Lord Holme of Cheltenham

Lord Holme of Cheltenham CBE (died on 4 May 2008) was a director and chairman of GlobeScan, treasurer of Africa APPG, and vice chair of Corporate Social Responsibility APPG.

"Lord Holme, former Executive Director of Rio Tinto Plc., has distinguished himself in both the business and political worlds dealing with the issues Environics tracks through its global research. He has co-chaired both the Corporate Social Responsibility Working Group at the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Environment and Energy Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Most recently, he was Vice-Chairman of Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD), the global business coalition for the Johannesburg World Summit." 

"Richard Holme has had an active career in business and in public life; and in recent years has been at the forefront of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. He is a former main board director of Rio Tinto, and currently Adviser to BG Group, Standard Chartered Bank and NTL, and a member of the Advisory Board of Liberty Global in Boston and Montrose Associates in London. He is the recipient of special awards for his contributions to both the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the International Chamber of Commerce. He was Chairman of the World Business Awards in 2004. Outside of business, he is Chairman of LEAD International and Chair of the Royal African Society as well as Chancellor of the University of Greenwich. He is also a Trustee of Bennington College in Vermont and a Visiting Professor at the Thunderbird Graduate School of Business in Phoenix, Arizona. He is Chairman of the Select Constitution in Parliament."

He is also on the Advisory Board of the British American Project. 

"Holme was one of the many talented activists attracted to the Liberal party by Jo Grimond, its charismatic leader from 1956 to 1967. He attempted to enter the Commons five times: in East Grinstead, West Sussex, in 1964, and in a 1965 byelection; in Braintree, Essex, in October 1974; and in Cheltenham in 1983 and 1987. After serving on a variety of party committees, he was president of the Liberal party in 1980-81.

"All this overt activity was but a prelude to the major, more covert, influence he was to exert on two successive Liberal leaders - David Steel and Paddy Ashdown. Both, particularly Ashdown, fully acknowledged his invaluable support and counsel respectively in their published memoirs and diaries. ... One important example of his influence was his co-drafting with David Marquand of the so-called Königswinter compact of 1981 between the leaders of the Social Democratic party (SDP) and the Liberals which led, first, to an alliance of close cooperation and then ultimately, in 1988, to their uniting together with the formation of the Liberal Democrat party."


 * Founder, Centre for Constitutional Reform
 * Former Chair, LEAD International

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