponsored by him, such as comprehensive training up to free university for the outstandingly talented.

in 1963, assuming the title of Life President, having run the company for over 25 years, and having built it into a global industrial powerhouse.

Post Script Sir Ivan was the architect of the sale of Hercules Cycle and Motor Company Ltd to TI in the forties.