Oliver Sheldon (1894-1951) was a director of the Rowntree Company in York, in the UK, in the 1920s.He was closely involved in restructuring the management and organisation of the growing confectionery company at a stage where its growth meant by necessity it had to move away from the personal, family-centred management of its founder, Joseph Rowntree, towards a more professional culture. Under the chairmanship of Joseph's son, Seebohm, the company adopted Sheldon's proposals for a more functional style of organisation, but he tempered this with a belief, shared by the Rowntree firm's senior managers, that industry existed for more than the profit of shareholders. Sheldon held that good management was about more than technique - it should be concerned with human understanding. "The leadership of men calls for patience, courage, and, above all, sympathy." Service to the community was the primary motive and fundamental basis of industry.