David Steel (businessman)

Major Sir David Edward Charles Steel (29 November 1916 – 9 August 2004) was an English army officer, lawyer, and businessman. Steel was the sixth chairman of British Petroleum, from 1975 to 1981.

Steel was the son of Ellen Price-Edwards and Gerald Arthur Steel. His father was private secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty throughout the First World War, and later general manager of the British Aluminium Company. Steel was educated at Rugby School, and University College, Oxford, where he received a bachelor's degree in law.

Steel was a tank commander in the Second World War, and was awarded the DSO* and an MC.

At the end of 1974, Steel succeeded Sir Eric Drake as chairman of BP.

On 3 November 1956, Steel married Ann Wynne Price, the daughter of Major-General Charles Basil Price, at St Paul's Anglican in Knowlton, Quebec. She bore a son and two daughters for him, and died in 1997. Steel was a member of the Cavalry Club in London and the Links Club in New York City.