Sir Michael Richardson Angus (5 May 1930 – 13 March 2010) was a British businessman, best known as chair of

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy ...

Biography

Angus was born in West Ashford, Kent and raised in the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds (, ) is a region in central-southwest England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and Evesham Vale. The area is defined by the bedrock of Ju ...

near to

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

, and educated at Marling School,

Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the Five ...

, Gloucestershire. Angus graduated in mathematics from

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a Red brick university, red brick Russell Group research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Society of Merchant Venturers, Merchant Venturers' sc ...

Career

Joining Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever straight from university, he spent most of his career in the company's toiletries businesses (soaps and toothpaste) in France and Britain. In 1979 he moved to

Lever Brothers Lever Brothers was a British manufacturing company founded in 1885 by two brothers: William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and successfully promoted a new soap-making p ...

in New York City, where he spent four years cleaning house at the Lever Brothers subsidiary. He returned to UK as the joint-chairman alongside Floris Maljers.

Other positions

Angus was President of the

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...

from 7 May 1992 to May 1994. Sir Michael's other appointments include: – *Chairman of

Whitbread Whitbread plc is a multinational British hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742, and had become the largest brewery in the world by the 1780s. Its largest divisio ...

Plc *non-executive directors and Deputy chairman

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and passengers ...

Plc *non-executive director and chairman

Boots Group Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists), trading as Boots, is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain in the United Kingdom and other countries and territories including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand a ...

*non-executive director

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it ...

*Chairman of Ashridge Business School *Member of the Council of British Executive Service Overseas *Chairman of the Trustees of The

Leverhulme Trust The Leverhulme Trust () is a large national grant-making organisation in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the n ...

*Director of the

Ditchley Foundation The Ditchley Foundation is a foundation that holds conferences, with a primary focus on British-American relations. It is based at Ditchley Park near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. It was established as a privately funded charity in 1958 by phi ...

*International Counsellor Emeritus of the Conference Board in New York *non-executive director for the

Halcrow Group Limited Halcrow Group Limited was a multinational engineering consultancy company, based in the United Kingdom Halcrow was one of the UK's largest consultancies, with origins stretching back to 1868. The UK-based consultancy specialised in the provision ...

. *Chairman of the

Royal Agricultural College ;(from Virgil's Georgics)"Caring for the Fieldsand the Beasts" , established = 2013 - University status – College , type = Public , president = King Charles , vice_chancellor = Peter McCaffery , students ...

until 2005. Angus was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1997.

Personal life

Married to Isabel, the couple had three children: Barbara, Simon and Nicholas. They lived on their

organic farm Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...

in North Cerney, from which they marketed cheese made from their herd of goats. Angus was an acknowledged wine buff. He died aged 79 in his home on 13 March 2010. Lady Angus died in 2016.Lady Isabel Angus
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References

External links

– Daily Telegraph obituary
Sir Michael Angus
– Times obituary
Sir Michael Angus
– Guardian obituary
Sir Michael Angus
– Scotsman obituary {{DEFAULTSORT:Angus, Michael R. 1930 births 2010 deaths Alumni of the University of Bristol English farmers Deputy Lieutenants of Gloucestershire Knights Bachelor People associated with the Royal Agricultural University People from Cirencester Unilever people People educated at Marling School Deaths from lung cancer in England 20th-century English businesspeople