My friend David Youlton, who has died aged 68 after suffering from cancer, was an inspiration to all who knew him. At various times seaman, co-operative Marxist, mature student and Buddhist monk, he found fulfilment through transforming a small electronics company into a leading provider of equipment for the emerging digital broadcasting industry.
Snell and Wilcox had been set up by his friend Roderick Snell. After David became chairman and chief executive in 1988, he applied the principles of co-operative self-management that he had observed at the Mondragón co-operatives in the Basque country of Spain. The research engineers, he believed, were their own best managers; his job was to manage the future with those on whom the success of the new digital TV and film industry depended. This included chairing the industry group set up to co-ordinate the introduction of digital TV in the UK with common national standards.
By focusing on innovation, he ensured the growth of the workforce from 25 to 500 in a decade. All the company's work in Havant, Hampshire, including the manufacturing, was housed in small, beautifully reclaimed buildings, which David's architect wife, Jill Manson, designed in the Arts and Crafts tradition. By 2000, Snell and Wilcox, guided by David's emphasis on the human spirit and its capacities, was valued at £300m and had won eight Queen's awards.
Born in Brixton, south London, David left school and joined the merchant navy at the age of 15. A decade later, he returned to formal education at Ruskin College, Oxford, for two years, and I first met him in 1970 when he went on to Sussex University.
From the outset, I was aware of how forward-looking he was: in a tutorial I was taking, he gave us the conclusions of his Ruskin thesis on how containerisation would change shipping, and he was right. As president of the students' union, he persuaded the vice-chancellor, Asa Briggs, of the viability of raising funds for new student housing.
When his illness was diagnosed, David was given three years to live. In the event, he lived for another 12, helped by the biochemist Moshe Rogosnitzky. Together they established a charity, MedInsight, to promote low-cost, less invasive treatments for a range of diseases.
David is survived by Jill.