Sir Robert Milton Worcester, KBE, DL (born December 21, 1933) is the founder of MORI (Market and Opinion Research International Ltd.) and a member and contributor to many voluntary organisations. He is a well known figure in British public opinion research and political circles and as a media commentator, especially about voting intentions in British and American elections. Following the sale of MORI to the French research company Ipsos in October 2005, he became chairman of the Ipsos Public Affairs Research Advisory Board and an International Director of the Ipsos Group. Subsequently, in 2007 he became Senior Advisor to Ipsos MORI.
A Kansas City native, Worcester graduated from the University of Kansas in 1955, and worked for a time with management consultants McKinsey & Company. In 1965, he joined Opinion Research Corporation as Chief Financial Officer, before coming to Britain in 1969 to found MORI, a joint-venture of ORC and National Opinion Polls, becoming the principal owner four years later.
He was made a Knight Commander of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2005 in recognition of the “outstanding services rendered to political, social and economic research and for contribution to government policy and programmes”.
Worcester was appointed Chancellor of the University of Kent on 13 July 2006. He took up his new role on 1 August 2006, succeeding Sir Crispin Tickell who retired after 10 years as the University’s Chancellor. He has well established links with the University of Kent as a member of Council and former Chair of the Finance & Resources Committee. He is also an Honorary Professor of Politics at Kent, a former Governor and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick University.
He an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science and of King's College London, holds six honorary doctorates, and the Distinguished Graduate award of the University of Kansas, USA. He is a Freeman of the City of London.
He is a Trustee of the Magna Carta Trust and currently chairs the Magna Carta 2015 800th Anniversary Committee, and is a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation. He was also a former member of the Fulbright Commission and a former Governor of the English-Speaking Union and co-chaired with Lord Watson the Jamestown 400th Commemoration British Committee (2005-7).
He is President and chairs the Advisory Council of the Institute for Business Ethics and has been on the Corporate Responsibility Advisory Board of Camelot and Consumers' Association. He was a Member of the Advisory Council of the National Consumer Council and Forum for the Future.
He is a Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, of the United Nations Association and of the European Atlantic Group and was President of ENCAMS (Keep Britain Tidy). He was a Trustee of Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the Worldwide Fund for Nature(WWF). He is a Vice President of Protect Kent, the Kent Branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
Worcester is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent and a Kent County Council appointed Kent Ambassador. He was a Non-Executive Director of Kent Messenger Group and Chairman of Maidstone Radio, CTR 105.4 fm, and was a Non-Executive Director of the Medway Maritime Hospital NHS Trust until 2004.
He and his wife Margaret live at the 13th century Allington Castle, on the River Medway in Kent,[1] where Worcester is also one of Her Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants.
| Academic offices | ||
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| Preceded by Sir Crispin Tickell |
Chancellor of the University of Kent 2006–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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