Sir Malcolm Rowland Bates (23 September 1934 - 30 May 2009) was a British industrialist. He served as the chairman of London Regional Transport from 1999 to 2003. Bates was born in Portsmouth, attended Portsmouth Grammar School, and served in the Royal Air Force from 1956-1958. In 1976 he joined General Electric Company, rising up to become the deputy managing director, a position he remained in for twelve years. He led a group of three businessmen in advising the government on the structure of the planned public-private partnership for the London Underground, and replaced Peter Ford as the chairman of London Regional Transport, who had been against the PPP arrangement. He was replaced by Bob Kiley in 2001 who was appointed by Tony Blair to oversee the implementation of the PPP, however fo