In 1928, Ivan Stedeford joined another rapidly growing Midland company known at that time as Tube Investments Ltd. By 1935, he held a directorship within the company and a string of subsequent appointments sealed his reputation in the industrial big league as a safe pair of hands. He was invited to sit on the Boards of the National Provincial Bank, the Atlas Assurance Company, the Rank Organisation, the District Bank and TI of India Ltd - which is how there comes to be a hospital bearing his name in that country. In 1954, he was honoured by the Queen and became a KBE.

A Governership of the BBC and membership of the UK Atomic Energy led to an invitation in 1960 by the government of the day to become the Chairman of an Advisory Group on the state of British transport. By this time, Sir Ivan was Chairman and Managing Director of Tube Investments which had become a huge company with interests world-wide. Also on the Committee was a Dr. Richard Beeching and the two men clashed on a number of issues connected with Beeching 's proposals to drastically prune the rail infrastructure of the UK. In spite of questions being asked in Parliament, Sir Ivan's report was never published. Instead, he was made a GBE and a set of proposals for the future of the railways which came to be known as the "Beeching Plan" were adopted by the Government resulting in the complete closure of a third of the rail network and the scrapping of a third of a million freight wagons. Next time you are driving on a motorway clogged by goods vehicles, spare a thought for Sir Ivan Stedeford who very definitely did not wish this to happen.

Ivan Stedeford married Gwendoline Aston in 1923 and they had three daughters. He died on 9 Feb 1975 at Stratford-on-Avon, aged 78.