His Irish Catholic father was one of the founders of Blue Circle Industries.
Cahill rose to become CEO of BTR in 1987, where he led a three-year period of sales growth.
[2] BTR was acquisitive in this period of time under Sir Owen Green’s and Alan Jackson’s leadership.
In January 1993 the company received a much welcome order for £3bn for the Panavia Tornado ADV.
He married an Italian woman named Giovanna Lenardon in 1956 and had three daughters together.