Sir William Lyons (September 4, 1901 – February 8, 1985), is also known as "Mr. Jaguar", since he was co-founder of the Swallow Sidecar Company, later to become Jaguar Cars Limited.

Previous to founding the own company, he had worked for Sunbeam.

In 1956 Lyons was knighted for his services to British industry and for the fine export performance of the company. Sir William Lyons, is quoted saying: "The car is the closest thing we will ever create to something that is alive."