Professor Garel Rhys held the SMMT Chair in Motor Industry Economics in the Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University until 2005. He also headed the Economics Section in the School until 1999. He was Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research (CAIR) in the University also until 2005. He is now Emeritus Professor in the Cardiff University Business School and Centre for Automotive Industry Research.
Professor Rhys first became interested in the economics of the motor industry when preparing a thesis on the "Economics of the British Commercial Vehicle Industry" whilst at the University of Birmingham in 1963-5. This was followed by a book "The Motor Industry: an Economic Survey" and numerous articles on a wide variety of economic topics, including the motor industry and transport economics.
His first academic post was at the University of Hull but he subsequently moved to University College, Cardiff. He is a Fellow both of the Institute of Transport Administration and of the Institute of The Motor Industry. In addition, he advised the House of Commons Select Committees on Trade and Industry for over twenty years and also the Select Committees on defence and Welsh affairs. He has also advised select committees in the House of Lords, the National Audit Office, as well as a number of companies and organisations. He has been a member of the Board of the Welsh Development Agency and is now special adviser to the Agency. In addition, he has produced reports on the motor industry for various UK Government departments. He holds a number of non-executive directorships.
In 1989 he won the Castrol/IMI Motor Industry Gold Medal Award for his contribution to the motor industry. In June 1989 Professor Rhys was awarded the OBE for services to the motor industry and education. In 2007 this was advanced to a CBE. In 1993 he was made Welsh Communicator of the Year. He has been lead adviser to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation on the place of the motor industry in developing countries. In 2001 he was appointed a member of the DTI's Motor Racing Industry Competitiveness Panel, and in 2003 the Motor Racing Board. In 2004, he was appointed President of the Institute of the Motor Industry. He is chairman of the Welsh Automotive Forum.
As well as lecturing widely on the motor industry Professor Rhys is a regular radio and TV broadcaster and has presented videos and TV series on the history, business organisation and economics of the motor industry. One of his most satisfying achievements was to introduce an MBA programme on the global automotive sector at Cardiff Business School. In addition he has many interests in regional economics, especially in as much as it affects Wales. He has sat on various bodies such as the Welsh Advisory Committee for the Design Council and was on the Engineering Working Party at the National Economic Development Office. In 1992 he was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the Retail Price Index Advisory Committee. In 1996 he was invited by the Secretary of State for the Environment to join the Round Table on Sustainable Development. He is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Wales Video Gallery and, in 2002, he was appointed chairman of the Economic Research Advisory Panel of the National Assembly for Wales. He travels world-wide speaking on automotive matters including America, Australia, Korea and Japan. He is a Liveryman and a Freeman of the City of London.