Colin Marsh Marshall, Baron Marshall of Knightsbridge (16 November 1933 – 5 July 2012), was a British businessman and member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

Early and family life

Marshall was educated at

University College School ("Slowly but surely") , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Mark Beard , r_head_label = , r_hea ...

, an independent school for boys in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, a suburb of

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

. He left at the age of 16 and did not attend university or any other higher education institution. In 1958, he married Janet Cracknell (later Lady Marshall), a fellow officer on the Orient Steam liner named the ''Ostrava''. They had one child, Joanna, born in 1960.

Business career

His extensive experience in international business started in shipping in 1951 with

Orient Steam Navigation Company The Orient Steam Navigation Company, also known as the Orient Line, was a British shipping company with roots going back to the late 18th century. From the early 20th century onwards, an association began with P&O which became 51% shareholde ...

, thereafter in vehicle rental and leasing for 23 years, initially with

Hertz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that on ...

and then

Avis Avis is Latin for bird and may refer to: Aviation *Auster Avis, a 1940s four-seat light aircraft developed from the Auster Autocrat (abandoned project) *Avro Avis, a two-seat biplane *Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate Avis, an early aircraft built by ...

, during which time he lived and worked in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. In 1971 he was appointed Executive Vice President of Avis where he became President and Chief Executive in 1976, based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. Following the take-over of Avis in 1979, he was appointed executive vice president of Norton Simon Inc., and Co-Chairman of Avis. Marshall was hired by Lord King of Wartnaby in 1983 as CEO of

British Airways British Airways (BA) is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a populati ...

(BA) and was instrumental in the reform of the company prior to its successful privatisation in 1987. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, BA was witnessing the emergence of a menacing rival,

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

Virgin Atlantic Virgin Atlantic, a trading name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited and Virgin Atlantic International Limited, is a British airline with its head office in Crawley, England. The airline was established in 1984 as British Atlantic Airways, and w ...

. Virgin, which began with one route and one

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

in 1984, was beginning to emerge as a serious threat on some of BA's most lucrative routes. Following a highly publicised mercy mission to Iraq to fly home hostages of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

in 1991, King is reported to have told Marshall and his PR Director

David Burnside David Wilson Boyd Burnside (born 24 August 1951) is an Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Antrim from 2001 to 2005. Burnside was also a Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly (MLA) for ...

to "do something about Branson"¹. This began the campaign of "dirty tricks", which ended in Branson suing King and BA for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

in 1992. King countersued Branson and the case went to trial in 1993. The court found in favour of Branson and Virgin, and ordered King and BA to pay damages to Branson of £500,000 and a further £110,000 to his airline, and legal fees of up to £3 million. In the aftermath of the case, King was appointed president while Marshall was promoted to chairman, a role he combined with that of CEO.

Bob Ayling Robert John Ayling (born 3 August 1946), also known as Bob Ayling, is a British retired lawyer and businessman who has worked with a variety of high-profile companies and organisations. From 1996 to 2000, he was the CEO of British Airways. He al ...

became managing director. In 1996, Ayling became sole CEO, and his tenure was to be one of the most turbulent in BA's history. In 1997, he dropped the

Union Flag The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

design from BA's livery in favour of the unpopular ethnic art livery. In 1999, BA reported a 50% slump in profits – its worst since privatisation. In March 2000, Marshall removed Ayling from his position and in May announced

Rod Eddington Sir Roderick Ian Eddington AO FTSE (born 2 January 1950) is an Australian businessman. He was first appointed to the board of News Corporation in 1999, still serves on News Corp board and also serves on the board of another of Rupert Murdoch' ...

as his successor. While helping to promote the government's ''Action 2000'' campaign, which encouraged businesses to ensure that their computers recognised, interpreted, and processed the year 2000 date change, he was criticised for the contents of BA's own 1999 holiday brochures. These warned travellers: 'We will not cover claims arising from equipment or any computer program failing to recognise, interpret or process any date changes for example the year 2000.' Marshall retired from the role of chairman of BA in July 2004 and was succeeded by

Martin Broughton Sir Martin Faulkner Broughton (born 15 April 1947) is a British businessman and deputy chairman of International Airlines Group. Formed in January 2011, IAG is the parent company of British Airways, Iberia and Vueling. It is a Spanish registere ...

