Alderman Sir Paul Judge....

Honorary Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Management Consultants :  A Tribute

Sir Paul died on Sunday 21 May 2017 in hospital after a short illness, aged 68.

Building on the considerable success and recognition Sir Paul had in business, Sir Paul’s life was also marked by his wide variety of interests and roles, and his benevolence.

He started his career in marketing at Cadbury Schweppes and rose to be Deputy Finance Director at the age of just 28. By 1984 he was Group Planning Director and a member of the Group Executive Committee. He became well known when he led the buyout of Cadbury’s food companies in 1985 to form Premier Brands, a pioneering Management Buyout in the UK. He and his fellow directors risked their homes to clinch the deal. A 6,000 employee firm, he increased its profits from £6m to £31m and successfully sold it in 1989. He invested his own proceeds in a range of businesses and a charitable foundation.

He decided early on to go into business and he read Natural Sciences and Management Studies at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1971. He went on through a scholarship to take an MBA at Wharton, and then to work at Cadbury Schweppes, Premier Brands and subsequent myriad Board, advisory and honorary roles around the world. These have included WPP, Boddington Group, Grosvenor Development Capital, Barclays Private Bank, and latterly a Schroders fund, and his former schools and colleges. At Cambridge, he was Emeritus Trustee of the Cambridge Foundation and member of the University’s Alumni Advisory Board (chairing the Alumni Communications Group). He was a member of the Finance Committee and Alumni Advisory Committee of Trinity College.  

For two years he served as Chairman of Food From Britain and was the driving force to reduce the UK’s food industry trade deficit, and a member of the Milk Marketing Board.

His interests had a strong international dimension. He was Chairman of the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, UK Chair of the British-North American Committee, and Special Adviser to the Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House). member of the Council of the Crown Agents, and councils of higher education bodies in Paris, Athens, Russia and the US (Wharton). He was a director of Tempur-Pedic International of the US, the biggest global bedding brand, and The Abraaq Group of Dubai, a leading emerging markets Private Equity group.

A strong advocate of the disciplines of management and change throughout his career, Sir Paul established in 1990 the business school at the University of Cambridge that bears his name. Reflecting the success and values of its founder, the Judge Business School is one of the foremost management education establishments in the world, and in the latest FT Global Ranking of Business Schools was ranked 5^th worldwide (and best in the UK).

Sir Paul has been the President of the Chartered Management Institute (2004-5) and was President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Association of MBAs and until recently, Deputy Chairman of the American Management Association. He was Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts, he sat on the Board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, and during 2000-09 he was Chairman of the Marketing Standards Board.

After establishing his wider business career Sir Paul engaged in political life. He served as Director General of the Conservative Party in 1992-95, reducing the Party’s overdraft from £19m to £2m. Afterwards he became a ministerial advisor to the Cabinet Office on competitiveness, deregulation, privatisation and IT.

In 2009 Sir Paul set up a political movement called the Jury Team, to encourage independent candidates in UK domestic and European elections.

Sir Paul also forged a successful civic career in the City of London. As Alderman for Tower Ward he chaired in 2006-07 the Lord Mayor’s project “City of London – City of Learning”. He was Aldermanic Sheriff in 2013-14. He was very active in the Livery, being a Past Master at the Worshipful Company of Marketors (2005-6), and member of the Worshipful Company of Clothworkers and the Company of Educators. The Guild of Entrepreneurs was sponsored by him, and he was its Foundation Master.

He was our Distinguished Guest and Speaker at my Installation Dinner in 2013, and was admitted in March 2015 and clothed in November 2016.

He unhesitatingly gave me and colleagues generous time and good advice when we were developing a City project “One Square Mile” to follow the City Values Forum.   [Having fun (inset) at one of our Charity Suppers, insisting on wearing the flat cap that a Charity client had brought along - and which everyone wanted...]

Born the only son of a schoolteacher, he grew up in Forest Hill, making extra pocket money by selling programmes at Blackheath Rugby Club. He attended St Dunstan’s College, Catford and won a scholarship to Trinity College Cambridge.

In recognition of his work and service Sir Paul received honorary doctorates from the University of Cambridge, the University of Westminster, City University, the University of Belgrade, and was made Honorary Professor at the Cyprus International Institute and the Sinerghia Institute of Moscow.

In 1996 Sir Paul was knighted for public and political service, and in 2013 was appointed by the Queen a Brother of the Order of St John.

Sir Paul leaves his wife, Barbara, Lady Judge (currently the Chairman of the IoD) and two sons.

Although his membership of our company was short, Sir Paul brought distinction to it and counsel to members who asked. He will be greatly missed.

Edward Sankey, Past Master

A Personal Reflection from Liveryman Bernard Harvey:

I have known Paul from our “Premier” days together;  so on and off for over 30 years;   and during that time, I was pleased that irrespective of wherever we met, he had time to stop and talk!

To me, Paul was a truly good guy, standing up for the little guy in an organisation – I know of a number of occasions when this happened;   and always being honest and very approachable.

He optimised “Premier” for me and it was a sad, sad day when he left.  I was pleased to have had the opportunity to reconnect with him since and I will miss the opportunity to reminisce with him, over a glass of something, or probably two glasses at the very least!

He will be sorely missed by many people for a variety of reasons;  for me he created an organisation that I thoroughly enjoyed working for and tried my hardest to copy when I was responsible;  something I did not ever truly match!

A Recollection from Calvert Markham, Father of the Livery:

Anthony Powell accurately described life as “A dance to the music of time”: a stately gavotte with the participants moving on, and only occasionally meeting the same partner. Such has been the nature of my engagement with Paul Judge. My first encounter with him was when I was President of the Institute of Management Consultancy and he was my opposite number at the Chartered Management Institute.

It was in 2004 when we had taken the decision to merge the IMC with CMI. Compared with the CMI the IMC had only a small staff team, so I as President was heavily involved not only with the mechanics of the merger but also managing relations with the members of the Institute, many of whom were deeply unhappy with this development. Mary Chapman was CEO of CMI at the time, so my relations were with her rather than Sir Paul. However, when the deal was done we decided to have a “Last President’s Dinner”, so named because my successors were to be designated Chairman, so as not to be confused with the CMI President, and Sir Paul joined us. He was an immediate good companion; he was what in earlier times would have been called “a clubbable man”.

We bumped into each other at various events thereafter;  I remember that relatively recently a book of which I was a co-author was up for a CMI award, which he was chairing, and we were able to catch up then.

He was always keen to lend his help. Most recently, shortly before Christmas, we discussed the embryonic Centre for Management Consulting Excellence, and he offered to facilitate engagement with the Judge Business School.