Christopher Montague Grigg (born 6 July 1959) is a British businessman. He was formerly the chief executive of The

British Land The British Land Company Public Limited Company is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It ...

Company plc, a British property development and investment company.

Early life

Grigg was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton (where he was in Lawrence House), and graduated from Trinity Hall,

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

with a first in Economics.

Career

Grigg joined

Morgan Grenfell Morgan, Grenfell & Co. was a leading London-based investment bank regarded as one of the oldest and once most influential British merchant banks. It had its origins in a merchant banking business commenced by George Peabody. Junius Spencer Morga ...

as a graduate trainee in 1981. He joined

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

in 1985, rising to partner, before he left in 2005 to become Treasurer of

Barclays Bank Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

, and chief executive of Barclays Commercial Bank from 1 February 2007 to November 2008. In January 2009, Grigg joined British Land as chief executive. Although there has been some criticism of his decision to sell 50% of British Land's City of London

Broadgate Broadgate is a large, office and retail estate in the Bishopsgate area of the City of London. It is owned by British Land and GIC (Singaporean sovereign wealth fund), GIC and managed by British Land. History The original developer was a joint ...

development to

Blackstone Group Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. It was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter Peterson and Stephen Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman ...

, as well as 50% of the

Meadowhall Centre Meadowhall is an indoor shopping centre in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It lies north-east of Sheffield city centre, and from Rotherham town centre. It is the largest shopping centre in Yorkshire, and currently the twelfth-largest in ...

, Sheffield, Grigg has stated his belief that this was the right decision in the long term: "We aspire to outperform the market. It's kind of hard to do that if your two largest assets have been underperformers." In January 2012, he said that the City of London's skyline needs to become more like Manhattan to attract companies to the capital, and that office spaces need to be larger and more flexible. In September 2020, Grigg announced he was stepping down as chief executive of British Land from December 2020. Grigg was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to business, particularly during the COVID-19 response. In April 2021, it was announced Grigg has been appointed as the chairman of the new UK Infrastructure Bank. Grigg was a non-executive director of

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

until December 2023. He is the

Chairman The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the gro ...

of Evelyn Partners since February 2022 having joined as a non-executive director in August 2021. In June 2024, he was appointed to the board of

Melrose Industries Melrose Industries plc is a British aerospace manufacturing company based in Birmingham, England. It is the parent company of GKN Aerospace. The company's shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange as a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Me ...

and will take over the chairmanship role from October 2024.

Personal life

Grigg is married and lives in

Harpenden Harpenden () is a town and civil parish in the City and District of St Albans in the county of Hertfordshire, England. The population of the built-up area was 30,674 in the 2021 census, while the population of the civil parish was 31,128. Harpe ...

, Hertfordshire, with his wife and five children.

References

1959 births Living people British chief executives British corporate directors British bankers Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge People from Harpenden People from Southampton (district) Goldman Sachs people Barclays people People educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton British Land people Commanders of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-business-bio-1950s-stub