, former chairman of

British American Tobacco British American Tobacco plc (BAT) is a British multinational company that manufactures and sells cigarettes, tobacco and other nicotine products. The company, established in 1902, is headquartered in London, England. As of 2019, it is the large ...

. From May 1996 to July 1998, Marshall was president of the

Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...

and chaired the CBI International Advisory Board. He was chairman of the board of Governors of

Birkbeck, University of London , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £10 ...

, Vice-President of the Advertising Association; Member of the British American Business Council International Advisory Board; a Council Member of the

Institute of Directors The Institute of Directors (IoD) is a British professional organisation for company directors, senior business leaders and entrepreneurs. It is the UK's longest running organisation for professional leaders, having been founded in 1903 and incor ...

; and President of the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council. From June 1998 to July 2003, Marshall was also chairman of Invensys plc and chairman of The Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) from September 1999 to July 2003; Chairman of The Board of Trustees of The Conference Board Inc., from October 2000 to October 2003; member of the Board of

HSBC Holdings plc HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tril ...

from January 1993 to May 2004 and Chairman of the

Queen's Club The Queen's Club is a private sporting club in West Kensington, London, England. The club hosts the annual Queen's Club Championships men's grass court lawn tennis tournament (currently known as the "cinch Championships" for sponsorship reas ...

from 2007 to 2010. He was appointed chairman of Pirelli UK plc in September 2003 and chairman of

Nomura Securities is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nomura Holdings, Inc. (NHI), which forms part of the Nomura Group. It plays a central role in the securities business, the Group's core business. Nomura is a financial services group and global investment bank. Bas ...

on 1 October 2004. From 1 January 2005 to 1 January 2007, Lord Marshall was also Chairman of the National British Tourist Board

VisitBritain VisitBritain is the name used by the British Tourist Authority, the tourist board of Great Britain incorporated under the Development of Tourism Act 1969. Under memoranda of understanding with the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the offshore is ...

. In 1991, Marshall was the recipient of the ''

Tony Jannus Award The Tony Jannus Award recognizes outstanding individual achievement in scheduled commercial aviation by airline executives, inventors and manufacturers, and government leaders. The award is conferred annually by the Tony Jannus Distinguished Avia ...

'' for his contributions to commercial aviation. Announced in the

1998 Birthday Honours Queen's Birthday Honours are announced on or around the date of the Queen's Official Birthday in the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries. The dates vary, both from year to year and from country to country. All are published in suppleme ...

he was created a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

as Baron Marshall of Knightsbridge, ''of

Knightsbridge Knightsbridge is a residential and retail district in central London, south of Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park. It is identified in the London Plan as one of two international retail centres in London, alongside the West End of London, West End. ...

in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

'' on 20 July 1998. In 1989, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) by the

University of Bath (Virgil, Georgics II) , mottoeng = Learn the culture proper to each after its kind , established = 1886 (Merchant Venturers Technical College) 1960 (Bristol College of Science and Technology) 1966 (Bath University of Technology) 1971 (univ ...

. After his death from cancer, Birkbeck College constructed a memorial lecture in his name.

External links

Announcement of his introduction at the House of Lords
House of Lords minutes of proceedings, 22 July 1998

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marshall, Colin Baron Marshall of Knightsbridge 1933 births 2012 deaths Marshall of Knightsbridge Knights Bachelor British airline chief executives People educated at University College School People associated with Birkbeck, University of London British Airways people HSBC people Council and directors of Chatham House 20th-century British businesspeople Life peers created by Elizabeth II