28 Facts About Ian MacGregor

Sir Ian Kinloch MacGregor, KBE was a Scottish metallurgist and industrialist.

Ian MacGregor worked in the United States from World War II until the early 1970s.

Ian MacGregor's parents were Daniel MacGregor, an accountant at the British Aluminium plant, and his wife Grace Alexanderina, nee Fraser Maclean, a schoolteacher.

Ian MacGregor attended George Watson's College, Edinburgh and Hillhead High School, Glasgow.

At the University of Glasgow, MacGregor studied metallurgy and engineering with some distinction, receiving a first-class degree.

Ian MacGregor then earned a diploma with distinction at the Royal College of Science and Technology.

Ian MacGregor started work as a metallurgist in 1935, alongside his father in the Kinlochleven aluminium plant but he was recruited as a junior manager at William Beardmore and Company's Parkhead Forge to work on vehicle armour.

Ian MacGregor's handling of the matter, involving driving cranes himself for two weeks, brought him to the attention of chairman Sir James Lithgow, who marked him out for rapid promotion.

At the start of World War II in 1939, Ian MacGregor went to work for the Ministry of Supply on the development of tanks.

Ian MacGregor was then seconded to the British military mission in the US where he started to become familiar with US industry, including work on the development of the Sherman tank.

On one occasion, when a proposed takeover of a Connecticut firm fomented strike action, Ian MacGregor was reputedly threatened by the Mafia and had his car overturned by pickets while he was inside.

Ian MacGregor became chief executive of American Metal Climax in 1966, diversifying the company into mining.

Ian MacGregor developed a reputation for shrewd, no-nonsense negotiation in various strands of American business, and an uncompromising attitude towards trade unions accompanied by something of an appetite for confrontation.

Ian MacGregor's method was to "always get your ducks lined up," and he often referred to his "Department of Economic Warfare".

Ian MacGregor went on to become a director of Lazard and chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.

Ian MacGregor served on the Steering Committee, and delivered a speech which reassured Europeans on American commitment for trade expansion.

Ian MacGregor was brought back to British industry by Labour Party prime minister James Callaghan in 1977 as a non-executive director of the ailing nationalised car manufacturer British Leyland.

The intention was that he would act as deputy to chairman Sir Michael Edwardes but Ian MacGregor was not content to operate in a purely strategic role and always maintained that it was he, and not Edwardes, who had taken the pivotal step of dismissing trade unionist Derek Robinson.

Ian MacGregor was remorseless in his programme of plant closures and redundancies.

Ian MacGregor was now moving towards profitability and would be in the vanguard of the Thatcher government's programme of privatisation.

Ian MacGregor retired from the NCB in 1986, rejoining Lazard's as a non-executive director.

Ian MacGregor enjoyed a variety of company chairmanships including Goldcrest Films but was disappointed to be forcibly retired from two US companies when he reached 78.

Ian MacGregor married Sybil Spencer in Washington, DC in 1942; she was from Wales.

Ian MacGregor was chairman of Religion in American Life and, in the UK, the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training.

Ian MacGregor was an active campaigner against ageism in employment.

Ian MacGregor died of a heart attack, at Taunton, Somerset and was cremated.

Ian MacGregor was a vicious anti-trades unionist, anti-working class person, recruited by the Tory government quite deliberately for the purpose of destroying trade unionism in the mining industry.

Ian MacGregor made a real difference and I was very grateful when he came back to this country.