Michael Angus

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Person.png Michael Angus  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(businessman)
Sir Michael Angus.png
Born5 May 1930
Kent, UK
Died13 March 2010 (Age 79)
NationalityUK
Alma materMarling School, Bristol University
Member ofDitchley/UK
Chairman of Unilever. Attended the 1987 Bilderberg

Sir Michael Richardson Angus DL was a UK businessman and Chairman of Unilever from 1986 until 1992.

"Angus, who has died at the age of 79, was one of the greatest exponents of what has been unkindly described as the corpocracy – the interlocking network of directorships at the top of British business. After six years as the forceful chairman of Unilever, he sat on more remuneration committees than any of his contemporaries."[1]

Career

Angus was born in Kent on May 5 1930, the son of an optician; he spent part of his childhood in Rhodesia before his family moved to Gloucestershire during the war. He was educated at Marling School in Stroud and Bristol University, where he read Mathematics and was chairman of the Conservative association. He served in the RAF for three years before joining Unilever as a management trainee in 1954.[2]

An ardent Thatcherite and long-standing friend of Norman Tebbit and Cecil Parkinson (the three of them having formed a Conservative debating group in the 1960s), Angus sometimes declared himself a "frustrated politician". Parkinson described him as a superb speaker but added: "Though tempted by politics, he decided to concentrate on his business career." Angus's explanation was that he needed to earn a decent living. But he was on his way up. In 1970 he was elected one of the youngest ever members of the Unilever board."[1][2]

His rise to the highest echelon of management followed a successful four-year posting to New York, where he rescued Unilever's debilitated US businesses from a period of heavy losses and took the fight to its old rival, Proctor & Gamble. He returned in 1984 to become a vice-chairman and a member of the three-man Anglo-Dutch executive committee. After succeeding Sir Kenneth Durham as UK chairman, he shared the leadership of the group with his Dutch counterpart, Floris Maljers, in an arrangement which Angus called "a sitting together".

Angus was an effective president of the Confederation of British Industry from 1992 to 1994, working closely with Howard Davies, whom he appointed director-general.[1]

Other positions

Angus was President of the Confederation of British Industry from 7 May 1992 to May 1994. Sir Michael's other appointments include: –

Angus was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1997.


 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/198724 April 198726 April 1987Italy
Cernobbio
35th Bilderberg, in Italy, 106 participants
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References