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20 Facts About Roland Rudd

1.

Roland Dacre Rudd was born on April 1961 and is the founder and chairman of FGS Global, a public relations firm, and holds a variety of other charitable and non-executive posts.

2.

Roland Rudd is strongly in favour of British engagement with the European Union and has campaigned for electoral reform.

3.

Roland Rudd was born in April 1961, one of four children of Tony Roland Rudd, a stockbroker; his sisters are Amanda, Melissa and Amber, who was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament until September 2019, when she left the party over its stance on Brexit; she then sat as an independent MP until standing down at the subsequent general election.

4.

Roland Rudd was elected president of the Oxford Union on his third attempt.

5.

Roland Rudd is married to Sophie Hale, a designer of womenswear.

6.

Roland Rudd was a financial journalist at the Sunday Correspondent and the Financial Times.

7.

In 1994, Roland Rudd left the Financial Times to found Finsbury with Rupert Younger.

8.

Roland Rudd believes in electoral reform and campaigned in support of the introduction of the Alternative vote system in the British referendum of 2011.

9.

Roland Rudd is strongly in favour of British engagement with Europe, and is chairman of Business for New Europe, a member of the Centre for European Reform's advisory board, and Chair of the People's Vote campaign.

10.

Roland Rudd is a supporter of the Labour Party and is close to a number of Labour politicians.

11.

Roland Rudd was one of the "Four Wise Men" who advised Blair in 2007 on life after leaving office.

12.

Roland Rudd has been linked to Ed Balls and Tessa Jowell of Labour, and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.

13.

Roland Rudd subsequently damaged his relationship with many figures in the Labour Party and elsewhere in politics due to his controversial role in the demise of the People's Vote campaign in 2019.

14.

Roland Rudd serves as Specially Appointed Commissioner at the Royal Hospital Chelsea and is an ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society.

15.

Roland Rudd is currently Chair of Governors at Millfield School, a trustee for the Speakers for Schools programme, and a trustee for the Made by Dyslexia campaign.

16.

Roland Rudd is a trustee of the Bayreuth Festival and was on the Board of the Royal Opera House from 2011 to 2017.

17.

Roland Rudd is a visiting fellow at Oxford University's Centre for Corporate Reputation, part of the Said Business School.

18.

At a subsequent staff meeting Roland Rudd was criticised as a city PR man who had rarely been seen in the offices and a motion of no confidence in his role was passed by 40 votes to 3.

19.

Baldwin had earlier accused Roland Rudd of taking a "wrecking ball" to a successful campaign through a "boardroom coup" while failing to consult other organisations in the campaign.

20.

Roland Rudd later resigned as chair of Open Britain but retained control of money and data through a new holding company he had formed for the purpose called Baybridge UK.