Sir Peter Lampl speaking on Social Mobility and Education at Policy Exchange

Sir Peter Lampl, OBE (born 1947), is a British philanthropist. He is the founder and chairman of the

Sutton Trust The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. The charity was set up by educational philanthropist, Sir Peter Lampl in 1997. Since then, it has unde ...

and the

Education Endowment Foundation The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is a charity established in 2011 to improve the educational attainment of the poorest pupils in English schools. It aims to support teachers and senior leaders by providing evidence-based resources designe ...

Early life and education

Lampl's father was a

Viennese Viennese may refer to: * Vienna, the capital of Austria * Viennese people, List of people from Vienna * Viennese German, the German dialect spoken in Vienna * Music of Vienna, musical styles in the city * Viennese Waltz, genre of ballroom dance * V ...

émigré who came to Britain in 1938. Lampl grew up in

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, and as the family moved to

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

when he was 11, he was educated at

Reigate Grammar School Reigate Grammar School is a 2–18 mixed independent day school in Reigate, Surrey, England. It was established in 1675 by Henry Smith. History The school was founded as a free school for poor boys in 1675 by Alderman Henry Smith with Jon Will ...

and

Cheltenham Grammar School en, That which is hidden shall be revealed , established = , closed = , type = Grammar school;Academy , religion = , president = , head_label = , head = Russel Ellicott , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , chair = , founder ...

. He studied at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th ...

, and the

London Business School London Business School (LBS) is a business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London. LBS was founded in 1964 and awards post-graduate degrees (Master's degrees in management and finance, MBA and PhD). Its motto is " ...

Business career

Lampl worked outside Britain for over twenty years, initially as a management consultant with

The Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three largest management consulting firms by rev ...

in Boston, Massachusetts,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. He then worked as an executive at

International Paper The International Paper Company is an American pulp and paper company, the largest such company in the world. It has approximately 56,000 employees, and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. History The company was incorporated January 31 ...

, the world's largest paper and forest products company, where he spent six years in senior management positions. In 1983, Lampl set up the Sutton Company, a

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

firm with offices 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 ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

, and by the mid-1990s had become extremely wealthy. Before setting up the Sutton Trust, he funded a campaign to ban

handguns A handgun is a short-gun barrel, barrelled gun, typically a firearm, that is designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun (i.e. rifle, shotgun or machine gun, etc.), which needs to be held by both hands and also ...

in the wake of the

Dunblane massacre The Dunblane massacre took place at Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, near Stirling, Scotland, on 13 March 1996, when Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 pupils and one teacher, and injured 15 others, before killing himself. It remains the deadlie ...

which resulted in a complete ban on handguns in the UK.

Educational philanthropy

On his return from America, Lampl was appalled to discover that nowadays "a kid like me had little chance of making it to

Oxbridge Oxbridge is a portmanteau of Oxford and Cambridge, the two oldest, wealthiest, and most famous universities in the United Kingdom. The term is used to refer to them collectively, in contrast to other British universities, and more broadly to de ...

", noting that his old grammar school was now "all fee-paying" and his old Oxford college "used to have lots of ordinary Welsh kids, but they're not coming through any more." His first intervention was the creation of the Oxford Summer School, which gave bright 17-year-olds (from families where no one has been to university) the opportunity to spend a week at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

living in college, going to seminars and "hanging out with students who are already there." The scheme has since been rolled out to eleven other top universities. Lampl founded the

in 1997 "to improve educational opportunities for young people from non-privileged backgrounds and increase social mobility." The trust funds a variety of research, campaigning and philanthropical projects, including the "Open Access" programme which funded 70% of places at the academically selective

Belvedere School The Belvedere Academy is an all-ability state-funded girls’ Academy secondary- formerly independent- school in Liverpool, England. Its predecessor, The Belvedere School, was founded in 1880 as Liverpool High School. It is non-denominational, ...

in Liverpool, a scheme which Lampl says the state should eventually expand to 100 or 200 independent day schools who would like to provide "needs-blind" admissions. In this model: Lampl is also chairman of the

which was set up in 2011 by the Sutton Trust with support from Impetus Trust. It was funded by an endowment of £135 million from Government to improve the performance of the poorest children in the worst performing schools. Lampl was appointed an OBE in 1999 for services to Access to Higher Education, and knighted in June 2003. He has Honorary Doctorates from:

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, Bristol, Brunel, City University (London), College of Law, Durham, Exeter,

Imperial College Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

(London), Nottingham, Open University, St Andrews. And Honorary Fellowships from: Birkbeck College (London), Corpus Christi College (Oxford), Institute of Education, London Business School, London School of Economics.

Personal life

Lampl and his second wife had 3 children. The ending of this marriage, after 15 years, caused Lampl a depressive episode.

References

External links