The Lord Vallance of Tummel | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal | |
| In office 22 June 2004 –13 January 2020 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 20, 1943 |
| Political party | Liberal Democrats |
Iain David Thomas Vallance, Baron Vallance of Tummel, FRSA (born 20 May 1943) is a British businessman and a retired Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords.
Vallance was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, Dulwich College, London and The Glasgow Academy. In 1965 he graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English language and literature, and in 1972 from the London Business School with a Master of Science in business administration.
Vallance worked in the Post Office from 1966 to 1981, as director of central finance from 1976 to 1978, as director of telecommunications finance from 1978 to 1979 and as director of materials department from 1979 to 1981.
In 1981 he moved to the soon to be privatised British Telecommunications, for which he worked until 2002. After a period in finance, Vallance became Chief of Operations in 1985, and Chief Executive from 1986 to 1995, as chairman from 1987 until, with many investors calling for his resignation, [1] he resigned as chairman in 2001, and finally served as president emeritus from 2001 to 2002. In 1999 he made a speech to the Telecoms Managers Association, which led to him being called the lollipop man: [2]
Iain Vallance: When it comes to the mass deployment of new technology across our network, BT has the unenviable task of the lollipop man. His job is to restrain the over-exuberant children from dashing across the road at will, and to ensure that the crossing is made safely and in an orderly fashion.
In 1995 Vallance was a member of the Greenbury committee which produced a report, known as the Greenbury Report, into executive remuneration. The report was formally commissioned at the behest of the CBI, although in his memoirs [3] Michael Heseltine claims that he personally instigated the formation of the committee.
Vallance's appointment to the committee came despite previous high-profile controversy over his own pay at BT. [4]
Since 2003 he has been member of the supervisory board of Siemens.
He was made a Knight Bachelor in 1994 [5] and was created a life peer with the title Baron Vallance of Tummel, of Tummel in Perth and Kinross on 22 June 2004. [6]
Vallance also received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 1995 [7]
Vallance married Elizabeth Mary McGonnigill in 1967; they had one daughter and a son. Lady Vallance died in 2020. [8]
Sir Steven Geoffrey Redgrave is a British retired rower who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. He has also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals and nine World Rowing Championships golds. He is the most successful male rower in Olympic history, and the only man to have won gold medals at five Olympic Games in an endurance sport.
Martin John O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of Clackmannan was a Scottish Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1979 until 2005 and as a member of the House of Lords from 2005 until his death.
William Douglas Cullen, Baron Cullen of Whitekirk is a former senior member of the Scottish judiciary. He formerly served as Lord Justice General and Lord President of the Court of Session, and was an additional Lord of Appeal in the House of Lords prior to the transfer of its judicial functions to the Supreme Court.
George Morgan Thomson, Baron Thomson of Monifieth, was a British politician and journalist who served as a Labour MP. He was a member of Harold Wilson's cabinet, and later became a European Commissioner.
Sir Richard Greenbury was an English businessman, and chairman and chief executive of the British retailer Marks and Spencer from 1988 to 1999. During his tenure, the company continued to grow until its profits peaked in 1997 and 1998 when it was the second most profitable retailer in the world after Wal-Mart, and the ninth largest company in Britain. After resigning as executive chairman, he was succeeded by Peter Salsbury.
Claus Adolf Moser, Baron Moser, was a British statistician who made major contributions in both academia and the Civil Service. He prided himself rather on being a non-mathematical statistician, and said that the thing that frightened him most in his life was when Maurice Kendall asked him to teach a course on analysis of variance at the LSE.
Stephen Charles Rodan MLC is a Manx politician who served as the President of Tynwald from 2016 to 2021 and is a former Minister of the Isle of Man Government and former MHK for the constituency of Garff. He was first elected to the seat in a by-election in 1995.
Edward Charles Gurney Boyle, Baron Boyle of Handsworth,, known as Sir Edward Boyle, 3rd Baronet, between 1945 and 1970, was a British Conservative Party politician and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.
Elizabeth Margaret Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill,, is a British peer and patron of the arts. She is the widow of John Smith, who led the Labour Party from 1992 to 1994.
Hector Laing, Baron Laing of Dunphail, was a Scottish businessman.
Sir David Philip Tweedie is a British accountant. He is the former chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (2001-2011) and the ninetieth member of The Accounting Hall of Fame.
James John Clyde, Baron Clyde, PC was a Scottish judge.
William Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Sanderstead was a British civil servant and banker.
The Greenbury Report released in 1995 was the product of a committee established under the auspices of the United Kingdom Confederation of British Industry. The committee was formed at the behest of the President of the Board of Trade, Michael Heseltine, as a result of several scandals in the early 1990s. It followed in the tradition of the Cadbury Report and addressed a growing concern about the level of director remuneration. The modern result of the report is found in the UK Corporate Governance CodeArchived 7 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine at section D.
Christopher Frank Kearton, Baron Kearton, usually known as Frank Kearton, was a British life peer in the House of Lords. He was also a scientist and industrialist and former Chancellor of the University of Bath.
Sir Alistair George James MacFarlane was a Scottish electrical engineer and leading academic who served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Rector, University of the Highlands and Islands.
Sir Kenneth John Wilson Alexander was a Scottish economist and university administrator. He also had strong links to the Scottish steel and shipbuilding industries.
Dame Alison Mariot Leslie,, known as Mariot Leslie, is a former British diplomat whose last post was Permanent Representative to NATO. When she was replaced at NATO it was announced that she would retire from the Diplomatic Service.
William McLachlan Dewar (1905–1979) was a Scottish educator who served as Headmaster of George Heriot's School in Edinburgh from 1947 to 1970. Tam Dalyell, who did teaching practice at Heriot's, described him as a "remarkable" and "fierce headmaster" in his autobiography.
Elizabeth May Vallance, Baroness Vallance of Tummel, was a British philosopher, magistrate and policy maker. She held non-executive roles on various boards, and was High Sheriff of Greater London in 2009.
