McClelland, Grigor

Professor Grigor McClelland CBE (2 January 1922 – 6 November 2013) was a British businessman, academic and social activist. Born into a family of grocers, he managed his family firm of Laws Stores from 1948 to 1962, and again between 1978 and 1984. He became the first senior research fellow in Management Studies at the University of Oxford with Balliol College in 1962. During his time there he founded both the Journal of Management Studies and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies. In 1965, he became the first director of the newly formed Manchester Business School, and wrote various papers on management techniques and ideas. As the chair of the Washington Development Corporation, he played a strong role in attracting Nissan to build their first European factory in the UK. He also worked as a government advisor including serving on both the National Economic Development Council and the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation. His strong beliefs as a Quaker saw him get the chair the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust as well as setting up the charities, the Millfield House Foundation and the Tyne & Wear Foundation. In 2011, Peter Moizer in his Financial Times article, Dean’s column: a moral force stated, He is a remarkable man who, guided by a moral compass that has never wavered, has changed the landscape of British business education in the past 50 years. His life and accomplishments are such that they need no exaggeration.