The Minor was conceived in 1941. Although the Nuffield Organization was heavily involved in war work and a governmental ban existed on civilian car production, Morris Motors' vice chairman, Miles Thomas, wanted to prepare the ground for new products to be launched as soon as the war was over.[13]:115 Vic Oak, the company's chief engineer, had already brought to Thomas' attention a promising junior engineer, Alec Issigonis, who had been employed at Morris since 1935 and specialised in suspension design,[13]:85 but he had frequently impressed Oak with his advanced ideas about car design in general.[13]:114 Issigonis had come to Oak's particular attention with his work on the new Morris Ten, which was in development during 1936/7.