Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part ...

Michael Stewart Hodgkinson (born 7 April 1944) is a British business man.

Early life

The son of Stewart Gordon Hodgkinson and his wife Ruth Phyllis Pentelow, Hodgkinson was born in 1944, while his father was serving as a junior officer in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. A few months later, his father transferred as a Lieutenant to the

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

. He was educated at Hornchurch Grammar School and the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

, graduating BA in Industrial Economics in 1965. He went on to qualify as an accountant in 1969."Hodgkinson, Sir Michael Stewart Kt 2003 Born 7 April 1944" in ''

Who's Who A Who's Who (or Who Is Who) is a reference work consisting of biographical entries of notable people in a particular field. The oldest and best-known is the annual publication ''Who's Who (UK), Who's Who'', a reference work on contemporary promin ...

'' online edition, accessed 26 February 2025"Supervisory Board (Deputy Chairman)"
tuigroup.com, accessed 25 February 2025

Career

Hodgkinson's first significant role was as managing director of

Land Rover Land Rover is a brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, owned by British multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR builds Land Rovers in Brazil ...

Range Rover The Land Rover Range Rover, generally shortened to Range Rover, is a Sport utility vehicle, 4x4 Luxury car, luxury SUV produced by Land Rover, a marque and sub-brand of Jaguar Land Rover, owned by Tata Motors. The Range Rover line was launched ...

from 1978 to 1983. In 1986, he was appointed as Chief Executive of

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...

’s European Food Division and in 1992 as Group Airports Director at BAA plc. He was chief executive of

Heathrow Airport Holdings Heathrow Airport Holdings is a company that operates and manages Heathrow Airport based in London, England. It was formed by the privatisation of the British Airports Authority as BAA plc as part of Margaret Thatcher's privatisation of governmen ...

from 1999 to 2003, in which year he was

knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

. He was next Non-Executive Chairman of

Post Office Limited Post Office Limited, formerly Post Office Counters Limited and commonly known as the Post Office, is a state-owned retail post office company in the United Kingdom that provides a wide range of postal and non-postal related products including po ...

. In 2007, as chairman of First Choice, Hodgkinson took it into a merger with the German company TUI, which controlled

Thomson Holidays Thomson Travel Group plc was a business formed by the Thomson Corporation of Canada, when it was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998. It was acquired by Preussag AG, an industrial and transport conglomerate, in 2000. The group continu ...

. He was elected to the supervisory board of

TUI Group TUI AG (trading as TUI Group) is a German multinational leisure, travel and tourism company; it is the largest such company in the world. TUI is an acronym for ''Touristik Union International'' ("Tourism Union International"). TUI AG was known a ...

and became its vice-chairman, and was still serving in that position in 2016. Hodgkinson went on to serve as Chairman of Keolis UK Ltd from December 2011 to 2019. In May 2018, the

Wales & Borders franchise The Wales & Borders franchise () is a railway franchise for passenger services in the United Kingdom operated since 7 February 2021 by publicly owned operator, Transport for Wales Rail. The franchise covers the majority of rail services in W ...

was awarded to

KeolisAmey Wales Keolis Amey Operations (), Full legal name is bilingual including the Welsh name, as "Keolis Amey Operations / Gweithrediadau Keolis Amey Limited". trading as Transport for Wales Rail Services (TfW Rail Services) was a Welsh train operating c ...

, which received a contract valued at £5billion covering a 15-year period starting on 14 October 2018. Until 2013, when he was replaced by Daniel Moylan, Hodgkinson was the

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

nominee as a non-executive director of

Crossrail Crossrail is a completed railway project centred on London. It provides a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system, akin to the Réseau Express Régional, RER in Paris and the S-Bahn systems of German-speaking countries, kn ...

.New Crossrail Board appointment
crossrail.co.uk, 8 August 2013, accessed 8 November 2015

Personal life

In 1988, Hodgkinson married Elspeth Holman, the daughter of Michael Holman and Dorothy Napier, and they have a son and two daughters. They live in the

St Katharine Docks St Katharine Docks is a former dock in the St Katherine and Wapping ward of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies in the East End of London, East End on the north bank of the River Thames, immediately downstream of the Tower of London an ...

area of the East End of London.

Notes

External links

Michael Stewart HODGKINSON
at

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the Company register, register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for Incorporation (business), incorporating all forms of Company, co ...

"Interview: New knight of railways readies a tilt at Branson"
Standard.co.uk, 10 April 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgkinson, Michael Stewart 1944 births Alumni of the University of Nottingham Heathrow Airport Holdings Knights Bachelor Living people Transport for London TUI Group people