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Lord MacLaurin
chairman of Vodafone's charitable Trust

Lord MacLaurin of Knebworth (Ian Charter MacLaurin) was born in Blackheath in 1937 and educated at Malvern College where he is now chairman of the College Council. Over an extraordinary career at Tesco spanning nearly forty years he built the company which we are now so familiar with and was chairman from 1985 to 1997. He then spent the next nine years on the Board of Vodafone, firstly as a non executive director, then deputy chairman and from 2000 to 2006 chairman. Whilst at Vodafone he also became well known as chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board where he made some profound and lasting changes to the archaic management structures of the game setting things in motion for England's Ashes win in 2005.

He is now chairman of Vodafone's charitable Trust and a non executive director of the Dutch multinational, Heineken, the bank, Evolution Group Plc and chairman of Chartwell plc. He is also a patron/trustee of several charities including A Chance to Shine, (an initiative of the Governor of the Bank of England to get cricket back into state schools) and Hope for Tomorrow (helping cancer sufferers and their families with mobile chemotherapy units).

Over the years he has held numerous other positions including chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire, non executive director of Whitbread, Nat West, Enterprise Oil, and he was made a freeman of the City of London in 1982. He is currently also deputy lord lieutenant of Wiltshire.