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 packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

Biography

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

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

near to

Cirencester Cirencester ( , ; see #Pronunciation, below for more variations) is a market town and civil parish in the Cotswold District of Gloucestershire, England. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames. It is the List of ...

, and educated at

Marling School Marling School is a grammar school with academy status for boys, with a co-educational Sixth Form located in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. It is on the Cainscross Road, the main route out of Stroud towards the M5, and is situated next to th ...

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. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...

, Gloucestershire. Angus graduated in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

Bristol University The University of Bristol is a public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Bristol, which had ...

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 Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, William Hesketh Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), and James Darcy Lever (1854–1916). They invested in and su ...

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 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 ...

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

Whitbread Whitbread is a British multinational hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742 by Samuel Whitbread in partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell, with premises in L ...

Plc *non-executive directors and Deputy chairman

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

Plc *non-executive director and chairman

Boots Group Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists Limited) is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain that operates in the United Kingdom. It also operates internationally, including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand ...

*non-executive director

National Westminster Bank National Westminster Bank, trading 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 becam ...

*Chairman of

Ashridge Business School Hult Ashridge Executive Education (also known as the Hult Ashridge) is the executive education arm of Hult International Business School, based in London, Dubai, and Hult's flagship executive education campus on the Ashridge Estate. Formerly ...

*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. It was established in 1925 under the will of the 1st Viscount Leverhulme (1851–1925), with the instruction that its resources should be used to cover ...

*Director of the

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

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

Halcrow Group Limited Halcrow Group Limited was a British engineering consultancy company. It was one of the UK's largest consultancies, specialised in the provision of planning, design and management services for infrastructure development worldwide. With interests ...

. *Chairman of the

Royal Agricultural College The Royal Agricultural University (RAU), formerly the Royal Agricultural College, is a public university in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English-speaking world. ...

until 2005. Angus was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 1997. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

in 1990 and another Honorary Doctorate of Science from the

University of Buckingham The University of Buckingham (UB) is a non-profit private university#United Kingdom, private university in Buckingham, England, and the oldest of the country's six private universities. It was founded as the University College at Buckingham (U ...

in 1994.

The Greenbury Committee (1995)

Sir Michael was a member of the influential Greenbury Committee which reviewed the processes and regulations surrounding executive remuneration. The report, which encouraged more disclosure and reporting, was later found to have increased rather than decreased levels of top executive pay.

Personal life

Married to Isabel, the couple had three children. They lived on their

organic farm Organic farming, also known as organic agriculture or ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2024 on organic production and labelling of ...

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 20th-century British 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 21st-century English farmers