John Cridland,

CBE 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 ...

(born 3 February 1961) is a British business executive. He was the tenth Director-General of the

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a British business interest group, which says it represents 190,000 businesses. The CBI has been described by the ''Financial Times'' as "Britain's biggest business lobby group". Incorporated by roy ...

(CBI) from January 2011 to November 2015.

Education

Cridland was educated at

Boston Grammar School The Boston Grammar School is an 11–18 boys selective grammar school and sixth form college located in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. By October 2021, a total of 812 pupils attending the school, 201 of which were in the sixth form provision ...

and studied Indian and African history at

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

Career

He joined the CBI as a policy adviser in 1982 and became its youngest ever director in 1991, when he took over the environmental affairs brief. He moved on to human resources policy in 1995, where he helped negotiate the UK's first national minimum wage and entry into the European Union's "social chapter" on employment conditions. He was promoted to the post of deputy director-general in 2000. Beyond his work with the CBI, Cridland served on the Low Pay Commission from its formation in 1997 until 2007. He was vice chair of the National Learning and Skills Council between 2007 and 2010 and spent 10 years on the Low Pay Commission and the council of the conciliation service,

ACAS The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) is a non-departmental public body of the Her Majesty's Government, Government of the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to improve organisations and working life through the promotion and fa ...

. He was also a member of the Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance and the Women and Work Commission; vice-chairman of the Learning and Skills Council; a board member of Business in the Community; a UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills and a member of the council of

Cranfield University Cranfield University is a postgraduate-only public research university in the United Kingdom that specialises in science, engineering, design, technology and management. Cranfield was founded as the College of Aeronautics (CoA) in 1946. Throug ...

. He announced his decision to step down as director-general in March 2015, saying "I'm a big

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

fan and just like James Kirk I have always told colleagues at internal meetings that I saw this as part of a five-year journey." His resignation followed in November. He was succeeded by Carolyn Fairbairn. Cridland was appointed a CBE for services to business in 2006 and honorary doctorates from the

University of Lincoln The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...

in 2011 and the

University of Bedfordshire The University of Bedfordshire is a Public university, public research university with campuses in Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England. The university has roots in further and higher education from 1882: it gained university status in 19 ...

in 2013. Unlike his five predecessors, he was not awarded a knighthood, at the end of his term as director general at CBI. In March 2016, the

Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare spending, welfare, pensions and child maintenance ...

announced that Cridland would lead the UK's first State Pension age review. He was the first chair of

Transport for the North Transport for the North (TfN) is the first statutory sub-national transport body in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 2018 to make the case for strategic transport improvements across the North of England. Creating this body represented ...

(TfN), the first sub-national transport body in the UK, and was installed in the role in November 2015. In May 2021, it was announced he would stand down from the role later that year. He formally ended his term as Chairman in July 2021.

Personal life

He is married with two children.

References

External links

1961 births Living people British businesspeople People educated at Boston Grammar School Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire {{UK-business-bio-1960s-stub