When people see the name Jarl Severn, they may automatically assume that he is a foreigner who has parachuted in as managing director at successful Oxfordshire medical instrument manufacturer Owen Mumford.

But that could not be further from the truth. His first name comes from his Danish mother but his surname is British and his background was forged in the steel town of Corby in Northamptonshire where father Albert worked in the steel industry.

After “pretty average” A-Level results, he decided to get a job, rather than go into higher education.

Mr Severn, 49, said: “In the 1970s it was more about earning the first wage packet. That was the environment I grew up in.”

He landed a job as an assistant accountant with RS Components in Corby but knew he wasn’t happy.

“My girlfriend got fed up with listening to me saying I wasn’t enjoying myself and she picked up a newspaper where there was a job ad for a sales administrator for a company called Codan Rubber, which involved two weeks of training in Copenhagen.”

Codan was a Danish subsidiary of the Maersk Group, a huge international corporation and, as a Danish speaker, he landed the job and stayed for 11 years in a variety of roles, before returning to the UK.

Then he was head-hunted to join Invacare, one of the world’s oldest manufacturers of medical equipment.

“They sent me to Copenhagen to support the vice-president in the £250m integration of two companies. After that I was asked to be managing director of the Switzerland operation and moved there for five years.”

Returning to the UK, he joined the board of disabled accessories firm Chiltern Invadex in Bicester and faced his biggest challenge to date.

“I embarked on a two-year turnaround programme and it was eventually sold out of administration to a supplier.

“The chairman then invited me to get involved with more turnarounds. It is a high energy world and a totally different business experience.”

In 2008, Owen Mumford came calling. Already a successful medical instruments business, he was tasked with taking it to the next level giving him a new experience of growing a smaller firm in a recession under the scrutiny of family board members.

“At the first board meeting I was faced with people who had a combined 200 years of experience compared to my 30 days,” he said.

But his experience has meant he is a fast learner. And once he had grasped how the business worked, he mapped out a strategy called 20/20 Vision – a blueprint of how he wanted the business to look by 2020.

“I sat down with my management and asked ‘What do you want us to be?’ We put it in writing, produced a booklet and sent it to every member of staff around the world.”

Once the plan was in place, it was immediately put into action. Since 2008 the business has grown from having a £50m turnover to £75m last year. Again Mr Severn’s style has been innovative.

“I spent my first year separating the business into “boxes.” Within those boxes you can make decisions and that helped me decide who was going to do what going forward.

“I introduced a new executive team including a finance director and a sales and marketing director.”

China was identified as a key new market and the business now has a foothold in lucrative new territory as there are 90 million diabetics there for which Owen Mumford produces its Autopen insulin injection devices.

Mr Severn takes pride in the fact that devices administering almost £10bn worth of drugs are manufactured in Chipping Norton and the figure is growing all the time.

The business has 50 people designing and developing new products and 128 patents of which 20 new ones are registered annually.

And all this has been achieved with zero debt, despite a total of £7.5m being invested in the Woodstock and Chipping Norton facilities.

The company employs about 600 worldwide and has up to 50 vacancies at any one time.

With such figures, it is little wonder Owen Mumford picked up the overall title at this year’s Oxfordshire Business of the Year Awards, along with the export category.

Despite his achievements, Mr Severn’s ambition remains as deep-seated as ever.

“Our aspiration is to double in size by 2020. That is what we believe we can afford to do.”