John Cridland

John Cridland
Personal details
Born	(1961-02-03) 3 February 1961 Boston, United Kingdom
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge

John Cridland, CBE (born 3 February 1961) was the tenth Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) from January 2011 to November 2015.

He was educated at Boston Grammar School and studied Indian and African history at Christ's College, Cambridge.

He joined the CBI as a policy adviser in 1982 and became its youngest ever director in 1991, when he took over the environmental affairs brief. He moved on to human resources policy in 1995, where he helped negotiate the UK’s first national minimum wage and entry into the European Union’s “social chapter” on employment conditions. He was promoted to the post of Deputy Director-General in 2000.

Beyond his work with the CBI, Cridland served on the Low Pay Commission from its formation in 1997 until 2007. He was Vice Chair of the National Learning and Skills Council between 2007 and 2010 and spent 10 years on the Low Pay Commission and the Council of the conciliation service, ACAS. He was also a member of the Commission on Environmental Markets and Economic Performance and the Women and Work Commission; Vice-Chairman of the Learning and Skills Council; a Board member of Business in the Community; a UK Commissioner for Employment and Skills and a member of the Council of Cranfield University.

He announced his decision to step down as Director-General in March 2015, saying “I’m a big Star Trek fan and just like James Kirk I have always told colleagues at internal meetings that I saw this as part of a five-year journey.”^[1] His resignation followed in November. ^[2]

John Cridland was awarded a CBE for services to business in 2006 and Honorary Doctorates from the University of Lincoln in 2011 and the University of Bedfordshire in 2013. He is married with two teenage children and lives in Bedfordshire.

References

External links

• Cbi.org.uk