Richard John Cousins (29 March 1959 – 31 December 2017) was a British businessman, and the

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of the world's largest

foodservice The foodservice (US English) or catering (British and Commonwealth English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, grocery stores, school and hospital cafet ...

company, the

Compass Group Compass Group plc is a British multinational contract foodservice company headquartered in Chertsey, England. It is the largest contract foodservice company in Europe, ahead of Sodexo, employing over 500,000 people. It serves meals in location ...

, based in

Chertsey Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, southwest of central London. It grew up around Chertsey Abbey, founded in AD 666 by Earconwald, St Erkenwald, and gained a municipal charter, market charter from Henry I of Engla ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

Early life

Richard Cousins was born on 29 March 1959 in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

. He was the son of Marian and Philip Cousins. Cousins was educated at The Brakenhale School, a

comprehensive school A comprehensive school is a secondary school for pupils aged 11–16 or 11–18, that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude, in contrast to a selective school system where admission is restricted on the basis ...

Bracknell Bracknell () is a town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, the westernmost area within the Greater London Built-up Area, Greater London Urban Area and the administrative centre of the borough of Bracknell Forest. It lies to the east of Re ...

, Berkshire. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the

University of Sheffield The University of Sheffield (informally Sheffield University or TUOS) is a public university, public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. Its history traces back to the foundation of Sheffield Medical School in 1828, Fir ...

in 1980, followed by a master's degree in

operational research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...

from

Lancaster University Management School Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) is the business school of Lancaster University in Lancaster, England. The school's history can be traced back to the establishment of departments of marketing and of operational research at the u ...

Career

Cousins began in the group

department of

Cadbury-Schweppes Cadbury, formerly Cadbury's and Cadbury Schweppes, is a British multinational confectionery company owned by Mondelez International (spun off from Kraft Foods) since 2010. It is the second-largest confectionery brand in the world, after Mars. ...

in 1981, being involved in market research and investment projects. In 1984 he joined

BTR Industries BTR plc was a British multinational industrial conglomerate company. It was headquartered in London, England. The company was originally founded in 1924 as the British Goodrich Rubber Co. Ltd as a subsidiary of the American rubber specialist ...

, again in operational research. He became corporate planning manager for Newey and Eyre (now part of Hagemeyer UK), one of its subsidiaries and an electrical components firm. In 1990 he moved to

BPB plc BPB Ltd (formerly BPB plc) (British Plaster Board) was a British building materials business. It once was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 2005, the company was purchased by Saint-Gobain of France. The company's subsidiary British Gypsu ...

, the British firm which is the world's largest manufacturer of

plasterboard Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gib board, gypsum board, buster board, turtles board, slap board, custard board, gypsum panel and gyprock) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or witho ...

and now owned by the French company

Saint-Gobain Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris as the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs, and today headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a ...

. He went on to be managing director of Abertay Paper Sacks in 1996, President and CEO of Westroc Inc in February 1998 and Group chief executive of BPB in April 2000. Cousins joined Compass in May 2006 as CEO. In 2017, Cousins was named #11 on the 2017 100 Best Performing CEOs in the World by ''

Harvard Business Review ''Harvard Business Review'' (''HBR'') is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a not-for-profit, independent corporation that is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. ''HBR'' is published six times a year ...

''; in 2016 he placed 17. He is succeeded as CEO of Compass by

Dominic Blakemore Dominic William Blakemore (born 14 June 1969), is a British businessman, the chief executive (CEO) of Compass Group. Originally due to take up the post on 1 April 2018, the appointment was brought forward following the death of the CEO Richard ...

. Originally planned for 1 April 2018, the succession was brought forward to 1 January 2018.

Personal life

Cousins married Caroline Thorpe in 1982; she died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

in 2015. Their two sons were William and Edward, both of whom died with their father. They resided in the Chilterns and

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre-Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The name is of Anglo-Saxon ori ...

South London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

. The couple had previously lived at

Wellington, Shropshire Wellington is a market town and a civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin, Shropshire, England. It is situated northwest of Telford and east of Shrewsbury, near the western terminus of the M54 motorway. The summit of The Wrekin lie ...

late in the 1980s, where Cousins was a player in the

Cricket Club Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a great deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are obse ...

, of which he remained for some time chairman of the club committee.

Death

Cousins was killed on 31 December 2017 when the

light aircraft A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a Maximum Takeoff Weight, maximum gross takeoff weight of or less.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 308. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. Light aircraft are use ...

he was on crashed into the

Hawkesbury River The Hawkesbury River, or Hawkesbury-Nepean River (Dharug language, Dharug: Dyarubbin) is a river located northwest of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its associated main tributary, the Nepean River, almost encircle ...

in Australia near Cowan, north of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. His two sons, William Cousins (25) and Edward Cousins (23), his fiancée Emma Bowden (48) and her daughter Heather Bowden-Page (11) as well as pilot Gareth Morgan, were also killed in the accident. Emma Bowden was the daughter of

Gerald Bowden Gerald Francis Bowden (26 August 1935 – 7 January 2020) was a British Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), MP, who represented Dulwich (UK Parliament constituency), Dulwich from 1983 until 1992. He was d ...

, the former

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

Member of Parliament for

Dulwich Dulwich (; ) is an area in south London, England. The settlement is mostly in the London Borough of Southwark, with parts in the London Borough of Lambeth, and consists of Dulwich Village, East Dulwich, West Dulwich, and the Southwark half of H ...

. Cousins, a keen cricket fan, was to attend the Fifth Test of the

Ashes series The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, i ...

in Sydney with his two sons; the seats were left empty. A year before his death, Cousins changed his will to include a "common tragedy clause", so that if he and his children were to die at the same time, the bulk of his fortune would go to charity. This resulted in the charity

Oxfam Oxfam is a British-founded confederation of 21 independent non-governmental organizations (NGOs), focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, founded in 1942 and led by Oxfam International. It began as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief ...

receiving a £41 million bequest from his estate.Businessman Richard Cousins 'leaves £41m' to Oxfam
BBC News, 21 August 2018. Retrieved 21 August 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cousins, Richard 1959 births 2017 deaths Alumni of the University of Sheffield Alumni of Lancaster University British hospitality businesspeople Compass Group people English chief executives People from Bracknell People from Chiltern District Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Australia Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2017 20th-century English businesspeople

Early life

Career

Personal life

Death

See also

References