John Griffin

John Patrick Griffin (born 1 August 1942) is a British businessman. He is the founder of Addison Lee cab and courier company. Early life John Patrick Griffin was born on 1 August 1942 in the UK to a civil engineering contractor father. He was raised in Kilburn from 9 years old attending Finchley Catholic High School. However, he left school with no qualifications after contracting tuberculosis from drinking the milk of a cow he had milked on a school visit to a farm. Career While Griffin was training as an accountant, his father's road and sewer building business got into financial difficulty. Griffin left accountancy training to help salvage the business, with some success. During this period, and wanting a flexible job to create extra income, Griffin started working as a minicab driver which turned into a full-time job. Griffin eventually decided to move on from driving minicabs, deciding he could do a better job of running a minicab business. Together with another driver, he set about starting a company which today is known as West One Cars. However, Griffin was convinced to stay on with his original employer after his salary was quadrupled and only later decided to form his own company.