Q: Who is Irvine Laidlaw?
A: Irvine Laidlaw is a Scottish businessman and former member of the House of Lords. He was listed in the Sunday Times Rich List 2012 as the 105th wealthiest person in the UK, with an estimated net worth of £745 million. In the 2020 edition, he was ranked the 180th wealthiest person in the UK, with an estimated net worth of £787 million.
Q: What is Irvine Laidlaw’s background?
A: Laidlaw is the son of Margaret and Roy Laidlaw, a Banffshire mill-owner. He was educated at Merchiston Castle School, Leeds University and New York City’s Columbia Business School.
Q: What is Irvine Laidlaw’s business history?
A: After graduation, Laidlaw turned a small US publishing company bought in 1973 into the Institute for International Research (IIR), the world’s largest conference organiser. After calling off a £500m flotation in 2001 when the market plunged, he sold IIR in 2005 for a sum believed to be in the order of £768m. He also founded Abbey Business Centres, a subsidiary of IIR providing serviced office space, meeting room facilities and virtual office packages in 13 business centers in Great Britain.
Q: What philanthropic work is Irvine Laidlaw involved in?
A: Laidlaw is Chairman of the Irvine Laidlaw Foundation, also known as the Laidlaw Foundation, which he set up to aid the advancement of education, especially the education of deprived young people, in particular by means of grants and other forms of financial assistance to institutions which are engaged in the provision of educational services in any part of the world. The Foundation’s activity consists of three core programs: The Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship Program, The Laidlaw Women’s Business Education Program, and The Laidlaw Schools Trust.
Q: What is the Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship Program?
A: The Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship Program funds cohorts of around 25 students at 13 universities around the world for two summers to complete a research project with an academic supervisor and undergo training to develop their leadership skills. The program operates at Columbia University, Cornell University, Durham University, National University of Singapore, Trinity College Dublin, Tufts University, University College London, University of Hong Kong, University of Leeds, University of St Andrews, University of Toronto, University of York, and University of Rwanda.
Q: What is the Laidlaw Women’s Business Education Program?
A: The Laidlaw Women’s Business Education Program provides full and partial scholarships to women with financial constraints to complete MBAs in order to help them get into senior roles and achieve gender parity in industries around the world. The program operates at Columbia Business School, London Business School, and Saïd Business School.
Q: What is the Laidlaw Schools Trust?
A: The Laidlaw Schools Trust is a multi-academy trust founded in 2008, which currently consists of 7 academies in the North East of England with over 5,500 students and 850 staff in total.
Q: What other charitable donations has Irvine Laidlaw made?
A: Laidlaw has made various charitable donations, including £2 million to The Prince’s Trust, funds to keep 21 schools open after a proposed closure, R9 million to fund the Amakhaya Ngoku housing project, a scholarship at Newcastle University, support for the Glyndebourne Festival production, £100,000 to Scottish Opera, a private investor for Ben A