Rhodri Morgan has been among Jones's critics

Mr Jones resigned when his employers failed to offer him a more senior position at a Welsh station.

Faced with the option of promotion at a power station in England - he chose instead to leave the company.

He later joined Anglesey Aluminium - back in the Welsh speaking heartland - where he rose to deputy managing director.

In 1982, while on secondment from his employers in north Wales to the Welsh Office in Cardiff, he was made chairman of the then government owned Welsh Water.

During his 11 year tenure, he oversaw the privatisation of the company, earning plaudits as the man who turned on the business' profits tap.

After his retirement, Welsh Water came under fire when it was revealed that the former chairman had taken a �1.7m package of perks and salary since privatisation.

Among the critics at the time was the current Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan.

'Toothless quango'

His commitment to the Welsh language was demonstrated in 1988, when John Elfed Jones took on the chairmanship of the fledgling Welsh Language Board.

With a new Welsh Language Act on the horizon the board was deemed a target for attacks by language campaigners who saw it as a toothless quango.

When the new act come on the statute books in 1993 he stood down and has subsequently described his period at the board's helm as "the most difficult job " he's had to do.

An equally arduous task was assigned to him in 1997.

Having resigned the previous year as deputy chairman of HTV John Elfed Jones accepted the post of chair of the National Assembly's Advisory Group - responsible for advising the government on the working details of the Welsh Assembly .

Jones was once deputy chairman of HTV

He described the assembly as a "glorious opportunity to ... create a form of government that would be the envy of the world".

Alongside his public appointments, Mr Jones has kept up his interests in the private sector.

He is currently chairman of International Greetings Plc - a leading supplier of Christmas crackers and gift tags based in Ystrad Mynach in the Rhymney Valley.

Voluntary and charity work have played a prominent part in his life throughout.

He met his wife through the Welsh language youth movement Urdd Gobaith Cymru .

In 1998 he was chairman of the Bro Ogwr National Eisteddfod - staged near his home in Coity, Bridgend.

He has also held the presidency of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales.

His latest charitable contribution came this summer in the form of a 167 mile sponsored walk through Wales to raise funds for his local Bridgend hospital's scanner appeal.

Among his recreations he lists salmon and trout fishing, reading and attending eisteddfodau.

With two decades of high profile positions behind him, John Elfed Jones is said to put some of his success down to the art of making his enemy his friend and finding a degree of acceptable compromise.

His most recent contribution to the in-migration debate in Wales may find some of his political friends now questioning that skill.